Over at City Journal, the skeptical doctor writes about the dire financial situation that the city of Birmingham has found itself in to illustrate the increasing incompetence and corruption of the British public sector.

Nothing better illustrates the servitude of the British people to their government than the bankruptcy of the city of Birmingham. The city council has announced that it will be able from now on to provide only the most basic and urgent of services, which it had previously done with indifferent efficiency in any case.