Brilliant article... when will giovernment ministers and civil servants start gettting fired for incompetence and failure? As a small business owner it's sickening to watch these self-obsessed ministers fail and duckn the blame....

Tom , London , UK

One of the most frightening consequences of government ineptitude is the overprescribing of Ritalin to children.Public
Agenda page 4 today's Times. See article in the Guardian Unlimited 12 November 2007.
All part of the conspiracy of silence about things that really matter.

Alan Share, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

'Shear incompetence', peterJ? Whoops! Must be too many sheep in the civil service.

Chris Warren, Perth WA, Australia

But we as a Nation do celebrate mediocrity: that is the essence of being British today. Everyone must have prizes.'You are a star!' type of mentality has taken over. Quite honestly, I will put 70% of the Nation to the sword for being pure, unadulterated failures, given half a chance.

ian cheese, london, uk

Only one small gripe - in my opinion upward promotion in the current 'meritocracy' has not left behind a vacuum, filled by incompetent minor functionaries. Rather it has over promoted those who talk a good job and given us many new layers of FIPPS - ... Incompetent Peter Principle Supervision!

Harry Willis, North Yorks ,

Awarding jobs to those who have not demonstrated standards of talent and competance is not meritocracy at work. Also, academic levels are not proof of insight, imagination, good faith or even wisdom. Otherwise the 'educated' recruitment people would be free from your incompetant academic snobbery

P.J., West Vlaanderen, Belgium

It's fine to comment on here, but really we should all write (not email) to Ed Balls, and any other incompetent minister. I still believe there is some value in doing that. Mind you, prepare for a hefty stamp bill.

Steve, Torrington,

Spot on !!!!

Con, Aberdeen,

An excellent summary and I agree with every single word. As a senior manager of a global company I am am both amazed and dispirited at the shear incompetence demonstrated by people in positions of authority within our public services.
Another contributing factor is so called "affirmative action".

peterj, malvern, uk

Minette - call me ignorant, but I thought SATs were supposed to measure the Schools' performance, not the pupils'. They don't give anything like the detail that teachers can give on Parents' evening, & we didn't have them in my day. So why "disappointment and anger"? Who cares if they're a bit late?

Mike, High Wycombe, UK

Ministers may call time on Happy hour. S.Templeton
I own 3 busy professionally run, busy pubs in the North East,
whilst I agree that happy hours may contribute to binge drinking the blame lies with shops selling to youngsters cheap spirits which are drunk at home before setting out to go to bars.

Ralph Wilkinson, Darlington, UK

Who is this (presumably self appointed) TaxPayers Alliance?

Chris, Birmingham,

this bunch couldn't even organise a party in a brewery let alone manage a profitable small business... "Peter Principle" at it's worst...

pcooke, Gloucester,

The idea that ANY civil servants are motivated by anything other than their salaries and pensions ( which they expect for doing nothing except sit on their flaccid backsides) is absurd. All of them across the whole world should be sacked -now.

Emily P, Cambs, UK

Brian Lewis, exactly, there are hundreds of thousands of us.

richard saunders, Shanghai, China

I find this utterly unsupported criticism of the civil service - that 'the brightest and best tend not to go into it', 'admissions have slipped' - frankly repellent. Believe it or not, some first-class Oxbridge graduates - like me - are motivated by things other than fatcat banker/lawyer bonuses.

Sophie, London,

With politicians who all have the same education, and training experience, you will have a lack of diversity.the author of "the wisdom of the crowd"recognised this, but only the electorate can do anything about it. likelt????I don't think so.

Eddy, Bury St.Edmunds,

Balls to you minister.........Ed balls that is. We are now responsible for compensating a US Company that broke their contract with us.........hello out there... Whatever happened to customer satisfaction..... we compensate THEM...yeah right...it could only happen under labour..

mike, leeds,

'Success being rated by how much money they made'..... Greed Is Good. Play on repeat.

Sophie, London,

Be of good cheer, Britain. Consider the American Congress, the members of which are most likely either to be former tort lawyers or in the pay of such. Also, our civil servants are neither civil, nor servants. Lastly, our bureaucrats would not recognize a proper bureau if it fell on them.

Dennis Eagan, Colorado Springs, US

how about only letting those who have a successful track record of 2 years senior management in the public sector and 2 years in the private sector? Success being rated by how much money they made rather than any double-speak.

Ted`, Derby, UK

You extol virtues of (private) good management yet this was clearly lacking at ETS. What's the point of handing a contract to a private company yet have the government hold their hand. It was for the company to deliver.Clearly an eg of private sector failure. Here you are simply shifting the blame.

James Lowe, Ealing,

there seems to be a cloud of incompetence circling the globe lately.As every country seems to be involved with it in some form or another. Politicians have great ideas & policies but after 10 years they lead to some form of diaster (Dr Beeching)

C Smith, Burlington, Canada

"You there, boy! What's your name, boy?"
"Balls,sir."
"Balls, take one hundred lines - I must stop being a meathead".
"Please sir, what's one hundred?"

Anil Chatterjee, Manchester,

So instead of a formal apology, action taken to fix the problem and ensure that it does not reoccur, we get 'Ed Balls is slightly cross with himself'!

And to fix it: ban all Politics graduates from working in government.

James , Newcastle, UK

I agree with Richard Marriott that politicians should have real world experience before entering politics. The rise of the professional politician is something I find rather disturbing. Giving power to those whose only ambition is to achieve it sounds like a risky business to me.

C Quirke, Epernon, France

An appalling and dishonest education system over the last 25 years, resulting in large numbers of uneducated and semi literate people results in the Government we have. If we continue for another 15 years with this Government we will end up a basket case like Zimbabwe.

Steve Picot, Stockport, England

Perhaps things would improve if we had a minimum age limit for our MPs and public servants. If you had to be 35 years old before you could become a councillor or MP, then you would have to do something in the real world first.

Richard Marriott, Worcester, England

Ed Balls cross with himself! Pigs might fly. He hasn't even apologised for this mess, which he is responsible for. Indeed, one might characterise his response as "So what?"

Jeremy Poynton, Frome, Somerset

I retired 25 years ago, remaining overseas because I have never been offered any employment in the UK. I am tolerably well educated and independent. I suspect I am one of lots of Englismen, unemployable and unwanted in a UK democracy. I am a good adminstrator and make good decisions! Too late now!

Brian Lewis, Manila, Philippines

In Hurricane Katrina Wal-Mart told its employees that they'd be operating above their pay-grade. "Make the best decision that you can with the information that's available to you at the time, and, above all, do the right thing."

And they did. So what's Wal-Mart and Tesco got that Gordon ain't got?

Christopher Chantrill, Seattle, USA

Having worked as an economic policy adviser to the UK, Australian and Queensland governments, I am totally convinced on the merits of small government. Unfortunately, governments and their bureaucracies are not.

Faustino, Brisbane, Australia

"There is a tendency in British culture, which is so intensely verbal, to mistake the word for the act, particularly among politicians who love the sound of their own promises."

I agree completely

Dave, Chorley,

Meritocracy has a lot to answer for: as a holder of a Cambridge English degree and primary PGCE (I'm a teacher!), it is the inverse snobbery of colleagues who tell me that my Cambridge degree is a burden to me if I want to teach that compells me away from the 'lower ranks' of government employment.

Kathryn, Nottingham,

Instead of hyperactive - and purpose deficient - legislation. How about a target? No high office without at least 20 years' real experience. Business, engineering, armed services, law, housewifery, teaching, academia. All fine. "Career" politicians go away. Get a proper - taxpaying - job first.

D Murphy, Skipton,

I think the reason for inefficiency in civil servants (and middle managers in all areas) is the abolition of grammar schools, which used to provide this level of worker. I am often appalled by the standard of official letters I receive, by hospital notes, and by errors in newspapers and on the BBC

Betty Stringer, Bungay, England