An Italian revolution

“A true revolution is taking place, with the population on its side and the conservatives against,” says Renato Brunetta, Italy’s minister for public administration. A “revolution” in which the “conservatives” are not the nobles, as during the French one, but the unions, and whose goal is to restructure the civil service, primarily by cracking down on fannulloni, slackers, and emphasising meritocracy, productivity and transparency. “Why were civil servants twice as ill as the private sector?” he asks. Perhaps because they work too hard, a cynic “conservative” might answer. Don’t listen to him, would say Brunetta, he’s a damn dirty liar …