{"id":9988,"date":"2019-08-20T10:13:04","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T08:13:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/?p=9988"},"modified":"2019-08-20T10:16:32","modified_gmt":"2019-08-20T08:16:32","slug":"failure-spots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.desertsun.co.uk\/blog\/9988\/","title":{"rendered":"Failure Spots"},"content":{"rendered":"

In April last year I wrote this<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The thing that always enrages me about governments is they are\u00a0doubly<\/em>\u00a0shit at performing vital state functions: murdering scumbags go free\u00a0and<\/em>\u00a0innocent people get banged up; police harass citizens over trivial matters\u00a0while<\/em>\u00a0serious crime remains a problem; jihadists are let into the country to carry out terrorist attacks\u00a0but<\/em>\u00a0Canadian right-wing journalists are turned back at the airport and banned for life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And:<\/p>\n

I\u00a0 may have said this before, but the reason nobody minds draconian laws and policing in Singapore is because it works: the city is clean, safe, and orderly. What Britain (and a lot of other places) has managed is to have all the drawbacks of an overbearing state but none of the advantages. What appalls people so much about the latest case of people who\u2019ve lived peacefully in the UK for decades being deported is not simply the injustice, which is bad enough. It\u2019s that\u00a0at the same time<\/em>\u00a0we cannot deport lunatic hate preachers from the Middle East with a hook in place of a right hand because it\u2019s against their human rights. Oh, and we need to pay for his four wives and eighteen children, too. I exaggerate, but not by much. If the state is not going to do any good, they at least ought not to do harm.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When you live in the developing world you learn not to expect much from the state institutions. After all, they are often hopelessly corrupt and the people working in them unmotivated, untrained, and poorly paid. But a feature of the decline of western civilisation is government institutions (and companies: see my posts on Boeing<\/a>, for example) losing their core competence while remaining ruthlessly effective when it comes to irrelevant nonsense. Here’s a great example:<\/p>\n

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The @WHO<\/a> has confirmed the UK has lost its \u2018measles free\u2019 status. Measles is one of the most infectious diseases known to man and lots of work is underway to combat the rise in cases. Our blog explains the current situation: https:\/\/t.co\/99jBUnfJiz<\/a> #ValueofVaccines<\/a> @DHSCgovuk<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/7P1MANrle7<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Public Health England (@PHE_uk) August 19, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n