Robinson: Change harder than ministers think

Sir Gerry Robinson, former chairman of Granada TV, comments on the Today programme on news that Sir Philip Green will lead an external efficiency review of government spending:

“What shocks you isn’t how difficult it is to see there are opportunities. They’re all over the place. There are huge opportunities to make savings.

“This has been a pretty regular routine. Having somebody giving you a bit of advice, compared to actually going in and doing it… you’re dealing with a machine that’s been in play for a very long time, that’s been extraordinarily good at protecting itself. That’s the starting point.

“Secondly you’re dealing with people for whom these are genuinely radical ideas. Therefore getting that change without getting the person who’s originating that change doing it – it just isn’t going to happen.”