Comments on: Suggest a quango or three for the bonfire

By: Citizen Responsible

Citizen Responsible — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 20:40:38 +0000

According to figures obtained by the Sunday Times under the Freedom of Information Act, quangos have spent millions of pounds hiring celebrities over the past 3 years for such events as prize giving ceremonies and after dinner speeches.
The most star struck quango of them all was “The Learning and Skills Council”, which spent £400,000 hiring more than 50 personalities. This is another example of quango extravagance while failing to deliver the core service.

By: Citizen Responsible

Citizen Responsible — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 14:44:18 +0000

A report has now been published criticising the management and spending of the EHRC. Five out of the sixteen commissionaires have resigned since April in protest about the management of the EHRC. Also, against the rules, 7 senior staff were paid a total of £620,000 in redundancy pay and then re-employed as consultants.
The public spending watchdog has refused to sign off the accounts. Apparently, the government was told about the financial irregularities at the time but took no action. Despite all this, Trevor Phillips was re-appointed as chairman for another 3 years with the full support of Harriet Harman, days before the report was published and Trevor Phillips in now on holiday. I assume the timing was deliberate.

By: Citizen Responsible

Citizen Responsible — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 10:58:17 +0000

The Learning and Skills Council.

According to Friday’s Daily Mail, the Learning and Skills Council, Britain’s biggest quango (annual budget £12 billion, 3500 staff), is being disbanded and replaced by 3 new quangos next April. The council wasted hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayer’s money through catastrophic mismanagement of a college building programme. The chief executive resigned in March with a £100,000 payoff. We also learn that 4 of the executives have pension funds valued at more than £1 million. Yet again, we see these people rewarded for failure. How many of the failed executives will still be employed in the 3 replacement quangos?

By: [[NAME EDITED]]

[[NAME EDITED]] — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:06:19 +0000

Ah! A reply from the “folk”.

By: Stuart Fairney

Stuart Fairney — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:23:29 +0000

Might I also request another vote on the Welsh assembly; Remember the last one? 25% yes, 25% no, 50% didn’t care enough to vote. Hardly the settled will of the people for constitutional change!

Of course it would mean sacking some useless third rate politicians.

By: Stuart Fairney

Stuart Fairney — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:21:07 +0000

This seems to be modern poolitics in general, this lot are perhaps the worst example, led by a man who simply cannot say mea culpa

By: no one

no one — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 02:31:29 +0000

yes there are a few examples of good MP’s from state schools

re ” if you are reasonably well educated and middle-aged or below, you will probably have been at a public school or one of the few remaining grammars.” what total and utter nonsense

out in the the real world there are lots of people who would make great MP’s who had a state education, many struggled through the poor comprehensive system, many are keeping this country solvent in their own ways

whats worse it attitudes like this, and daves, and army generals, and so much of society that folk are in positions because their public school education is so much better, and they are automatically the best

we need a radical real meritocracy agenda

its going to be laughable having more ethnic and female faces in the commons when the whole place speaks in public school accents, how representative is that going to be?

such a joke, and not being taken seriously as far as i can see

By: adam

adam — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:46:51 +0000

cut costs by actually talking to people who work in public services. its easy
whats hard is to think up lots of new selling points to justify yet more law.

By: Ross Warren

Ross Warren — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:43:29 +0000

Is this (Quango abolition) the election winning issue?

It hits a nerve. I think most people have had at least one run in with these jobs-worths and know instinctively that these unselected organisations are draining the coffers.

By: Stuart Fairney

Stuart Fairney — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:22:29 +0000

I fear this is politico speak for “I do not want to seriously address the issue in detail, just make a lot of warm sounding noise”

By: [[NAME EDITED]]

[[NAME EDITED]] — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:01:13 +0000

“Too simplistic”? How simplistic does he think he ought to be?

By: [[NAME EDITED]]

[[NAME EDITED]] — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 12:57:39 +0000

The only “cure” for this (if it is a disease) is the reversal of various disastrous educational policies thought up by socialists and continued or at least connived at by conservative. It will take a while; in the meantime, if you are reasonably well educated and middle-aged or below, you will probably have been at a public school or one of the few remaining grammars.

By: Freddy

Freddy — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:07:40 +0000

So much for being polite. Let me rephrase :

You can make up some Bank of Adrian baknotes if you like. But if I sell you my car, I will not accept them in payment, because I can’t use them to pay for anything else. Because they are worthless pieces of paper covered with the scribblings of a loony. Probably in crayon.

Twit.

By: Stuart Fairney

Stuart Fairney — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:53:52 +0000

If I may JR, I think 87 and counting maybe a record blog response.

Is this (Quango abolition) the election winning issue as council house sales were in the 1980’s ~ maybe?

By: Adrian Peirson

Adrian Peirson — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:59:35 +0000

If you believe it is in our interests to borrow worthless bits of paper at full face value plus interest rather than Print and coin it ourselves free of charge can I ask that you lobby Parliament to borrow said money from me and I will Undercut the BofE by 1000% and give you £1Million after I get the contract.

No wait,

I’m feeling generous today, if you can convince the Govt to Borrow these worthless bits of paper from me rather than the BofE, I will give you £1Billion pounds for your services.

By: jean baker

jean baker — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:54:57 +0000

Many pharmaceutical drugs in that multi billion pound industry are sourced and produced from nature, i.e. plants.

By: jean baker

jean baker — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:51:33 +0000

Fact – it look Bliar six months on his arrival in 1997 to abolish Clause 4. The ensuing financial ‘free for all’, lack of historic FSA/Bank of England regulation resulted, 12 years later, in, as independent economics predicted – financial meltdown and toxic debt.

Throughout the past 12 years Nulabor has governed on the basis of lack of proper financial regulation/accountability transferring money (borrowed against taxpayers) and privileges to vested interests liable to identify with the Labour political Brand.

Labour is the ‘passengers party’ closely allied to the (reportedly) ‘corrupt’ EU taxpayer funded ‘gravy train’.

By: skooch

skooch — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:00:50 +0000

The LSC will cost us £12.157 BILLION, 09/10.

Is there anyone who can tell me what they really, really do?

By: Lola

Lola — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:37:10 +0000

Blair/Brown did not abolish financial regulation, they replaced it with various bits of legislation, including the appalling FSMA 2000. These actions had two purposes. One, to divide and conquer the existing workable supervisory structure such that only Brown new the whole picture and could press ahead with mad fiscal and economic policies without any check or balance to challenge him and (b) to morph ‘regulation’ into nationalisation by one remove. For example the FSA rule book is prescriptive. It lays out how the whole FS industry should carry on its business. It is nationalisation lite by bureaucratic quangocracy. And of course as with all nationalised industries it has failed. All of this allowed Brown to use the banks as pushers. Not of narcotics but of debt. This created the illusion of wealth just as drugs create the illusion of well being. Brown is more like a shabby drug baron than a chancellor.

By: Mark, Edinburgh

Mark, Edinburgh — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 10:09:58 +0000

Note OFGEM (the Energy regulator) is conducting a review of their purpose at the moment. Somehow I just don’t think voluntary disbandement is part of the remit.

Its assumed that there is a need for a quango like OFGEM in the energy area. However actually I think the OFT and a much simpler and less costly way of regulating NGG will suffice.

OFGEM were a poor consumerist champion, have introduced unneccessary and very costly complexies to the network rules and are unable to take a strategic view, which should be in any casepolitical.

The result has merely been to dismembe the British companies on the consumerist altar but with the inadvertent result that they were simply taken over by the Continetal monopolies.

Of course without OFGEM we would need to send a governemnt official to the new council of European energy regulators!