from Rosebery -
Statesman in Turmoil by Leo McKinstry
"The goal of an efficient, powerful, well-regulated public sector, guiding the life of the nation, has been the elusive dream of progressive politicians for more than one hundred years. Indeed, there are striking similarities between Webb's vision of "National Efficiency" and both Harold Wilson's emphasis on state planning in the 1960s and Tony Blair's focus on "modernisation" in this century." *
the following is a footnote to the paragraph above -
*"New Labour's fixation with targets and league tables has an uncanny parallel in Webb's call for the Government to put all state bodies 'into honorary competition with one another by an annual investigation of municipal efficiency, working out their statistical excellence in drainage, water supply, paving, cleansing, watching and lighting, housing and hospital accommodation, and publicly classifying them all according to the results of the examination"
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