Donald Trump, in the original Apprentice, made famous the words, “You’re Fired!" Perhaps Sir Alan Sugar and he could team up and take those two words into the depths of the civil service, dispensing them to the staff that Lord Jones seems to have found lurking there. Speaking to the Commons Public Administration Select Committee, he said: “Frankly the job could be done with half as many, it could be more productive, more efficient, it could deliver a lot more value for money for the taxpayer. I was amazed, quite frankly, at how many people deserved the sack and yet that was the one threat that they never ever worked under, because it doesn't exist."

Lord Jones seems to be adding to the point the Conservatives made a few days ago when they claimed that there were 4,000 civil service staff ‘doing nothing’. As a culture of malaise now hangs over the civil service then it’s time to cut our losses and find another way of implementing the odious government initiatives. We already have a vast array of management consultants working on government policy, some £3bn as of 2007 (perhaps we could take them on full time). Though I’m not sure we’d still be getting value for money there.

In ideal world the civil service would be operated along the same lines as any other business. At present it is weatherproofed against hard times, as firms are trimming the fat, the civil service continues on regardless. A point supported by the head of the civil service union, Mr Baume, who said, “the government's love of launching initiatives - and the current economic crisis - meant that there was an argument for more civil servants rather than less." It is easy to predict that the governments debts will grow ever deeper and we shall continue to furnish the pockets of those, who in any other business, would be deemed surplus to requirements.

Oh, and if you are in the public sector and not doing much click here.