THE NOTE BOOK

More Sir Humphries?

Ministers need to say no to ever-growing army of mandarins

IT’s been a good few years for wannabe Sir Humphreys. The Taxpayers’ Alliance has found that between 2016 and 2023, the number of civil servants increased by more than the entire regular forces of the British Army, in the sharpest rise in at least 50 years.

And this won’t just infuriate the defence secretary Ben Wallace, who has been pressing for an increase in defence spending. It will also be grim reading for hard-pressed taxpayers, because the civil service annual salary bill has leapt by 60 per cent to £15.5bn.

It’s not hard to see how the pandemic led to large increases in civil service headcount. After all, many businesses and people required urgent support, and an expansion in capacity was, at least at the time, obviously the right thing to do.

But now that we no longer have mass testing and emergency measures in place to support businesses, you’d expect to see the number of civil servants start to

FAIL TO PLAN, PLAN TO FAIL

head back down. Alas, that’s not what we’re seeing.

We all know that people are taking a hit to their living standards.

One of the key pressures on pay packets is coming from high taxes, and while welfare, healthcare and pensions are left unreformed, it’s going to be hard to get that burden on a downward trajectory.

In the meantime, politicians have to be honest about what the state can reasonably be expected to do.

All too often, the answer to any perceived ill is for the government to spend more taxpayers’ money. The pandemic only sharpened the sense of politicians controlling every aspect of people’s lives, but some serious thought is needed about winding down unnecessary functions of government.

That’s the only way to control costs. And dealing with the cost of government crisis means we can give taxpayers some much needed respite.

By all accounts, Natwest had always known what would happen should it lose its CEO at short notice, as happened with Dame Alison Rose when she stepped down a fortnight ago. Whether the same could be said for my club Spurs, seemingly in danger of losing Harry Kane, days before the start of the season and with no obvious plan for sourcing a replacement, is another thing entirely. The whole episode looks like a lesson in the value of contingency planning.

£ Don’t bother trying to ring HMRC for self assessment help: they’re on a summer break. In fact, the self assessment phone line was shut off back in June and will remain out of action until September. HMRC insists that you can speak to a web adviser online, and perhaps one day soon AI and chatbots will be able to solve every issue that taxpayers face. Although I’d wager that even the galaxy-brains in Silicon Valley would struggle with the problems arising from our complex tax code.

Where interesting people say interesting things. Today, it’s John O’Connell, chief executive of the

£ Anyone who has visited Cardiff on match day knows it’s a special experience, especially when it’s Wales vs England. An already exciting and dynamic city becomes a cauldron of noise, colour and (usually) friendly rivalry as locals and visitors spend their cash and enjoy the festivities. You can’t help but imagine what damage could be done if a tourism tax was brought in, as is planned by the Sennedd. Insatiable politicians once again target the hospitality industry as a cash cow.

Taxpayers’ Alliance

CAN I QUOTE YOU ON THAT?

If Jamie Oliver is the fun police, Chris van Tulleken is the Taliban.

Christopher Snowdon of the Institute of Economic Affairs reviews the latest fad diet bestseller on ‘ultra-processed food’. Suffice to say, Chris didn’t quite buy the main arguments.

ESCAPING THE NOISE –SORT OF City favourite Third Space gyms to offer ‘sound bath’ class for stressed out professionals

THIRD SPACE’s luxury gyms in the City and Canary Wharf may be better known for the weight machines but a new ‘mind and body’ experience is on its way. Yoga teachers will soon be delivering unique soundscapes –using gongs, crystal bowls, chimes and percussion instruments –to give office workers a chance to switch off from the sound of keyboards, coffee machines and incessant mobile phone beeps.

Softbank’s ‘offence

ANTON BRIDGE

JAPAN’s Softbank Group yesterday posted a surprise loss but said it was dipping its toes back into new investments after its Vision Fund unit returned to the black for the first time in six quarters.

The Vision Fund unit booked an investment gain of about 160bn yen ($1.1 billion) for the April-June period, helped by an increased valuation for Arm, the chip designer slated for an initial public offering