Seven into one?

A recent comment from John Armitt, the incoming chairman of one of the Research Councils, has caught my attention.

It amazed me that for the simple job of keeping two bits of iron in place, there were seven different ways of doing it… if there is a task to be done, we have to decide what is the best way of doing it, and apply that nationally.

I guess from that he’ll have little patience with any of his minions trying to derail (ahem) the setting-up of a Shared Service Centre for the seven Research Councils.