The thing that strikes me is was not just the issue of when the things we need can best be provided through public organisations (which need not necessarily mean government organisations, as the BBC's existence should remind us, and there are other possibilities here as well) or through private enterprise.

Over and above that is the matter of what these organisations and enterprises should be like. There is a dominant culture which sees the kind of outfit I described when I was talking about the private hospital as the way things really should be. It's the model we should be pushing for in the public sector, and if we can't achieve it, that's a pity. Lean and muscular and fairly harsh for the workers, while for the customers it's to be a combination of cushions and blinkers, and stick on your own side of the counter, so to speak (even when the physical counter has been eliminated.)

And it goes right across the board, not just hospitals. Increasingly it seems that how the world is supposed to be. The human style of operation in the private sector is equally under attack.

And I don't like it. And I don't think its even efficient, in the long run. I remember a piece by Hilaire Belloc, I think, contrasting two ways of organising horse-artillery harness in two armies. One was shining leather, beautifully designed so as to eliminate any unnecessary material. The other was bits of rope knotted together.

But break one strap on the shiny leather state-of-the-art harness though, and you had real problems. With the old rope harness, just tie another knot and you were back in business. That's what I call efficient in the real world.