Will anyone ever cull the quangos?
So the Tories are promising a Bonfire of the Quangos. I'll believe that when I see it. All oppositions call for this sort of thing -- Gordon Brown promised us one in 1995 but they've grown like topsy since Labour came to power 12 years ago and now number (by one count) 790 at a cost of £35 billion a year. I'm not sure the Tory promise will fare any better -- especially since they're planning to launch some new ones of their own if they win the election.
The government, however, is getting in on the Tory act. Liam Byrne, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, says he's ordered a detailed breakdown of the bodies to "make sure every penny of public money goes to front-line services". You somehow know that's not going to happen. Just look at what some of the quangos do and the salaries their bosses command -- then wonder what much of it has to do with "front-line services".
Politicians are always calling for a quango funeral pyre. But somehow they never find the match to set it ablaze. The matchbox has probably been confiscated by the Health & Safety Executive (a quango). But let's get into the spirit of it all. Both the Tories and Labour say they're up for a quango cull. So which ones would you put to the torch -- and why?
David Cameron's pledge to cut back quangos
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Once again, the government is seen to be playing catch-up with the Tories. Most people think that far too much public money is wasted on Quangos and I for one am delighted that at last the dire state of our national finances makes it inevitable that many quangoes will be wound up, thus saving us all billions of pounds.
David Cameron seems able to keep one step ahead. The acknowledgement by the Chancellor this week that there will be some very tough decisions to be made flies in the face of hapless gordon's mantra of spend, spend, spend (or should we say invest?)The first major party to declare openly that it will freeze public sector wages, reduce the size of the civil service, abolish several quangos, postpone the replacement of Trident, and be clear about future increases in taxes will win peoples' votes. We are not stupid, and most right-minded citizens just want the truth about our dire situation, not party spin.
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Good morning each & Andrew.
If only we could have a hand in replacing the Grand Quango that is the commons. With all these 'reviews' what is left to put before the electorate come the GE?
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Andrew,
surely there must a QUANGO to look into the QUANGOs. This new QUANGO must have the best people from all sectors of the QUANGO society. They must be the best of the best, they must have a full secretariat, with full access to all the QUANGOs which exist, not only in the UK, but globally.
In fact they must be able to travel widely to such deprived areas, as the Seychelles, Bali, Mauritius, to experience the tough life. There is one solution to the problem of QUANGOs, base them all in Kabul.
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Andrew
Although not a quango the Dept for international Aid and development is set to increase its budget by GBP 1 Billion, taking to GBP 10 Billion at a time when we are flat broke! Most of this goes to Africa such as Sierra Leone. But SL has lots of natural wealth in the form of diamonds.
However, SL is not allowed to polish and cut the stones; this can only be done in Brussels and London. The real profit in diamonds is made when the stones are cut and polished. Its funny that South Africans are able to master this art but black Africans cannot. Vested interests by the Euro Commission and greed or is it racism?
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I am getting very angry Andrew, and it is because we have been told over the week-end about yet more deaths in Afghanistan, soldiers not only being killed but also we do not know of the injuries, and the deaths of the locals. Soldiers being returned home, in their coffins, and yet at this very moment Bob Ainsworth at last announces an inquiry into the deaths in Iraq of locals who had also allegedly been tortured.
Surely this should be part of the inquiry that Brown announced only a couple of weeks ago. I suppose the inquiry will not look into these deaths because they form part of another inquiry. You talk about QUANGOs, quite rightly but this is yet another good day to bury bad news. Surely nobody could possibly be critical of our soldiers when the body of the most senior officer killed since the Falklands is returned for burial.
Any soldier who was in the original Aghan occupation in 2001 will tell you that it was because of the Iraq war that we took our eye off the ball. This all comes from Iraq, all the problems, Afghanistan would not be the problem it is today if it were not for Iraq. In the meantime I thought that Hutton's performance on the Andrew Marr show on Sunday was an absolute disgrace, he ought to be ashamed of himself. I think he has cut and run, and I don't know how he can look in the mirror in the morning. You would never believe that Brown had made this man responsible for Defence. Well that is what I think anyway.
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All quangos should go they are the bain of freedom.
The first to go should be LEA's give their powers to school headteachers and the cash too.
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Quangos will stay, and grow - especially after this next general election. Because without Quangos, where on earth will all those now disgraced and soon-to-be out-of-work Westminster MPs be able to claim their next tranche of expenses?
What's the betting that Cameron will set up a multi-billion pound Quango to research which Quangos will get the chop?
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One thing I particularly object to is the self-perpetuating nature of quangos, who often spend public money on campaigns justifying their own existence. I offer "Safety Camera Partnerships" as a perfect example - your money and mine spent by highly paid people on PR & Marketing campaigns suggesting that they need more money and are effective. Another feature of Quangos that annoys is their often unhealthy symbiotic relationship with commercial interests. Again using the Speed Tax quangos as an example, the companies that manufacture speed cameras and laser guns are often unhealthily involved in the affairs and activities of Scamera Partnerships in a way that they could never get away with a democratic politician, and visa versa.
The final thing that really annoys seems to be that way that some quangos, the ones tasked with 'Developing use of IT in Wales' and the like, seem to have become an excellent and entirely self serving mechanism for spending an absolute fortune of public money to deliver tiny sums of cash to entirely the wrong people in unhelpful ways. We criticise the water companies for the leaks in their distribution network, but by comparison to the average distributive quango's 'money pipes', the water companies are all as watertight as a hippo's... bottom.
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David Cameron is not going to do much about QUANGOS he will not commit to freezing the pay of the QUANGOS and if he his not going tackle the pay rates of QUANGOS he is not going get rid of a lot of them
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# 3
Yes excellentcatblogger politicians are hypocrites and should never be allowed to get away with defining racism in their terms. Labour only slam the BNP because doing so makes them appear non-racist but by definition war is racism, and Labour have quite a love of warfare. They then get caught in the trap of fighting insurgents and then killing civilians, but what do they expect when an Afghan with a spade is a cilvilian and one who swaps the spade for an AK47 is Taliban ? Even worse when one who twists wires together is never an identifiable insurgent.
A soldier is a soldier and a target 24 hours a day whereas an insurgent may only be a Taliban for an hour or two a day and will be with his family for quite a bit of that time. Making the rules of engagement complex will only keep the body count of soldiers high. No one worried too much about civilian casualties in the second world war. If the problem is so great that war is the solution, then it should be persecuted with serious intent otherwise I foresee an ignominious withdrawal.
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Another sign of quangoism is the off-loading of any difficult subject to a public inquiry. These can absorb huge amounts of time and money without making anyone very much wiser. The Saville inquiry on Bloody Sunday and the Butler inquiry on Iraq WMD are prominent cases, but there are many more. Labour demanded public inquiries on a number of controversial subjects before the 1997 election, as a stick to beat the Tories, to the point where it got monotonous. Since they came to power, they've used them time and again to avoid accountability for their own mistakes. Time for change.
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The FSA is a waste of space.
Apparently the financial industry is under tripartite oversight.
That would make all three parties useless, so getting rid of one of them would hardly be noticed.
Three quangos doing one job that all three failed at. I bet Quangos reward failure too.
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Dear Mr O' Neill,
There are some interesting comments relating to Yes Minister and the episode 'Jobs for the Boys' in http://moralorder.mediumisthemess.com/blog
take a look at the comments section
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If quangos were a few good people who really knew their stuff they would be ok.
When this business kicked off years ago I looked at applying for some of the technology related ones. I thought with years of real world business tech experience I would have a good chance.
But everyone I saw advertised asked for significant local or central government experience.
Result...the quangos are a bunch of people who know the establishment and get paid for who they know over what they know.
Can we find a way of employing the real experts instead of anybody whos a mate of someone in politics?
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I think Cameron is going for an easy target with Quango's but he at least opening the debate about where the government is spending money.
Given that Labour throws money around with litte evidence of improvement in services other than the figures fiddled to meet targets and a high level of opacity to stave off criticism the debate is long over due.
There has been little attempt away from the unions affected to evaluate the costs of PFI's and contracting out of essential services. Or any questioning of the increasing expectation of business to be subsidised or bailed out.
Privatisation of the utilities is another area of huge subsidy £9bn to the energy companies - rail operaters recieve millions etc. Again no evaluation of this policy or questioning of whether is is acceptable for for profit making companies to pay shareholder dividends when they can't make a profit without huge subsidies.
If business wants a free market then they should operate in one and that means they survive or not by the rules of the free market i.e. competition.
If essential services cannot be met in the free market ( and there is no evidence they can) then we need to find another way.
At the moment the cpaitalism rather than being wealth creating is acting as a cancer - drawing all resources to propping it up and the rest of us just pay a great deal more for a great deal less.
Quango's are just only one of the wasteful areas of public finfnaces. Lets oopen the whole area up to scrutiny and evaluation. Not jsut cherry pick as Cameron is doing.
Time to analyse the evidence of the Thatcher experiment and sound the death knell for private profit at public cost.
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Wasn't there a wrestler in the 60's called Johnny Quango?
The quango topic appears to have touched a nerve and good riddance to them I say.
Did anyone see the DFID SOS Douglas Alexandra on the BBC news earlier today. He needs to wakeup and smell the coffee.
I think the 500million pounds each year the DFID throw down the drain could be put to better useage here in the UK??
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Please please pleaseeeeee not Anne Diamond for an MP. This really would be too much to bear.Why not get Nick as well then the whole thing would be a farce
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Brilliant show today Andrew, even though Anita was not in her boots! serious point made in respect of the people who actually end-up working for these QUANGOs. How do you actually get on one, what is the process of application for the job. You were quite right in asking exactly which ones will go, however, if the ones to go were named then they of course would employ a whole new load of media people to justify the existance of the QUANGO. If we lose the Ashes to the Australians then of course there must be QUANGO for the perpetual winning of the Ashes to preserve our sporting supremacy. Same with the Football World Cup, there must be a QUANGO to identify why we have not the cup since 1966, and then for the one and only time.
However, there must be a QUNGO to identify who our enemies are in the world. For example, Hutton on Sunday on the ANdrew Marr continues to make the totally false allegation that we are in Afghanistan to keep the terrorist off our streets, that if we were to withdraw our soldiers from the killing fields that somehow war would break-out on the streets of Britain.
As for my final QUANGO it is the one which would monitor inquiries, like into MG Rover, which take millions of pounds, take four years, then are not printed because we will now get the SFO to look into what the report says, although we are not to see it. Could we not have a leak of the report. The other inquiry the QUANGO could look in to is the Bloody Sunday Inquiry, now that also needs QUANGOing.
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It seems to me that many of our MPs don't exactly have a lot to do, so instead of Quangos why not have committees of MPs appointed equally across the parties [Lib Dems would be busy!] to replace them. Their wages are already paid for and there should be expert advice within the civil service.
The present government has created a political elite of the inner cabinet and outside cronies in the private sector who have reaped huge financial benefits - they have by passed the civil service in favour of their cronies - perhaps with future employment in mind?
What is the point of a democracy, when the government by passes our representatives?
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It helps the debate if people actually know how many quangos exist, what they're called and what they do. THe numbers and names, at least, can be found here:
[Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator]
The Ministry of Justice seems to be particularly bloated, and it's quite easy to find quangos that seem to be doing similar jobs throughout the departments. For instance, do we really need individual border commissions for England, Scotland and Wales, or could a UK-wide one do the same job more effectively? Do we really need separate organisations for national museums, or could they be merged?
Some of these seem to do have genuine reasons for existing (many of the cultural ones spring to mind), so it would be important to ensure that it really is unnecessary jobs that are being culled and that merged quangos still covered as much as the separate quangos; but there are surely a lot of highly-paid positions that wouldn't be needed if these quangos were more wide-ranging.
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The biggest Quango, and the most expensive to the UK tax payer, is Europe. On the subject of our continent, watching Brown and Sarkozy (sar)cosying up is disgusting. Brown will be doing it with Berlusconi next, and we all know where that leads. This is the man who turned up late for the signing ceremony but refused the people of UK (I have stopped saying the British people after the last subject's flipped debate about Scottish independence) a referendum as promised in his mate's manifesto (the same mate who said "e tu Brownus?" as the knife went in).
If European leaders think that they can use Brown as a way of stalling any move against the treaty (as the Times suggests today) they should think about how such a move would be seen by the British electorate who, like me, dont like Brown, but dislike Europe even more. So when we eventually get a vote on Europe as we inevitably will even Cameron's renegotiation of terms will be a bit short of what a lot of us want.
I dont want to vore for UKIP and I hope Cameron does include Europe in his list of Quangos, and that he can get over the sad fact that even talking about Europe has cost the Tories the last three elections. This is too important a time to fudge the most important issue of our time.
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Andrew,
the political parties seem to think that if there is a parade by the returning soldiers from Afghanistan then that means that we support the occupation. Will people understand that there is no country called Afghanistan, it is tribal, has been tribal and alwys will be tribal. If you are continually having foreign forces invade you, they hang around a bit, do a bit of something then disappear to be replaced by another group of invaders who come in, do something then disappear, then imagine how you would react.
The sign of when we have 'won' is when the first British soldier, meets a local woman, falls in love and then marries her and is accepted into the local community. Now this is never going to happen, we cannot avoid the fact that we are foreign invaders, that we are not welcome, that these people are just freedom fighters, resistance fighters, or whatever, we are the aggressor, if it is anywhere that should be invaded it is Saudi Arabia, that is where bin Laden came from, oh I forgot we need the oil, what is it Brown wanted to break, oh yes that's right the dictatorship of oil, another famous one like 'British jobs for British workers'.
There is absolutely no point in being in Afghanistan, there really isn't it. The lives of coalition forces are being wasted, this is not about hearts and minds, it is about killing people.
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Oh come on, a URL pointing to the Civil Service website is "unsuitable"? Get a grip!
Anyone interested in finding out who all the quangos are, I would suggest typing "list of non-departmental public bodies" into your favourite search engine, and it should lead you to the PDF listing the 790 NDPBs which the BBC apparently thinks is inappropriate, despite being hosted on a governmental website.
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I think yet again the Tories are slipping inextricable back into SPIN. Getting rid of trident is a ploy, and will not happen under the Tories. Just more of the same old rhetoric from Cameron to appeal to the voters!
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As usual Cameron's sounds "Holier than Thou" only to be shown to be a hypocrit. Some decison's have to be seen to free of politcal interfearence. Of course that's a bit difficult to achieve when the biggest politcal decison of all is how much they have to spend! What decisions should be made by quango's are itself a political one. The Tories are behaving like the Republican's in the USA, any decesion they don't agree is wrong in principle, not a question of political choice. So the Tories will chose to have a different set of quango's and try to give the impression that the government is plain wrong to have a different group from theirs.
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#22
"There is absolutely no point in being in Afghanistan, there really isn't it. The lives of coalition forces are being wasted, this is not about hearts and minds, it is about killing people."
No one dare mention it but I believe that a new form of "Domino Theory" is at work. That was used to justify Vietnam, the argument being if Vietnam fell to Communism then so would the rest of indochina. The worry has to be if we don't keep the Taliban focussed on killing a few troops in afghanistan, then they will take control of Afghanistan again. But this time it would be followed by Pakistan, and then Chetnia to the North. The spread of influence could even get to China where Muslim demonstrators where bloodily put down this weekend. The spread of the Taliban would then allow Al Qadea to be revitalised and increase the risk of a major attack in the West.
Any deaths are regretable. If it where the police at work at home we wouldn't put some time scale on their work against drugs, terrorism etc, or throw in the towel becuase some where getting killed. In the same period that the USA has been in afghanistan I bet a lot of US Police,DEA etc have died fighting a continuing war on drugs that also seems unwinable. One can only imagine what the consequnces of them stopping that would be.
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I'm sick of London House Prices being used to justify a higher wage for MP's, which was implied by Anne Diamond. Some MP's live in London anyway. Are they to get this new higher salery as well? All this when whe are still complaining about what Bankers get etc, and talking of a wage freeze for Public Workers. I also dislike the idea of elitism, that the country should be run by people vetted by the likes of Cameron Mechenzie. That sounds like Iran, where you can only vote for candiates selected from the Great and Good by the Great and Good. We might as well get rid of the Commons and lets the Lords run the country, perhaps with Lord Mechenzie as Prime Minister!
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I earnestly hope that D.C will reduce the number of 'QUANGOS', yet I equally share the scepticism of others when any opposition leader starts this up.
D.C wants to establish 17 new ones, any they do have practical and useful reasons all 17. But what I think needs to be done now is detail. Yes detail- some examples; say 17; of which they intend to cut/abolish or otherwise reduce.
Again I hope Mr Cameron does push ahead with this and outline some details as I for one would enjoy seeing my tax payers money being placed into the hands of democratically elected members (this way we the electors can hold them to account for their actions).
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#23 KingDouglasD
links to PDF are virtually always removed - presumably because you need to have Adobe Reader installed. See their House Rules. (I agree it's very frustrating!)
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TAG re my post and your reply on "the joke's on us'
I have just read your reply regarding the Scottish MP's voting etc.,
Don't think you will find it on Parliament site as it was a discussion on Radio 4 with two MP's being interviewed on that programme.
Sorry if I didn't explain properly - sometimes Radio 4 have a "listen again" slot - you might catch it there.
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#29 oldnat
Yeah, I found out that was the problem when I checked my emails. Bit of an odd rule since the BBC often links to reports that are in PDF format (while telling you the file is much smaller than it really is).
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Another idea that fell by the way side by 15:00 today
It just shows that the Tories will say anything to get elected
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#31 KingDouglasD
Funnily enough I was reading the 2006 and 2008 Public Bodies documents earlier.
So I will try this:
CivilService siite.
You will find the latest 2008 Public Bodies document link is the topmost one. Beneath that is an archive of other Public Bodies documents, in both PDF and MSWORD format, going back to 1998.
If it fails at least I have tried.
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s croft @ prior 215
thanks for that reply, Susan, but I'm afraid I've moved on now ... we all have ... to getting rid of Quangos
is that normal for you, btw, crashing off to bed when a bloke is in the middle of talking to you about the ins and outs of Devolution? - was just getting warmed up
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#Susan & Saga
Nice to see the sparring continues - have been back tracking over the last few days posts with some amusement.
... is this what is known as a love - hate relationship?
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I enjoyed the Labour Party Broadcast.
The NHS was originated by the Labour Party you know.
Factually correct, uncontroversial but somewhat belated to tell us now.
Unfortunately they had to add that they got one cancer hospital's savings bank from Iceland.
Oh dear - they felt the need to remind us. One of our overpaid NHS bureaucrats took a punt with hospital money on an Icelandic bank (I use the term bank in a general sense) that overfed on UK packaged worthless securities. Labour retaliated with Anti-Terrorist legislation, 'cause the army's a bit stretched at the moment, and beat the daylights out of them until they coughed up the dosh.
They took great credit for their action, ignoring the fact that they took a slightly different line with UK banks, but they were 'Johnny Foreigner' after all. Maybe it's not counted as racism if the foreigners are white.
Their point appeared to be that they paid the NHS lots of dosh - and unnaccountably the NHS send it off to Iceland. It could have been worse I suppose. It could have gone to Bernie Madoff.
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Can any of my fellow bloggers tell me which quango looks after the PFI schools?!
The Devon County Council have missed another FOI deadline,i.e. they were supposed to inform me by June 25th if they held Lightning Protection System test results for their HO at County Hall.
Not a difficult question, me thinks. It would be nice for me to send them a quick polite email reminding them of their FOI remit, but unfortunately ,I am STILL banned.
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35 meninwhitecoats
Saga still owes me the intro fee.
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York1900
"It shows that the Tories will say anything to get elected."
In reality they dont need to say anything to get elected. Come 2010, or earlier if Brown tries to cut and run, the election will be fought on Tony Blair's and Gordon Brown's record over the past twelve years. They dont allow you here to write 50 pages on New Labour's deceit, spin, promises made and broken, boom and bust, debt, interest on debt, lost records, back-stabbing, unemployment, claims of saving the world, stealth taxes, child poverty. That will do for the first small portion of page one and the other 49+ pages will be on Twitter. it will be a fitting tribute to the worst government of my life - even worse than John Major's and that is saying something.
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QUANGO EXPENSES CLAIMS
Doesn't the thought of that just make your mouth water ,so come on Daily Telegraph,get stuck into the Quango Expenses Claims??!!
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#38 xtunbridge
Hope you struck a good deal
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Well known US Contractor faces fraud allegations in the US for IRAQ works which has led to the deaths of several US marines via electricution in the showers.
This same US contractor is responsbile for several large UK projects currently ongoing and are supplying the all singing, all dancing computor system for the NHS.
Company is KBR.
Just do a google search under KBR fraud allegations,plenty to choose from
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Ben Bradshaw Legacy as SoS for the NHS.
I would envisage the 12billion pound NHS IT system is the most expensive boondoogle in the Labour Party history but I am sure my fellow bloggers will no doubt correct me if there is a more expensive white elephant out there anywhere.
I met Ben Bradshaw over a 6weeks ago at a meeting in Exeter and he promised to meet with me to discuss several ongoing issues,e.g. PFI schools, Chad Pipeline and 1 or 2 other issues.
Needless to say,I am still waiting but to his credit,he has not banned me from his email list yet??!!
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FINANCIAL CLOSEOUT OF EXETER PFI SCHOOLS.
I know we have some financial wizzkids on this blog and I now appeal to their fiscal knowledge and expertize, with a very simple question.
IS IT POSSIBLE TO ACHIEVE A FINANCIAL CLOSEOUT OF A CAPITOL BUDGET PROJECT (300MILLION POUNDS) WITHOUT A PROJECT AGREEMENT (PA).
And to assist these guys, the answer in Devon is Yes, because 6 PFI schools have been built and financial closeout achieved sometime ago WITHOUT the Project Agreement.
For the uninitiated amongest us, the Project Agreement is the contract between the Government Funders and the Prime Contractors.
In my view, fiscal closeout cannot and should not be achieved until the Project Agreement is approved and placed on record.
Little wonder I cannot obtain the PFI documents via the FOI Act??!! and little wonder Ben Bradshaw doesn't want to talk to me and little wonder the Tory MP wannabe for Exeter is dragging her heels??!!
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sc ... in a bizarre twist, your reply to me @ 239 prior has been referred to mods! ... but it's okay because I can remember every single word
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Further to my last post #44 ref PFI Financial close without a Project Agreement.
I am happy to report that I have been succesful in my research to find a copy of a Project Agreement for a PFI Hospital in Fife at the St Andrews Hospital in Fife and anyone wishing to look at this document can do a simple google search under that title.
I have skimmed thru this document very quickly and I can confirm that the DCC,Dep of Education, Ed Balls, Ben Bradshaw and a host of other punters are in the preverbiall DEEP SH--.
No person applying a right and proper mind would authorise the Financial closeout of the Exeter Schools WITHOUT a Project Agreement.
Obviously, the Scottish Local Authorities have nothing to hide and have published a copy of the PA for the New St Andrews Hospital.
Just for the record,I have discovered this document since my posting #44??!!
OK guys, stand by please ,no don't switch that fan on yet??!! Too late
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Ref Exeter PFI schools.
If the financial closeout of the 6 PFI schools in Exeter took place in the absence of the Project Agreement (PA), it would raise some very serious questions indeed.
1. Why and how was the financial closeout agreed by the DCC and the Independent Auditors.
2.How and why were the periodical QA/QC audits approved.
3.How did the schools obtain Public Liability Insurance.
4.How did the Final Acceptance Certificate get approved.
5.How was the Building Appoval certificates approved.
6.Why and how were the schools commissioned.
7.How did the local authority get their budget approved and audited.
Too many unanswered questions but I feel Iam making a wee bit of progress.
No, please don't touch that fan, ah, never mind,too late.
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45 saga
Bizarre is the word. 239 when we are only on 45 ?
Did a bit of deducing and went previous and found your point but was intrigued to see the Anglo-Caledonian war is ongoing there.
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sagmix 45
Why would anyone have that post referred there was nothing in it at all which was offensive to anyone. This seems to be happening too often now.
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Ref Susan Croft's # 49.
I agree with you about the MODS and I think they have targeted me more than anyone else on the blog, they appear to be inconsistent.
Sagamix #45.
Don't worry about the contents of your post because if the mods bin your blog,you should receive full content and explanation by email which will give you a written record at least. Are you receiving this email?
I have kept ALL my banned entries and one day, the BBC may have to give an explanation??!!
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XEXXONMOBIL 50
It is not the MODS who are having my posts removed xexxon thats what Saga is saying I believe.
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This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the House Rules.
York 1900
"It shows that the Tories will do anything to get elected"
Further to my post at 39 on the disastrous record of New Labour, I didnt have to wait long to hear Frank Field reminding us this morning of another back bench revolt over the 10p tax rate(that one went on the back burner when Gordon said sorry). It follows fast on the heels of the last revolt on the Gurkhas. According to Field there are 1m of the lowest paid who have still lost out under the 10p tax rate and the government solution to put it right. Yet New Labour, which talks about Tories taking from the poor to give to the rich (and I believe has increased inheritance tax threshold by doubling it for married couples and partners to over £600k) still claims itself to be the party looking after the poor.
There is also news that there are 19 murderers out there who should be back in prison plus a sackload of other criminals in the same delirious state currently enjoying freedom as are those MPs who have undoubtedly committed crimes of fraud that would have seen any of us committed. I think it was Susan on an earlier blog who said she was worried about the breakdown in law and order and did not feel safe - if it was someone else I apologise. Yet Biggs, for whom I hold no candle, has served 10 years for a much lesser crime than murder, and cannot be released because Jack Straw wants to show himself to be tough on crime. Tough on an old man who is infirm, and although not very nice, a victim of naked retribution. I want our streets returned to us rather than to the criminaalss - that is tough on crime.
New Labour is at best a fraud, at worst a bunch of incompetents affecting all our lives in a negative way. I am not a Tory (see 39 on what I thought of John Major) but I want to see the back of this discredited bunch of ne'er-do-weels (Sc).
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Ref Susan Crofts #51
Sorry Susan if I have got the wrong end of the stick but the MODS have kicked me into touch again ref my post# 52 which was a copy of my email to Ben Bradshaw. The mods said it was OFF TOPIC which is nonsense but I will repost on the other topics.My latest post which they binned was the same tpic as my post in 44,46 and 47.
I trust you are keeping well. I feel I am making some progress at long last on the PFI front because of the obvious lack of the Project Agreement (PA).
In the event of the PA absence, the schools have been operating in a legal void since they were commissioned.Bit like the Chad ppeline really??!!
Take care and don't let them grind you down.
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"#8. At 11:34am on 06 Jul 2009, Ken Haylock wrote:
One thing I particularly object to is the self-perpetuating nature of quangos, who often spend public money on campaigns justifying their own existence. I offer "Safety Camera Partnerships" as a perfect example - your money and mine spent by highly paid people on PR & Marketing campaigns suggesting that they need more money and are effective."
I couldn't agree more Ken
The safety camera partnerships are a law unto themselves, the claims they make are absurd and focus entirely on what a speed camera is 'supposed' to be able to do, meanwhile, targets and funding are neglected for CPO's to perform 'active' road policing and all the crime that speed cameras simply do not address is on the increase, drink and drug drive being the most obvious examples with a jump in 'hit and run' collisions which would suggest that the driver shouldn't be on the road in the first place.
The only claim the camera partnerships make is that collisions reduce at camera sites, which is hardly surprising when you look down at the nice new very expensive hi-grip tarmac that's laid at camera sites, which replaces the worn out super slippey shiney stuff that caused the increase in collisions to start with.
As you say, the manufacturers are very involved in this particular quango and indeed have a vested interest in it's continuation.
That's just one quango, these blogs are too short to complain about them all.
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Perhaps the whole quango thing is a "cunning plan". Quango's focus on one thing and through publicty etc make sure those who can benefit from them get to know about their service. Now take the same function and bury it in the Civil Service. They will not publisise their services and end up with huge amounts of unused Grant Aid etc. The Tories will then be saving millions without making a single cut.
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Croftie
Saga
Had you noticed that after a succesion of modded posts Invader Zim has disappeared ?
THe Mods do seem to have got a bit heavy lateley, any reason ?
Does one that has been posted and then referred by a moaner ever get reinstated do you know ?
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XXEXONMOBIL 54
Thanks XXEXON that really kind of you, its you I admire you have such tenacity I really do not know how you keep it up. Your get knocked back constantly and still keep going.
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xTunbridge 57
No they never get reinstated.
What I dislike is when someone thinks you are winning the argument they then start referring your posts as happened in this case.
I miss Zim actually because a lot of his posts were very funny at times.
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meninwhitecoats 35
Nice to have you back, to be honest I am completely confused about what sort relationship we have. I have never come across anyone like it before.
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61 Croftie
Tut tut , Sag will be hopping mad !
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Questions I have often asked on political blog sites that are never answered.
So here goes
How many QUANGO members are relatves of MPs or senior civil sevants?.
Why are these jobs not advertised?
Who appoints these people?
Why are they allways appointed without the knowledge of the electorate?
Is it yet another example of the old boy/girl network?
Some time ago it was alledged that David Mellor (ex MPs) wife was on quite a few Quangoes. If this was in fact true how did she get these appointments and why did she get on more than one quango?
Are any of the cabinet or shaddow cabinets relations on quangoes and if so why?
I doubt if you will answer any of these questions for the BBC is after all only a spin machine for the establishment and if you rock the boat you may well be replaced.
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Ref 58 Susan Croft
Tenacity is my middle name Susan and I feel I am closing the net ref the PFI schools a wee bit. The other issues might take a little time.
kind regards
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susan @ 60
to be honest I am completely confused about what sort of relationship we have
well right now, I'd say McMurphy/Nurse Ratched (OFOTCN) with a touch of Compo/Nora Batty (LOTSW) - but evolving all the time and that's the main thing, isn't it?
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xexonmobil
You are obviously practised at progessing your concerns but I wonder if you advise every Chief Officer who is the "top man" in the area of your concern that as you have drawn the failings to their attention any subsequent failure of , say a building, leading to death or injury could see them in prison as once they know it is then reasonably forseeable.
This used to work for me in the 70s/80s when I wanted things done in my workplace. H&SAW is a pass the parcel game . The last manager to be told who has done nothing gets the go to jail card. I found Chief Officers did not like this prospect and things happened pdq.
Hope this helps.
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Ref 65
Thanks XTunbridge and sorry for not getting back to you sooner. I hear what you say but that would mean waiting for a death or serious injury before someone takes notice of me. I am trying to avoid such an incident and a lot of my drum banging, will ,I hope be heard in time to "prevent" such an incident.
I have time on my side and I will keep banging the drum and trying to get data via the FOI. I am currently awaiting FOI data for one of the PFI schools which is currently with the FOI, what the delays are,I don't know but I have a feeling that the FOI Commissioner( is he a quango?) is getting twitchy, because he realise he has dropped a clanger on a previous decision against me in respect of the ERMDS. The 2nd FOI from my local authority I am awaiting is the Lightning Protection System Test results for the last 10 years on their HQ. I won't go into this too deep until I get the results (if I get them).
The biggest problem with the PFI is the FACT there appears to be no Project Agreement for the schools,hence, it is slowly turning from a debacle to an embarrasing boondoogle for my local authority.
My tasks as an active whistleblower are not easy with no email connection to my local government authority but until they take me seriously and disprove my allegations,I will keep the tap dripping.
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