You know when you've been quango-ed

摘要

The Government's 'war on quangos' has destroyed such pillars of bureaucracy as the Film Council and the National Policing Improvement Agency. Who cares whether Steve McQueen (a beneficiary of funding from the Film Council) wins any more Oscars; as for the police, Theresa May is sorting them out. Some 300 or so quangos have been culled, saving a couple of billion pounds. However, the figures are squidgy. The Canal and River Trust still walks and talks like a quango - how many councils have noticed any significant change since British Waterways was abolished and a giant charity took over? Claimed savings mostly come from one source - the abolition of the regional development agencies. Local government had a chequered relationship with these big quangos but with their replacement, the local enterprise partnerships, councils have acquired a dubious 'partnership' with bodies that are business-run and unaccountable, together with a severe reduction in the funds available for growing local economies.