The Bonfire of the Quangos

Today the British government will reveal their plans for the ubiquitous quangos which have grown and multiplied in the running of the country and cover everything from canals to company watchdogs to arts and media. Quangos are basically a government's way of passing responsiblity to an unnaccountable body, stuffing it full of cronies and then giving them lots of money to set targets, give out some of the money they have received and write reports.

It got particularly bad under the last government who set up quangos for everything. So much so that the incoming government decided to have a nice bonfire with them, (they should have waited 'til 5th Nov though).

Now the problem with getting rid of quangos is that they still employ lots of people and so in getting rid of them, you have to make a lot of people unhappy. They also produce lots of stats of the world today, so people who like to judge others based on some arbitrary set of guesswork are also going to be unhappy because they can't do that anymore. After all, how can you tell if something is good or bad if you don't have a report telling you they are good or bad.

Now don't get me wrong, but in the right areas quangos can actually be a good idea and out of the 900 public bodies that exist, some will continue doing a sterling job. Others half replicate what other quangos are doing and will be merged. Some will be bought back into the government to provide more accountability. The rest, well they are gone for good, ast least until the government decides it needs another public body in that area to write a report.

Details are being released later, but major casualties are likely to include the Audit Commission, the General Teaching Council for England, and the UK Film Council.

It's a major reorganisation for the government. I really hope they don't screw it up.

So a quango is a "'quasi-autonomous non-governmental organization"? Basically a way to make government bigger and bloatier without doing it officially, because, you know, it's non-governmental!

Of the three you mention that are likely going to be casualties, are any of them useful on their own?

I'm sure that the three I have mentioned, all of them would say they were doing a sterling job and should not be touched. In reality, that's not quite the case. All three were disbanded and their functions either stopped or taken into other departments.

Did they do something, probably yes. Is it something that can be done without in a time of austerity, yes.

And so they go, along with 192 others.