"It all makes work for the working man to do"

One of the Keynes's best-remembered suggestions for dealing with the Great Depression was that it would make sense for governments to pay workers to dig holes and then fill them in again. I'm happy to report that in today's troubled economic times, at least one sector is taking the old Bloomsburyite at his word.

We had a small leak in the water main under the pavement in front of our house this week.

On Tuesday morning I called the water company to report the leak. (Tally so far: workers 1; vehicles 0).

On Tuesday afternoon a man came and looked at the leak and marked the spot with blue dye. He was onsite for about 10 minutes. (Tally so far: workers 2; vehicles 1).

On Wednesday morning two men turned up, dug up the pavement and fixed the leak. They were onsite for an hour and a half, of which at least 45 minutes was spent erecting barriers, signs and so on. Our street is a 50-metre-long cul-de-sac with four houses but hey, you can't be too careful. Anyway, tally so far: workers 4; vehicles 2.

On Thursday afternoon two men turned up in a massive truck. They took down all the barriers and signs, scooped up the stuff the previous crew had dug out of the hole, filled in the hole with fresh screed and tamped it down to a depth of about 6 inches. Then they put all the barriers and signs back up. Time taken: 15 minutes. (Tally so far: workers 6; vehicles 3).

On Friday morning two workers came and took down the barriers again, moving them onto my neighbour's property. They filled the hole with tarmac and smoothed it over, then left. Time taken: 10 minutes. (Tally so far: workers 8; vehicles 4).

Finally, at lunchtime on Friday two men turned up, took 5 minutes to load all the barriers and signs onto a small truck and drove away. Job done! Final tally: workers 10; vehicles 5.

I can have no possible complaints about the speedy response to my initial call, and I suppose the contractor has figured out that this is the most cost-effective way to work. In the old days, though, I'm pretty sure that one truck would have showed up with all the tools needed for the job, there would have been a whole lot less arsing around with barriers and it would all have been completed in one afternoon. Still, I'm sure Keynes would have enjoyed it.