Polly Toynbee and sofas

Leafing through this month's edition of the RSA magazine I came on an article that reported a debate on the rather odd motion "The UK today: as good as it gets?"

One of the contributors was Polly Toynbee, and her comments were so bizarre that I almost fell out of bed - yes, it was a lazy Saturday morning in the Seat household.

This is some of what she said:

I actually find that the private sector is a lot less efficient than the public sector. Take trying to buy something expensive like a sofa: they say "we'll deliver it in ten weeks. Will you be there all day? We might be able to tell you if it's in the morning or afternoon but we certainly couldn't give you a time". And when it does come it will probably be flat packed. If the NHS treated people that way there would be a public outcry.

Where do I start?

I actually find that the private sector is a lot less efficient than the public sector.
I actually find...Dinner party condescension mode deployed, as in "I actually find that Bulgarian wine is really rather good. Much better than that over-priced Californian stuff..."

The private sector is less efficient than the public sector. In Toynbee-land this is self-evident, especially if you are looking for a sofa. After all how else are you expected to measure the relative efficiences of both sectors?

Take trying to buy something expensive like a sofa
Something expensive like a sofa. What about EBay? There are over 20 sofas for immediate sale for less than £100 right now. There is a very comfortable one in a fetching shade of Toynbee-pink for sale at £30. Not interested in someone else's sofa? How about Chesterfields Direct? They will sell you an oxblood leather sofa for less than £450 and deliver it for free. Not in leather? I understand.

Let's go for a walk. Within a half hour of Seat Towers are several salerooms where I can have a sofa for less than £50 and delivered tomorrow. There is even an enterprising chap who sells furniture from hotels that have had a makeover. You can have a very plump sofa from the Radisson Edwardian hotel in London in your home by the end of the week. Go on, you know you want to.

...they say "we'll deliver it in ten weeks. Will you be there all day? We might be able to tell you if it's in the morning or afternoon but we certainly couldn't give you a time".
Our walk takes us to Edinburgh's Ocean Terminal. There we can visit Sofa Workshop where I can order a bespoke sofa, made to my exact specifications, and stuffed with the finest Bolivian alpaca hair, (OK, so I made the last bit up). A ten week wait? Perhaps, but it is bespoke. A random delivery time to suit their convenience? No, I get a phone call to say that it is in the delivery warehouse, and to arrange a time convenient to me to have it delivered. Thank you.

And when it does come it will probably be flat packed.
No, unless I bought it from IKEA. If I did, I would expect it to be flat-packed, as I have traded cost for convenience. If it is not fit for purpose, if the home delivery service is not up to standard, and if the instructions are in Swedish I can send it back and not shop there again.

If the NHS treated people that way there would be a public outcry.
No, if the NHS - or any part of the public sector - offered people the same choice, service and accountability of a sofa shop there would be a stampede.

Arthur's Seat sets a challenge - answer Ms Toynbee's assertion of public sector efficiency in fewer than 100 words and win the plaudits of our readers...

Comments

[Bishop Hill]

I asked a question on a thread at Harry's place once:

Name an efficient part of the public sector.

The responses were mainly abusive. The only two constructive suggestions were the British Army and British Rail (pre privatisation).

[dearieme]

We bought a bed in Australia once. About 4:30 in the store: when can you deliver? "I shut at 5:30 so I'll be with you about 6:00". His Volvo rolled up at 6:00, with a trailer attached and in it our bed. Private enterprise.

[Morgan]

Comparing apples to apples, here's a health-care related example.

My 12 year-old had been bothered by two ingrown toenails for several months. We had been treating them more or less successfully ourselves, but at a certain point it began to look like an infection was setting in.

I looked up the number of a nearby doc (about 1/4 mile away). Called the office, and explained the situation.

"Can you bring him in tomorrow?"

"What time?"

"8:00 AM or 2:30 PM."

"Well..." I said, not sure that I could arrange to leave work on such short notice.

She had obviously heard that tone before. "We also have several times on Saturday." (Day after tomorrow). "That would be at the satellite office."

"Where's that"

"Its [about 2 miles away]"

"Saturday would be great. Name a time."

"9:00?"

"Great, see you then"

"Arrive 15 minutes before your appointment to fill out paperwork as a new patient".

"Will do. Thank you."

Problem taken care of 2 days later. Cost of visit, minor surgery (ripping toenails out under local anaesthesia), and antibiotics - about $100 (US).

Seems efficient to me. I don't know how NHS would have handled this. Maybe just as efficiently, but can what I described really be bettered?

[Natalie Solent]

If sofa delivery was like the NHS they would keep cancelling and rescheduling the delivery appointment until you were dead.

[You Have the Right to Die, Mendoza.]

If sofa delivery were like the NHS, the government would fight tooth and nail in court to make sure that no one established a right to buy a sofa.

[Bill]

A few years ago I decided to replace a fridge-freezer with a bigger one - also because it had a more modern external colour (a classy steel grey to replace an outmoded wood effect). I waltzed into Comet at 11.30 on a Sunday morning to order it, expecting they would give me a delivery date later in the week or the following week. Instead they said they could deliver it at 4pm that same afternoon - I had to rush back home to defrost the old model - they arrived as promised at about 4pm. Now that's service!

Contrast that with my aged mother's recent experience of the NHS. Two months wait to see a consultant for an excruciatingly painful, recurrent problem. He promised the follow-up treatment appointment for six weeks later. Did it happen? No, of course not - it was finally dealt with after five months, just as we were about to go to a private hospital; just like the previous cycle of treatment when they miracously found a window to do it after four months, instead of the six months they promised when we said we were going private. The NHS really does suck on far too many occasions! Thank God I can afford to pay for private treatment! Polly Pot lives on a different planet to me ...

[Mark Holland]

Maybe Polly had her sofa hand crafted in Tuscany from a particular tree for the base and a particular cow for the leather. Obviously there's going to be lead in time and then it had to to be delivered on an environmentally sound tandem pedalled furiously across the Alps.

Like any prole dodging limosine liberal who comes from a line of work avoiding "intellectuals" she expects everyone else to aquire their furniture in exactly the same fashion.

Either that or she's nuts.

[Jerry]

If she's in journalism she's been insolated from reality.