Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2010 | Page 12

andrew turner mp

Island Life - October/November 2010

Andrew
Turner

A Bonfire of the
QUANGOS
With the financial pressures
facing the UK, the public are
unsure and wary of where
the cuts will fall. More
details will come in October,
but there is one certainty severe cuts for QUANGOs
– the inelegant acronym for
the even more inelegantly
named QUasi-Autonomous
Non-Governmental
Organisations.
Under successive governments there has
been an ‘if in doubt create a QUANGO’
mentality. The number of these
organisations has soared to nearly a
thousand, landing us with a bill of £170
billion a year - more than five times the
budget of the Ministry of Defence.
Some QUANGOs do provide a
valuable service, allowing Government
Departments to out-source important
work, but too many aspects of public
life have been taken over by QUANGO
culture. They engage in empire
building, plough through public money
and are at the heart of key decisions,
but are completely unaccountable to
the public. They effectively have the
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power to tax you and make decisions

freebies. How does that contribute

for you, but need not ask you if you

to its remit of helping UK companies

like it. In an age of political apathy

to grow internationally and support

and mistrust the way in which these

businesses seeking to set-up in the UK?

undemocratic bodies operate needs to

Government departments and local

be completely rethought.

councils will soon be required to

Aside from the lack of accountability,

publish all expenditure over £500

QUANGOs have an amazing ability to

on-line, allowing the public to check

waste money. They spend millions

how their taxes are being spent, that

of taxpayers’ hard-earned pounds on

should be extended to all organisations

whims and pointless projects. They

that spend public money. Transparency

fail to co-ordinate their work and that

and democratic accountability should

often leads to several bodies getting

consign such excesses to history.

paid to do the same things. The

I hope the government builds a

Carbon Trust was given over £80 million

very big bonfire of some of the more

to advise how the Government and

pointless QUANGOs.

businesses could reduce their carbon

cuts are bad!

Not all spending

footprint, whilst Envirowise was given
over £20 million for, as you may have
guessed, the same job. This is all
while the Energy Saving Trust spends
over £40 million telling us at home
how to lower our carbon footprint.
Worthy aims perhaps – but efficient
use of public money? Most people
would say not.
There is also money clearly wasted,
such as the £12,000 spent by UK
Trade and Investment for its own
branded golf balls given out as
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