Bye bye quangos!

[longfingernails]

Another excellent day for the coalition.

Hundreds of quangos scrapped, downsized, privatised or merged. I'm sure we'll hear the squealing of the vested interests on the news channels all day!

The great thing is that every time a fat cat Communications Officer or Diversity Co-ordinator for the National Paperclip Bendiness Regulation Service squawks, the sense of revulsion amongst the public for Labour's wasteful and destructive expansion of the nanny state will increase.

Ruthless elimination of the opposition and removal of those who dare to have other opinions suggest LFN would best gravitate to support of a right-wing dictatorship rather than membership of a democratic political party, though

Meanwhile, I'll get back to promoting the works of Karl Marx at my lefty quango and have a

Still suspect you are journo, longfingernails. Come on, out with it: are you?

narmada 37% of the country voted Conservative in May. People who believe in Tory policies really do exist, you know, whatever you may read in the Guardian!

Of course they exist. I know this because they are my parents, my father-in-law, and my best friend's partner.

It's not your views that make me suspicious, it's the way you write.

And you didn't answer my question.

I have already answered your question - what you mean is, I didn't bother answering it again. I don't know how to persuade you I'm not a journalist, and I'm not hugely fussed if you don't believe me.

Actually people like LFN and BeenBeta make me smile. I think it's sweet. After 13 years in the wilderness they think it's 1979 all over again. They haven't noticed that the Tories didn't actually win a majority

nah LFN, surely you mean 37% of voters not the country? Anyway, it was only 36.1%

I wonder how many of those are now rather gutted to discover Dave lied to them?

theboobmeister - yeah I noticed the lack of a majority. I spend time on the depressed leftie thread to enjoy a good moan about it.

The Coalition is a compromise. I hope it does the right thing. Not all Tories (in fact very few) match the stereotype that Labour like to frighten people with.

hubblybubblytoilntrouble You are right - it is voters I meant.

I should think that most Tory voters are pretty happy. The government has made mistakes - it has given away too much to the EU, passed Harriet Harman's crazy Equalities Bill, etc.

However, the biggest concern, namely, tackling the deficit, is being addressed. Corporation tax has been cut, and National Insurance for the first 10 employees for startups.

Strategically, the era of universal benefits is dead - and with it, any political support for further expansion of the welfare state. Labour will never be able to wantonly enlarge the State in such a way again.

Iain Duncan Smith's ideas are genuinely revolutionary. Together with caps, it will help destroy the benefits as lifestyle choice culture.

Michael Gove's free schools will help destroy the vested interests of the teaching unions which blight the life chances of so many poor children.

Andrew Lansley is slowly turning the NHS into a market-based French model of healthcare, which is far superior.

ID cards are gone, civil liberties returned, red tape and the health and safety culture tackled.

And best of all, the Union Modernisation Fund is being scrapped

On Wednesday I will be redundant from my job for a quango as it has been scrapped. I've worked there 10 years, and I could count on fewer than five fingers the number of people who are unprofessional, unaccountable, suited 'quangocrats'. I have had the privilege of working with highly experienced, professional, educated, intelligent, creative and dedicated people who absolutely have had the best interests of our audience at heart. In fact, most of them have been members of the audience too, so we absolutely do know what we're talking about.

The 'thinking' (inverted commas as I don't actually think there has been any thinking) is that our work will be done by the relevant government department. Firstly, civil servants know f*all about the kind of work we do. Secondly, this would mean that government has a direct effect on highly sensitive and essential policy without any independent buffer. Thirdly, it puts 500 people in the west Midlands out of work.

Guess you'll be raising a glass to me on Wednesday OP.

"Michael Gove's free schools will help destroy the vested interests of the teaching unions which blight the life chances of so many poor children. "

Please tell me you don't really believe this crap......

I just wanted to say something supportive to MissM. It's bad enough losing your job without having everything that you and your colleagues have worked for over the years totally dismissed. I used to work for a very forward looking innovative PCT which is now similarly on the scrap heap. It's utterly depressing, especially knowing that in a few years time it will all be reinvented again (as has always happened in the past). It's a stupid short sighted popularist approach to public services.

Oh and Michael Grove is an idiot, the new schools will presumably have professional teachers, and all teachers have to join a union to get indemnity insurance (well you can get it privately, but it costs 3x the amount, or you could go without but that would be very unwise). Granted some of the teachers unions are fairly rabid, but in general most people join unions as a sort of insurance policy for if things go wrong at work, not because they have any particular political viewpoint.

Thanks for that nooka. It is pretty demoralising to be made to feel that working bloody hard for ten years has been a waste of time!

i feel my job will be on the tory chopping board too. sorry to miss m too. i really think they're not thinking this through properly

Its very sad that some people are going to lose their jobs because of this but it is necessary. Quangos like most aspects of the public sector have ballooned out of control and the number of them was totally unsustainable so some had to go.

I hear they're abolishing the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority. How exactly can that be a good thing?

gaelicsheep, yep the HFEA is definately going despite only getting about £5 py from the government. that 5m ensures that patients arent ripped off and pays towards huge advances in fertility medicine.

I would say this is another black day for the coaloition.

oh, and the bbc which, in this day where everyone has digital/cable subscriptions, is NOT necessary stays.

priceless!

Leandro, could you give some examples of quangos 'ballooning out of control'? Agree that some may be unnecessary or able to be merged with others, but what is your basis for that comment?

Public Lending Right is also to go. This is a body which ensures that authors and illustrators get a small (and I mean small) percentage of royalties each time one of their books is borrowed from a library. It can be a much-needed part of some people's income, so I'm wondering what the advantage is of cutting it - as far as I'm aware it receives a tiny amount of public money.

Examples of Unnecessary quangos:
Railway Heritage Committee
Commission for Integrated Transport
Women?s National Commission
Council for Healthcare Regulatory Excellence
School Food Trust
Advisory Board on the Registration of Homeopathic Products
Teachers TV Board of Governors
School Food Trust
Independent Advisory Group on Teenage Pregnancy
British Educational Communications and Technology Agency

Agree totally with leandro the number of Quangos that Labour set up was ridiculous, the Railway Heritage Committee, what exactly do they do?

Well the Independent Advisory group on teenage pregnancy is one I've worked closely with. I was surprised to see that they were a quango - there's about five of them, they mainly work in other jobs and simply sit on a committee. It's a good example of the public (via the media)assuming that all quangos employ 500 people on 50K a year and sit around twiddling their thumbs. IAGTP were instrumental in advising the former government on teenage pregnancy and advised that sex education be made compulsory in schools.

Leandro - do you know what your list of quangos actually does, or are you basing your judgement of 'unnecessary' on their names? (I'm not being snidey, by the way, asking genuinely).

MissM I thinks she's basing her judgement on their names but they do sound unnecessary

so the 'Women?s National Commission' is unnecessary then, for example? well, i suppose if you think that an independent body advising the government on womens issues in the UK and abroad is not useful then you are free to think that.

However, i would have thought that Theresa May needs all the advice she can get given her track record .

In the WNC press release on the matter it basically states:

?The decision to dismantle an independent and cost effective mechanism to give women a direct voice to government is yet another blow for women across the UK at a time when the Comprehensive Spending Review is likely to hit women and families disproportionately".

It goes on to say that it has provided an independent voice of women to Ministers for over 40 years on issues as diverse as tackling violence against women, supporting women into positions of leadership and decision making, providing a voice for asylum seeking women, widows and raising awareness of the needs of minority ethnic women. www.thewnc.org.uk/

yes it is very sad people have to loose their jobs and equally sad that equality and rights of some sectors in society may have to go with them.