In a speech to an audience from all walks of public sector life in Cardiff recently, Lord Digby Jones warned of a growing apartheid between the private and public sectors in the UK. He said “the country cannot continue to watch a diminishing private sector solely responsible for generating the tax revenues to pay for an unreformed overmanned public sector” He claimed it is possible to achieve real cuts in manpower in the public sector without harming front line services, requiring a change in the system of delivery and productivity and efficiency drives in the back office.