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Let us suppose that A is a PLC providing health services of some sort, perhaps geriatric or mental health services, not very young or sexy at all. A has a CEO who owns a good slice and who also has a fancy life style. Yachts at Monaco and islands in the Caribbean. Something goes wrong and a thousand cross customers are invited to take A to court. Court awards punitive damages of many millions. Lawyers trouser one seventh, as is their due. Shareholders of A lose a bit of dividend. Prices of the services provided by A go up a bit - maybe A has taken out some expensive insurance, just in case whatever it is happens again. A few middle managers in A get the sack. A few more such managers are tasked with writing the red tape which makes it less likely that whatever went wrong goes wrong again. CEO gets over his temper tantrum and goes back to cruising in the Caribbean.

Let us suppose now that B is a public service providing health services of the same sort. B has a CEO, a superior civil servant. He does not own a good slice, indeed he does not own a slice at all, but he does have a fancy salary, a fancy pension and a nice house in Oxshott, in Surrey. Some of his neighbours are footballers. Something goes wrong, mainly because times are hard and B has been starved of the necessary resources for years, and a thousand cross customers are invited to take B to court. Court awards punitive damages of many millions. Lawyers trouser one sixth, as is their due. Only fair that they should get a bit extra: this is a public service after all. B now has even less resources, with which it is supposed to deliver those same health services. A few middle managers in B get retired early. A few expensive contractors are dismissed. Rather more, brand new contractors, with special expertise in the subject matter, are hired to write the red tape which makes it less likely that whatever went wrong goes wrong again. CEO goes back to processing the elaborate memoranda he gets from Whitehall. And thinking about his prize roses back in Oxshott.

In both cases, that national treasure, our media services industry, has a feeding frenzy and people take to actually buying newspapers for a few days. Bankruptcy staved off once again.

Readers are invited to play spot the difference and to suggest better ways forward.