Looking for efficiency savings? This speech could have been written and delivered by AI

Call it Project Chainsaw. It usually takes a government a couple of years or so to blame the government for stopping it from achieving what it wants to do.

- John Crace

Keir Starmer has got there in eight months. There again, most governments have a clear plan when they get into office so maybe it takes them longer to notice.

Here things took a further turn to the meta. How many people does it take to deliver a speech on cutting the size of the state and making efficiency savings? There appears to be no upper limit. Because it felt as if we had been drip-fed most of the speech over the previous four days. So much so that for much of its duration it felt as if you already knew it word for word.

First we had Pat McFadden last Sunday talking about how the government was planning to cut civil service numbers. Pat makes the Grim Reaper look like a Cheerful Chappy, so he was the ideal outrider to let people know they could expect to be repurposed. Over the next few days there were further details from other ministers and lobby briefings.