Friday 1 February 2008

Undoing the Damage

After the Scottish Government's Minister of Finance yesterday told quango and public agency chiefs that they will be forced to move out of under-used buildings, he expressed surprise at some refusing to accept they must move into smaller offices from large, expensive offices .

The Prime Minister of Scotland is delivering on his pledge to cut by at least a quarter some two hundred agencies that were running government services at arm's length when he took office after the Labour regime was defeated, despite their best election-rigging efforts, last May.

A spokesman, setting out the first list of those to be removed or merged, explained that the action is "a significant step on the way, not an end to the process".

These non-departmental public bodies are wholly appointed and unresponsive to direct democratic control. Bluntly, they are stuffed with former ruling- regime Party placemen, and sinecure-holders rewarded for various Party services, enjoying high salaries and terms of service, including gold-plated pensions.

The seeding of governance with out-sourced and out of reach, yet publicly-funded centres of power, in areas from planning, through health and social services, to pseudo cultural, sporting, and formerly charitable functions, is a major source of maintenance in power, even when voted out of office, of the New Labour Project.

Repeatedly these nomenklatura apparatchiks of the former regime have delayed and hindered economic development in Scotland, the latest example being planning body foot-dragging over the renewal and extension of the Aviemore tourist industry; tourism is an important part of the development of the Scottish economy.

Scotland's experience of undoing this New Labour permanent regime structure is an eye opener in the arrogant entrenchment of its personnel, and the determined smearing of their nemesis with false accusations of corruption and political and personal gain, by the Labour party itself.

It is not just a matter of defeating them at the polls, should England have its chance and take it. Their long march through the institutions must be accurately tracked, and their removal accompanied by the dismantling of their state.

2 comments:

Elby the Beserk said...

Last count, I believe - and remember Bliar's proposed "bonfire of the Quangos", we now have 40% more in the UK than in 1997, and they cost us £3/4 a billion a day.

NICE job if you can get it. I particularly like the approach to perks; do the job according to your job description, and you get a bonus.

hatfield girl said...

The holes in the tax take are so enormous Elby that even these people are going to be unemployed. They think they're fire proof but all they have is their wages and their house, and their debts.

Anyone who is free of debt, working or not for a wage, and with a decent education and a sustainable if constrained life style, is in better shape than people who think they are established as middle class.