Jeremy makes a good point about the clipboard tendency. But before he gets too carried away just remember those rules are there sometimes for very good reasons. Suppose dozens of patients had died in the fire and we then found it had been caused by someone taking a devil-may-care attitude to using a blowtorch in a roof space. Would we think it all very funny then? Yes they build things quicker in China, they also fall down quicker, catch fire quicker, and kill more people quicker. There's something to be said for not having to take your life in your hands every time you ride a train, board a bus, or enter a building - I mean I bet Jeremy doesn't ignore servicing the brakes on the car his children ride in "because its all red-tape" does he?

Philip, Lancaster, UK

The problem with the annoying geeks with clipboards is that they are all GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES.

I read yesterday that 1 in 5 workers in the UK is now employed by the Govt. They are all in thrall to the great New Labour beauracracy, especially the jobsworth culture. They are hardly likely to turn around and bite the hand that feeds.

If we ever want to get things moving in this country, we need a cull of literally millions of useless civil servants who's jobs are entirely based upon enforcing pettifogging rules and red tape. But the Govt is not going to do this, because that would guarantee they'll lose the next general election. Labour calculation is simple - better to slowly ruin the quality of life for the rest of us by creating a faceless, impervious beauracracy to hide behind, than make the hard choices required to improve the country's services.

So - until we get an administration dedicated to civil service reform, expect more of the same.

JP, Portsmouth, UK

I totally agree with you that in the UK we are pathetic at getting things done. I am in China at the moment working and they are building a new warehouse across the street that will have a 10 level office block. The warehouse part took all of 3 weeks to build and each level of the office block is taking around 1 week meaning it should all be completed within 15 weeks and ready for use. It is fascinating to see the building appear each day.

joe, Edinburgh, Scotland

dont listen to harry,the £500 for the diabetic society was greatly appreciated

rob, birmingham, uk

PJ, actually its called bureaucracy not business, business implies that they are going to do it in the most cost effective way, in the minimum of time in order to make profit (profit in this case being the care and well-being of the patients).

You are right about the amount of time they will spend on this though, and the reasons the revision of figures will be needed is simply because of the continued and increasing cost of all the 'thinking' about doing things....

Andy, Andover, Hants

You wont be rebuilding this hospital, Jeremy, but now that I have your bank details, you will be paying for it.

Have a nice day.

Harry, Manchester,

It's so refreshing to have someone speak out with out all the PC crap that is seemingly mandatory nowadays!! Regardless of the subject, Jeremy always hits the spot for me. If he can see it, and it seems the majority are in agreement, why can't this stupid, pathetic government see it? We don't want all these rules. We can actually think and act for ourselves!!

Chris, Nr. Brighton,

Wise words indeed---you cant fart these days without the police being called--who'll close the road for 3 hours.Stan---Derbyshire

Stan Smith, Derbyshire,

You're right, Jeremy, absolutely right. We're suffering from the same disease in this country, which is why I applaud recent initiatives to penalise everyone involved in projects if they are overdue. Instead of an hourly salary, the workers, supervisors and all are promised a fixed amount of money if they finish a project in a month and for every extra day they need, deduct a thousand pounds per person. I'm telling you it really spices things up.

Erik, the Hague, Netherlands

Jeremy - We all know that for the purpose of entertainment that your tongue is often firmly embedded in your cheek. However, the basic common sense behind your rantings cannot be denied. We have as a culture, allowed ourselves to be become totally hidebound by legislation and this has all happened over a relatively short space of time. Stranger still is the mass acceptance of the inevitability of this and of future variations on the theme. Is it collective apathy or fear of reprisal which causes us to roll over and accept this now nonsense level of obsession with procedure and so called correctness ? I fear an Orwellian level of populace control before long.

Graham Anderson, Nantwich, Cheshire

You'd have thought that with the amount of Polish builders in the UK now, we could build anything in a tenth of the time at a tenth of the cost... I bet it wouldn't suffer from damp and fall apart after a year either!

Maartin, Sussex, UK,

Andy; the difference between building a McDonald's in 24 hours and a bit of a hospital's roof in several years is down to business perspective.
The former is in the business of serving its customers, the latter is in the business of serving itself.
Safety, environmental or employment regulations have nothing on latter.
They'll spend the first six months working on a figure as to how much they can squeeze out of the it and then spend the next few years working on how to implement their constantly revised figures after each time they realised they could have asked for more.
It's called Business.

PJ, West Vlaanderen, Belgium

The reason that these things take so much time (and, as in the case of the brand new central London tube station that has just been built with platforms too narrow for passengers), is that Britain as a whole, in its entirety is now rubbish.

Rubbish government, rubbish schools, rubbish health service, rubbish councils, rubbish MP's, rubbish housing policy, rubbish train companies, rubbish roads, now even rubbish Banks.

Yes Britain, we can now no longer consider ourselves Great at anything whatsoever.

How very, very sad.

David, St Albans, UK

What picture is Jeremy painting when is says the man to do this job must have a side parting and a small moustache?
Hitler? I spose he made the trains run on time. Just not the right places.

chris, london, UK

I knew, when I saw this on the news there would be something here this morning about it!
You are right of course, there is no need for this kind of behaviour. No need for this kind of waste of time and money.
A McDonalds restaurant, once planning has been approved etc can be built in 24 hours, 24 hours! Yet fast food is bad for you. Hospitals (MRSA aside) are not, they are supposed to be good for you, and unfortunately, like you I fear it will be years not months before completion.
People need to pull their fingers out of whichever oriface it is in at the moment and get some work done instead of talking about working.

Andy Staves, Andover, Hants