Bonfire of the Quangos

[Bing o]

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/Quangos-...

[singlecoil]

Bing o said:

The more things change, the more they stay the same...

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Politics/Quangos-...

What particular aspect of the argument are you referring to?

[Bing o]

My point is that CMD promised said bonfire is turning into a damp squib, and that it's not been looked at properly. An MP on the News this morning said that ROI wasn't even one of the tests.

"The current approach is not going to deliver significant cost savings or result in greater accountability," they concluded.

"There was no meaningful consultation, the tests the review used were not clearly defined and the Cabinet Office failed to establish a proper procedure."

[Digga]

It was clear to all that quangos represented a huge opportinity for rationalisation and efficiency. If it really is missed then it is a great shame for every taxpayer.

[Sticks.]

Bing o said:

"There was no meaningful consultation, the tests the review used were not clearly defined and the Cabinet Office failed to establish a proper procedure."

Agreed. To paraphrase this, they didn't think about it properly, rushed in, grabbing headlines en route, and consequently the taxpayer loses out.

Plus ca change.

[rs1952]

I'm not in the least surprised that this went tits up - I was predicting it on here from the moment the policy was announced.

It was always going to be a great headline and vote winner - "We're going to abolish all those useless and expensive quangos." The trouble always was, these quangos were set up to do some sort of work. If that work still needs to be done, then some other bugger has got to do it if the quango that currently does it is abolished.

What they found out was a lot of that work still needed doing. Therefore all you save is on a bit of headed notepaper, and we won't be paying the deficit off with that level of savings

[Mojooo]

Unsurprising.

They will probably find they might have to bring back some of the functions they have cancelled or the ones where they are trying to offload to charities will require funding anyway.

[singlecoil]

List of Quangos here, plus the proposed changes-

http://download.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/ndpb/public-b...