In which case, why do we employ people with usually no business experience (officers) and elect people often with no business experience (councillors) to run them?

It seems that what Dave really wants is every aspect of local government to be privatised with profit being the only motive. Heaven help you (even now) if you are sick, disadvantaged or elderly: if someone can’t make money out of you, you are for the (privatised) scrapheap.

Cameron: Public services should be run like businesses

In a speech in Yorkshire, David Cameron will promise today to run Britain’s public services like a business, saying £20bn of cuts can be achieved by adopting commercial techniques and boosting efficiency to protect frontline services. Back office functions will be streamlined, with legislation enabling police, fire and ambulance services to share IT, procurement and other systems. Decision-making will be passed down from Whitehall to local people, with 37 areas bidding to take on more devolved powers, some of them delivered by new “city region” mayors. Mr Cameron wants reforms to include “breaking state monopolies, bringing in new providers”, although he would use “non-profit trusts” rather than private providers to take over failing local authority children’s services.
Financial Times, Page: 4