"A parable of our times:
Two different offices of a large corporation decided to engage in a competitive boat race. Both teams practiced hard and long to reach their peak performance.
On the big day they felt ready. Team A won by a mile. Afterward, Team B was discouraged by the loss. Morale sagged. Corporate management decided that the reason for the crushing defeat had to be found, so a consulting firm was hired to investigate the problem and recommended corrective action.
The consultant's finding: Team A had eight people rowing and one person steering; whereas Team B had one person rowing and eight people steering.
After a year of study and millions spent analyzing the problem, the firm concluded that too many people were steering and not enough were rowing on Team B.
So, as race day neared again the following year, Team B's management structure was completely reorganized. The new structure included four steering managers, three area steering managers and a new performance review system for the person rowing the boat to provide work incentive.
The next year, Team A won by two miles. Humiliated, Team A sacked the rower for poor performance and gave the managers a bonus for discovering the problem.
But in Sussex we call this electing a new Police & Crime Commissioner, and appointing a Police and Crime Panel consisting solely of elected local politicians. And then we ruminate on why it has suddenly become more important to have lots of meetings, and have your photo taken with lots of interesting people, and talk about lots of "policy initiatives" than spending the money on "wasteful" things like putting police onto the streets...."