The Bonfire Begins
Despite promising to create countless quangos during the election, the promised axe is coming down hard today on 192 quangos that will be abolished, with another 289 being radically overhauled. 380 quangos are staying including the BBC World Service, despite the Beeb’s scaremongering graphics. The sound of public sector fat cats gasping was audible across the airwaves this morning.
UPDATE: The list goes up on the Cabinet Office website, which subsequently goes down with all the quangocrats seeing if they still have a job. Try for yourself here.
UPDATE II: The DCMS confirms the UK Film Council is a goner.
UPDATE III: The full list:
Guido the Beeb were frantically spinning this morning that axing quangos would not actually save much money….as some of the functions they perform would simply have to be done by another body. I hope that the bonfire is just that – an inferno – and not a piffling little flame as dim as a toc h lamp.
I’m Very very very upset that the BBC have escaped the Axe. Dave has failed his first serious test.
Frances Maude said it would save money but couldn’t say how much. In fact, it’ll probably cost more money, and reduce services.
Guy from one quango was saying hs functions would be taken up by Citizens Advice. OK, fine, except he did long term research, which CA doesn’t currently. Result: poorer quality service, taking longer, costing more.
Gesture, gesture, gesture. That’s all this is.
Amazing. Lefties have actually determined that cuts will cost money. I suppose this is only possible because you all dropped maths at O-level and took up Drama?
They are unaccountable, expensive and self-perpetuating, and remove power and responsibility from elected positions.
LET THEM BURN.
Watch your Yes, Minister. It’s all explained there:
Staff – made redundant or re-located. Result:Increased costs or at best no saving.
Premises – sold (in current down market) or re-used (after expensive re-furbishment), Result: Loss and/or increased costs.
Functions – stopped or transferred. Result: Increased re-training costs, less specialised staff, confused public clogging up other agencies.
“Despite promising to create countless quangos during the election”
Ahh the old “closing it won’t save any money, after redundancies and relocation” argument (provided you only look at the current year) Of course next year its running cost will be …errr… zero. No, no money saved at all. And two years later the cost will still be zero. Meaning err still no savings. Pathetic.
Dermot Murnaghan gets bitch slap from Francis Maude on Sky News.
Murnaghan getting himself in lather about abolition of CEOPS and comments by Jim Gamble its resigning Chief Exec accuses Government of putting children at risk.Maude tells him to stop these emotive childish criticisms…CEOPS was always part of NPIA and this work of course is a priority and continues to be unaffected and will continue but what is wrong with an elected Minister being responsible in future as opposed to an unelected Quango ? We should really try and have an adult conversation.
Over on BBC reporter on narrow boat going down Birmingham Canal asks Waterways Employeee emotionally….the abolition of the National Waterways will spell disaster won’t it ? No ! says employee we’ve had re-organisations under Labour every 3 years and this will be no different we’ve planned for this. But what about jobs ? Well that is a worry but not a particular big oneGlug ! Glug ! as the BBC SS “Anti-Cuts” Narrow Boat goes down with all hands
I saw the waterways interview. The BBC reporter was most upset and suprised to hear that this was actually good news for British waterways and it gave the staff more job security. He was a bit like the EU and repeated the question hoping for the right answer this time but he was still given the wrong reply. Another expensive outside broacast wasted.
Thanks for relaying that!
Good on the guy from the quango saying his functions would be taken up by Citizens Advice, for continuing his long term research as a volunteer for the CAB. Top bloke.
Yes, far too many lefty quangocrats will be breaking out the champagne today.
It is an effective piece of gesture politics though as there are bound to be small savings arising from it.
Nice that you used Bonfire of the Quangos without the slightest hint of irony.
For every Quango shut down in a few years another will take it’s place.
It always happens and politicians always promise to burn them all and then sneak back later to fill the new ones with their placemen.
How else are they to reward their cronies ?
And the story that dominates is the Miners and it will be for quite some time.
Yet another unfortunate bit of timing by CCHQ.
Just because weeds grow in a garden regardless of the gardener’s efforts, it’s not an excuse to avoid the chore of weeding. The fruit and vegetables grow more strongly if the thistles and dandelions are kept in check.
Why be organic wasting time and money pulling the weeds? Kill them with herbicide is what I say.
The regular hoeing to keep the soil clean has rather been neglected these last few years. Hence the need now for the Round-up and flame-thrower approach. It’s brutal, but it’s cleansing. With the rubbish cleared, the productive can be nurtured.
We can do all the work of your quangos.
Not only will you be able to fill in your vegetable patch and not have to worry about future weeding but all your payments can be consolidated in to other easy payments in perpetuity.
Politicians just weed it at the start of their terms and then five years later pretend surprise at all the new weed growth despite sneaking and watering those new weeds after the inital weeding.
Hear hear!
Yes!!!!! This is just the start. All these non jobs for Labour friends and supporters should be eliminated.
COALITION SCORES AGAIN! A £4 billion TAX AVOIDANCE loophole will be closed. Any future banker spivs will not be able to squirrel away more than £50K a year in tax free pension contributions. Shame they could not have caught Fred the Shred retrospectively.
Liebor the banker’s best buddies would never have done that!
Only another £76 billion to save. Oh yes £3 billion on universities, that leaves £73 billion to save each year.
A trifling 4 BILLION ??? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!
We spend more than that on our bolly and prostitutes.
Yeah, but that’s another 4 billion that can go towards protecting the jobs of nurses and teachers instead of it going to billionaire bankers.
Labour would rather see the hyper-rich international elite get that 4 billion than see it go to protecting the jobs of nurses and teachers.
What the fuck are labour good for again? Apart from creating mass poverty and trapping people in dependency on the state?
You are prostitutes.
It’s gesture politics.
Lots of upheaval and unplanned rushed change. You need to keep organisations under review and no doubt some should be scrapped.
The unpalatable truth for some of you is that you need some QUANGOs.
Otherwise you get ludicrous partisan decisions by national and local politicians.
I know you won’t agree. But that’s because you don’t know what you’re talking about.
“I know you won’t agree. But that’s because you don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Don’t be a twat all your life eh?
you speak from bitter experience
I see – the usual retort of the Fawkes poster – verbal abuse.
Well done.
“The unpalatable truth for some of you is that you need some QUANGOs.”
Which is why over 300 of them will be kept.
But we do not need those that are being scrapped.
labour screaming that this will not save any money…. That is because in labour’s philosophy, you do not make any changes without it creating more work and costing more money, otherwise what is the point of the change. They simply do not get it!
The functions of the scrapped quangos can be performed by junior civil servants for a lot less than the senior executives on the quangos with massive expense accounts!
“The unpalatable truth for some of you is that you need some QUANGOs.
Otherwise you get ludicrous partisan decisions by national and local politicians.”
F*cvk me, heard it all now.
Quangos are stuffed with guardian readers, grinding axes, generating ‘non-work’ and hoovering up cash in their expensively trimmed central London offices.
Arsewhools
‘Quangos are stuffed with guardian readers, grinding axes, generating ‘non-work’ and hoovering up cash in their expensively trimmed central London offices.’
Do you have any evidence for what this or does it just fit nicely with your blinkered and narrow worldview?
Just asking.
A bonfire of the Quangos, and it isn’t even 5th of November.
Can any Guido readers help trading standards by suggesting what wealth warnings you would like to see on the products and services you use?
Be as cheeky as you want, completely unmoderated:
visit this website to make your suggestions please!
Well, christmas is coming and the turkeys are beginning to sweat.
About time too.
Listening to Francis Maud it sounds more like a damp squib than a bonfire.
You’ve been Quangoed!
Good… November the 5th comes early this year (with no hard feelings for our Guido!).
no joy
“Stuck in the shithole for 10 weeks were the worst of my life, the smell of shit, piss and vomit all round me, the feeling of complete hopelessness and despair, that horrible feeling of impending doom, such a dark horrible miserable place, and looking into the eye’s of those around me and seeing they are feeling the exact same.”
Yes you guessed it ,this is what really went on during Brown’s last weeks and how he felt..
So much bile! Jesus…
Never mind the politics of the matter, the general drooling over the thought of people losing their jobs says more about you lot than any policy or its relative merits.
Jobs are things that people do that add value to the worth of the country and they get paid a legitimate wage for so doing. So many “jobs” were created by Labour just to keep them off the unemployment figures and are a drain on our resources.
You should go back to reading the GUARDIAN. You’re wasting your time on here. Or even go back to school and get educated. There are lots of good schools in other countries.
Seven words, one hundred and sixty billion pound deficit.
-£160,000,000,000
Three more, four trillion debt.
-£4,000,000,000,000
Those losing their jobs, can thank only ZaNu Labour for their demise.
Fuck off you Khant!
Is it just me, or can anyone else smell burning?
Kilgore: Smell that? You smell that?
Lance: What?
Kilgore: Napalm, son. Nothing else in the world smells like that.
[kneels]
Kilgore: I love the smell of napalm in the morning. You know, one time we had a hill bombed, for 12 hours. When it was all over, I walked up. We didn’t find one of ‘em, not one stinkin’ dink body. The smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole hill. Smelled like
[sniffing, pondering]
Kilgore: victory. Someday this war’s gonna end…
Pig after pig.. cull after cull…
Those nabobs. I really do hate them you know.
You might be surprised about how well the war’s going in Afghanistan…
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/MichaelYonFanPage
10 years worth of glorious success with another 5 at least
Forget the quangos, how about this scoop ?
The coalition Government took out 50 new contracts with consultants in less than three months despite promising to cut the cost to the taxpayer of using outside experts, it was disclosed today.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said that in the 12 weeks following Chancellor George Osborne’s clampdown on consultants as part of his plan to slash £6.2 billion of “wasteful” spending, deals were approved worth almost £10 million.
So they spent £10 million to save £6.2 billion. Sounds good value to me
Still no answer as to what Labour would cut.? Never mind kids, you can pay
The next carry on movie, starring red-ed, postman -al,hatty dromey,featuring ed and yvettes balls
“Carry on Spending”
Special guest appearances ‘Viv Nicholson’ and Flash (I saved the world) Gordon, Countessa Jowell and Peter Pandelson. See how Liam Burns after there is no more money in the bank and we are jusst left with a big red northern rock.
Labour annouce cuts they would have made to save the country
Gordon Browns head now rejoice!
Surely a carry-on movie with lesbian twins must have something going for it?
Maybe a surprise ending where Ed gets the cabinet to drink poison to allow the alien spaceship to take them to a country that still has money?
How many consultants’ contracts ended during the same period, Martin?
£6 billion is 6000,000,000,000.
And George has done and added another 10,000,000.
so Osborne has added 1/600,000 to the bill. 0.000006
Great scoop martin, keep ‘em coming.
No.
£6 billion is 6,000,000,000.
And George has done and added another 10,000,000.
so Osborne has added 1/600 to the bill. 0.00166667 or 0.167%
But Osborne has lied yet again
“despite promising to cut the cost to the taxpayer of using outside experts”
and what does Osborne go and do…..awards 50 new contracts !!!!!
This information will be handed to Ed Miliband for next weeks PMQ’s
nope he added MINUS 590 MILLION to the deficit.
When you cut out a cancer (and Labours legacy is a country killer) you need to pay a surgeon.
Actually, no you dont.
The analogy is wrong. The political scum are paid to come up with the ideas and do the work(thats the theory–in fact they are thieving cnuts) they don’t need to hire more idiots, many of whom will be the Tory’s pals (and I say that as someone who hates socialism) to put even 10p on the public payroll.
How many of the political/bureaucratic class will actually lose their jobs in this quango-roust?. A lot less than you might think.
This is being done to we can triple our contributions to the EU this year.
Yes, but we can save that much just by ending all of dame suzie leathers’ quango earnings !
Yes, it must be hell for Leather!!!
Trouble is, the Charities’ Commission is being retained, FFS.
Now need referendum on continued membership of EU. If we vote out another £30 billion a year is saved.
The sound of tumbrils is deafening this morning
The left leaning beeb asks “What is a Quango?”
Priceless. But still very costly.
More on that story later. Now we cross back to Chile.
Guido, the Cabinent Office website seems to be off line. Is this due to volume of traffic generated by all us Co-Cons, or has some slackjaw socialist decided to launch a DOS attack on it?
No. Its all the jobsworths looking to see if they can still sponge off the taxpayer.
I cant get through either
The result of a ballot on strike action by political bloggers will be announced today.
These are the best cuts that can be made. Save a lot of money while hurting only those that work for the axed QUANGOS.
Scrap the Olympics and Trident. Deficit gone, job done.
100% agree. Trimming won’t do: we have to cancel, cancel, cancel.
Clearly Simple.
if it wasn’t for Trident we wouldn’t have had all these years of peace.
It’s still working a treat today against all those bastards wishing this country harm both from within and without isn’t it?
Scrap it now.
Simples!!!!
Let the games begin !
Oh and can we chuck a couple of Korans on the bonfire ?
Can’t wait for the Bonfire of the EU!
WRAP – a quango advising on wheelie bins and recycling – has cost over £800million. Is it on the list? And why cannot the government publish a list without website crashes and general inefficiency?
We should set up a Quango to examine website efficiency.
Looking for a job Bill ?
One has to make provision. If the important work of the ‘LED standby light florescence on electrical equipment board’ has been axed one might need a new post.
What do you expect, the web site was built in the Labour era. Socialist web sites are shit.
More like rebranding of the quangos.
They got them all out. I thought there’d be at least one half eaten corpse. Any minor set back is an excuse to scoff your mates over there.
Who was the mines Gimp though?
Are El Presidente’s teeth real?
Equality and Human Rights Commission to be reformed – good.
Interesting to see that the Commonwealth Development Corporation escaped. Despite the Eye’s revealing of what they have been up to in the last few years.
Trebles all round!
No, Bad. This unelected, unaccountable, irrelevant and expensive quango should have been abolished. Coalition failed another test of nerve!
Hear hear!
The ‘hearing aid council’ and ‘teachers TV board of governors’!
Fucking hell……!
..what’s that you’re saying..can’t hear you
Not the hearing aid council!
These coalition barbarians!
What next – The biscuit advisory board? – The committee for thermal paper provision?
its all too much..
much to much.
‘Social Investment Bank’
“Social Investment” must mean the opposite of investment i.e. handing money out for no return (probably to the politically connected).
no, wait!
that’s one of the countless quangos Cameron has promised to create
Hahahahahahahahaha!!
Biscuit Advisory Board?
Who needs a quango to work out that Hobnobs rock and RichTea suck
Leave thermal paper out of this!
How come all the heads of these Quangos are left leaning, Guardian reading, socialist parasites?
Are they?
I knew I should have got some espadrilles and an Ipad.
Could be head of UK quangos by now.
One of the reasons is that the job ads. appear exclusively in the Grauniad.
O/T can a district court in Texas stop the sale of a uk football club ?
I mean could a county court in the UK interfear with a USA company ?
It can’t.
but RBS and Red Sox don’t want to upset the Yanks, where they have much business, so they pretend to care for a bit until another judge says ‘this injunction has no meaning in UK law’
Thanks Bill
RBS are due their loan repayment on Friday. If the current owners don’t pay then RBS will effectively own the club and can do what they want.
No, but it will soak up a little time whilst RBS get the injunction thrown out.
They could just go ahead and do a deal, but since RBS does business in Texas it’s safer to have the court accept the English Court’s supremacy in this matter.
It’s interfere not interfear. Get yourself an in-line web form spelling checker you pheasant.
Hasta La Vista, Baby!
We’re making thousands more unemployed.Whoopee!!!
There’s no money left.
Try telling the corrupt EU that! Try getting the khants to audit the accounts that have been gathering dust over the last fourteen years too. Fuckers.
These parasites who harmed society either by not being worth the wages extorted off taxpayers and/or by harming people with self-aggrandising regulations have to opportunity to be something beneficial or at least less of a loss.
but enough about your heroes the Banksters.
Bonfire?
A single safety match more like.
The Con / Lib / Lab cabal of crooks are never going to vote for smaller Government or less influence.
Quangos, like the Honours system, is a way of bribing those you need to do some service or function for you.
No change here, this is merely blue Labour selling the lie that they are somehow different to the last lot. move along.
Sophie dear, what you doing out of the kitchen?
calling you a fuckwit
Is this what you look like in the kitchen Sophie?
http://s2.hubimg.com/u/2108341_f260.jpg
Will I really have to cut back on my Champagne now and my flights and holidays? How unfair is that!
Why can’t my kids pay bastards!
What I can’t understand is why anyone would want to buy Liverpool. Don’t they realise that they will be robbed of everything within 5 minutes?
Even a cursory look through the list reveals the clunking fist of the lib dems, with all their favourite cosy little projects protected…looks like Clegg’s mob have pissed on the bonfire.
Cam commits Quangocide, he is a crim.
Madam De Farge says, I was so lookin forwad to zee ze eds of those biarsed bbc aristocrats zevered from zere quango. Merde! Je suis tres decu!
I work for a quango whose abolition has been announced a while back. However, some of its functions will be retained because they are considered valuable by the present Government. Therefore, the quango will be abolished and a new body, let’s call it ‘Quangex’, will be set up to retain such functions. Initially, Quangex will be much smaller and more contained than the original quango. There will be a little media attention to the formation of Quangex and to the fact that this is no longer a quango and it’s much more contained etc. However, when the spotlight moves away, gradually, Quangex will begin to grow again. It will need three more researchers, one extra policy officer, four more admin staff, and two new communication officers. They may also need new premises and a new IT system; which means that they will need to hire additional consultants and lawyers to look after leasing, procurement and so on. You get the picture. I genuinely do not believe that you can kill a quango, they seem to be indestructible. In addition, so many people in the private sector hang-on to these bodies: suppliers, consultants and all manner of service providers. There is too much interest at stake.
It’s a bit like crime. It should be reduced, but when you think about how many people make a living out of it, apart from criminals! I got burgled a few years back. The thief took away a few hundred pounds worth of stuff; but so many people were involved in the case, the mind boggles. The policeman came with a technician to take fingerprints. He asked us whether we would need a councillor (we declined) and gave us the contact details of the people at Victim Support. That very night we had to call a locksmith to secure the front door and, later on, we called another locksmith to improve it (fitting a better lock and a bar across it). We also called a builder and a carpenter to replace the back door as it had been damaged quite badly by the thieves. Then we called the insurance people. When we got the cheque from them we went to a number of shops to replace the items. Then we decided to fit an alarm and the people from the alarm company are still making money from that original theft. I would be surprised if the burglar made more than £100 that day, but so many law abiding respectable people from all walks of life, made a living out of him. It’s the same with quangos and with some sections of the public sector. We all know that they are a nuisance, but so many people make a living out of them.
You mean they could have abolished the BBC.
There’s an opportunity missed.
Where would we be without the BBC running cuts scare stories every new item and doing research that would otherwise be funded by the Labour party ?
Next time….
Northern Ireland’s QANGOs remain untouched.
Why?
To spare you the spectacle of the middle-class rioting
I’ll believe it when I see it.
My guess is they’ll be re-titled, a sort of ‘off balance sheet’ type maneuver.
Cameron is nothing more than a Blair clone, a second rate one at that. The easy headline is all he’s after. Let’s judge him by his actions.
“Cameron is nothing more than a Blair clone….Let’s judge him by his actions.”
Can’t beat practicing what you preach, eh?
Good grief…
He’s really shown himself to be a man of principle on the following:
1. Promised EU referendum
2. Manifesto pledge not to abolish child benefit
3. Manifesto pledge not to increase VAT
Like I said, a Blair clone. Says what will grab the easy headline, but does the opposite in practice.
Well, well, well.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1320667/Bonfire-quangos-Its-like-barbecue-Despite-fanfare-just-29-completely-abolished.html
After all this it looks like only a handful will actually be abolished after all.
I know it’s only the DM, but I’d bet my mortgage on this being the truth.
Cameron is *exactly* like Blair and he keeps proving it time and time again.
I love the sound of pigs squealing….