Why Those Quangoes Cost So Much

I am not Mark Wadsworth.

The last government's attempt to spend their way out of a recession was, it seems, all about creating jobs and not just any jobs but, specifically, white-collar jobs, in quangoes, the most expensive jobs of all. Instead of spending the money on something constructive, so that the nation would have something to show for its expenditure, like transport or IT infrastructure or creating jobs "at the sharp end", the area that really saw the increase was the middle-class bureaucrat, despite much lip service being paid to increasing the number of policemen, nurses and other working class public servants.

The result has been that we now have a vast pyramid of bureaucrats and none of that vast pyramid give a stuff about money, because it's not their money at stake. On any publicly-funded contract, no-one cares, not the client, not the financial controller, not the contract administrator, not the designer.

The only one who cares is the poor bloody contractor, the little bit of private enterprise at the bottom, because it is his money at stake. If he makes a mistake, he puts it right at his expense; if anyone in the pyramid makes a mistake, it's put right at the nation's expense. If the contract is a disaster, even if it is their fault, they will get a mild rap over the knuckles but the contractor, even if he is not at fault, is liable to go bust.

So a working class public servant costs the country their wages, but the middle class bureaucrat has the ability to cost the country far, far more than their salary and all too frequently does so.