Daniel Hannan MEP

[parm]

MEPs = oxygen thiefs

useful idiots there to give the illusion of democracy on a europe wide basis - see also British MPs on a more local level.

there are two types of societies one where people KNOW there ruled by a dictatorship and another that is but has the illusion of choice i.e republicans and democrats - both bought and paid for a long long time ago

[rowley2]

Quango's have indeed been used by both the Labour and Tory Governments. They are mainly a cover for weak government, where a Government decision is implemented by a Quango, (Quangos never of course do anything other than the government's bidding), and said government claims "it's nothing to do with us".

It is just another way in which power has been taken completely away from the people. Governments LOVE Quangos, it allows them to give the impression of activity.

This government, and the previous one, both approached different elections with a promise of reforming these self serving organisations, even using the same phrase, "A bonfire of the Quangos" was to be had. They also both had the same answer once they were elected; form more Quangos!

[supernaut1968]

Originally Posted by jaxaxe

Has anyone got any positive experiences of quangos ?

But you're basing it on 4 quangos that you've worked with, there's a lot more out there who do a good job.

You can't say "I know 4 that are crap, so they must all be crap".

That's like saying you went to Tescos the other day, the service was bit shite, so all therefore, all supermarkets must be shite".

Believe me, the people that will suffer over this are the ones just like us lot on here, i.e. the ordinary staff.

As for positive experiences of quangos, have you heard of anyone who's received lottery funding? What about all the projects for kids, sports, healthy living, or sending war veterans back to battlefields?

This type of thing is run by quangos and you can't say that's shite.

[Sideshow Bob2]

Originally Posted by jaxaxe

Has anyone got any positive experiences of quangos ?

Aye, I got absolutely twatted watching the election debates by having a shot every time Call Me Dave mentioned them.

[jaxaxe]

Originally Posted by supernaut1968

But you're basing it on 4 quangos that you've worked with, there's a lot more out there who do a good job.

You can't say "I know 4 that are crap, so they must all be crap".

That's like saying you went to Tescos the other day, the service was bit shite, so all therefore, all supermarkets must be shite".

Believe me, the people that will suffer over this are the ones just like us lot on here, i.e. the ordinary staff.

As for positive experiences of quangos, have you heard of anyone who's received lottery funding? What about all the projects for kids, sports, healthy living, or sending war veterans back to battlefields?

This type of thing is run by quangos and you can't say that's shite.

Since the 1980's, the number of civil servants and miscellaneous quangoid lifeforms involved in education must have quadrupled at the very least.

One dread to thinks how much is been topsliced from school, college and university budgets to pay for these, given that much of what they do seems to be self-justifying bureaucracy that adds nothing at the chalk face.

Although I work routinely with four quangos, my working life must be touched/blighted by at least a dozen more.

I hear the same story from friends working in the NHS, police and social work. We've also had spitfire's input on this thread, confirming the same picture.

The experience in all fields is uniformly the same: overbureaucratised, bent on self-justification, adding nothing to the front line while subtracting resources. The fact that they are now using public money to hire political lobbyists to try and persuade government to give them yet more public money to waste adds insult to injury.

Originally Posted by supernaut1968

But you're basing it on 4 quangos that you've worked with, there's a lot more out there who do a good job.

You can't say "I know 4 that are crap, so they must all be crap".

That's like saying you went to Tescos the other day, the service was bit shite, so all therefore, all supermarkets must be shite".

Believe me, the people that will suffer over this are the ones just like us lot on here, i.e. the ordinary staff.

As for positive experiences of quangos, have you heard of anyone who's received lottery funding? What about all the projects for kids, sports, healthy living, or sending war veterans back to battlefields?

This type of thing is run by quangos and you can't say that's shite.

You don't say what you base your defence of the quangos on.

The only two posters on this thread offering any empirical observation on the performance of quangos are spitfire and myself, and we both agree that the ones we deal with are crap. I have friends in other fields who confirm that my experience in my field isn't unusual.

What are you basing your defence on, other than dogma ?

[spitfire]

Funnily enough, i had a meeting yesterday with them and one of them has left and one of the other bods has taken over from him. So i now only have 3 of them to work with. Still overkill mind as i reckon one person could carry out their role. The dept they work for are anxious at the moment with regards funding and cuts and will know in October the true extent of what is happening to them. Funnily enough they were talking about already looking at a budget reduction of 15 million, and that this would mean less support from them for bigger business, rather than cutting operating costs. Read into that what you will.