List of axed quangos published

Quangos indeed! They sound rather odd and for most of them they were behavingly rather oddly too for most of their existence. They could be creatures that deserve a documentary to themselves. Rather like dingos, with commentary by Sir David Attenborough. We'd learn all about their habits and their peculiar social interaction. All from a standpoint that 192 of them were in the same evolutionary void as the dinosuars and the dodo.

I always thought that quangos were sort of sinecures plus. You didn't have to worry about too much and you needn't get too het up and bothered about much. Now they face the axe. 192 of them. My only concern is where the jobless quango workers will go. Some will be redeployed, but many will not.

Perhaps the government could tell us how many useful, properly funded jobs this country can afford both public and private. I bet the answer is way below the number that is needed to keep all and sundry happy.

My free swim goes up and down the swanee!

Just as I turn 60 and my wife tells me I could take advantage of a free swim to get a bit fitter, I see I won't be getting it after all. Well, OK, I could, but I can't see the point of filling out the forms only to be told "You've only got a couple of weeks, mate!" as if I'm the moron that hasn't quite grasped the point. I have grasped it, I think. And I'm not complaining. Free swimming is a luxury considering the times we're in, so the government has my support here. I'll pay as I go, or swim with the tide!

Is Britain going bust?

Gordon Brown's government is borrowing money as if it is of little or no consequence. They borrowed another £4.3bn last month to plug the growing hole in the UK's finances. Soon the amount owed will be too much for even penal taxation to repay. The country does not want increased taxes. It does not want job losses. So politicians try to follow a kind of Tommy Cooper routine with financial magic.

Private Fraser in Dad's Army comes to mind at the moment. Are we all doomed? How is Britain ever going to repay this cash. It seems the financial experts are filing into two opposing camps. Those that think the deficit should be tackled now annd those that think not. Lord Skidelsky thinks the other side is trying to "frighten" the public over the scale of the deficit. Lord Layard is an emeritus professor of economics at the London School of Economics, so he should know something about bean counting. He says Alistair Darling's plan for reducing the deficit was "sensible". The Conservatives, who believe in tackling the growing national debt have "Twenty leading economists, plus business leaders, including Richard Branson, who agree with us that the failure to have a credible plan to reduce the deficit threatens to undermine the recovery and push up interest rates. We are happy to have that debate with the government."

So are we, the public, to be docile bystanders whilst these two sides have a ding-dong about whether or not it is OK to have a colossal debt or not? I have long held the belief that having any number of degrees and qualifications is no bar to those who have a propensity for deviousness or political subterfuge. Having a doctorate does not stop a person from human desires such as greed.

It could be that the truth is nearer to the fact that Britain has exported jobs to countries like India, China and Brazil. We are beholden now to banks and their whims and fancies. At one time we had merchant banks who lent judiciously to businesses. Now we have investment banks who play a kind of Las Vegas game with other peoples money. If anyone attempts to enter the casino with the slightest whiff of censure, then the banking bigwigs scream blue murder and threaten to take the wheels of fortune elsewhere.

So we have blackmailing bankers encouraged by dubious financial experts who give investors the idea that things like mothballing steel plants is a good thing to do. If things get any worse, we may get riots outside these banks. Darling has only a short time to make any sense. What we don't want are prima donna pundits squabbling over who knows best. Everyone knows that if you borrow money you either pay it back or default. For a country, either way is going to be very painful indeed.

New Labour's healthy hypocrisy

New Labour is a political creed devoid of political fibre or philosophy. The only thing that holds it together is spin, subterfuge and a social climbing desire. Mostly it has an obnoxious self-righteousness about it.

David Cameron was recently lambasted by Alan Johnson because the Conservative leader dared to suggest that the NHS was being strangled by bureaucracy. Johnson sounded like a maiden aunt had been raped. He talks of 'deceit' and enters an arena for tittle-tattle and innuendo. Also, that sleazy minister Ben Bradshaw, the one who thinks Anglican prayers should have a decent element of buggery as a subject matter, came out all prissy about the Conservatives approach to health care.

Both these ministers are so wrapped up in big government that they can't see the little problems growing into much bigger ones. Now they've got a new report on their hands. The Care Quality Commission (another quango) has said that one in eight NHS trusts has been told it must urgently improve the care it provides. We're back to hygiene and safety again. Mike O'Brien, a health minister, blithely comments that the report states good things.

When it comes to the NHS this New Labour shower are a mixture of ostriches in a sand pit and Croesus on speed. Now there's a mind-boggling thought!

Weasel wordsmith Mandelson!

Listening to Lord Mandelson on the Today Programme one wonders if he believes the British public will be conned by his slippery ways. He uses the mantra "wise spenders, not big spenders", and goes on to denounce the Tories by wildly fantasising on what a Conservative government would do. All fantasy. He suggests Conservatives will introduced private health, cut costs like some crazed hedge-cutter on speed, and generally spite the poor.

If anyone has done these things or attempted to do these things then it is the mortgage-fiddling Mandelson and his New Labour government. If we believe him, we are fools indeed!

Snow Sanity!

I walked to school today with the children. We were looking at Solihull Council's website until it was time to go. No "closure agenda" on for us. So we walked to school, but as we got nearer there were parents telling us that the schools were just shutting up shop. I walked on to find out the reality of it all.

One of the schools was actually open, technically, but "it was up to parents to decide whether they wanted their children to stay". The general gist of all this is that the chief executive had passed the responsibility for decision making onto the headteachers who were then left to impart to the assembled parents/carers/guardians that the final decision was theirs.

I'm not sure if I'm angry, sad or just bemused. We all walked or got there despite the snow. In fact everyone I spoke to thought there was no problem. However, the assumption is that snow is problematic. I can assure you that it is not so in Solihull today. We have a chief executive who appears to see snow as an automatic reason to close schools regardless. The assumption is that teachers cannot get in. They are the only ones in the workforce with this pre-existing difficulty. But I would have thought that, as a precautionary measure, teachers are asked whether they can get in if there is snow, so alternative arrangements can be made. (Always assuming that the roads are gritted, etc).

It is said that the playgrounds are unsafe for the children (for health and safety reasons) but not a finger has been lifted to clear them of snow. Independent schools carry on as normal, so why should the local education authorities think they are any different? If these chief executives cared about health and safety they would clear the snow from the playgrounds.

Now a sense of proportion would be nice, but I doubt that that is possible. If we have blizzards and everything generally resembles the Arctic, then nobody would or should demure from proaction. But it seems the chief executive works from closures first and then hopes that Mother Nature will bail him out. All the local government chief executives have been mumbling about snow and how this curse has suddenly afflicted them, rather like the Lady of Chalot. But an elementary geography lesson would tell them that wintry conditions like these are not a rarity in Britain. So no forward planning, no contingency arrangements, just a rough idea that things will get better if the sun shines! They are squabbling about salt and gritting supplies. Luckily Solihull has plenty, so the website tells us, but not enough for the schools to stay open apparently.

So what have I learned from all this? I think -

1. That local authorities close first in order to save money and have an easy life.
2. That nobody asks teachers if they would have any problems getting in should there be snow.
3. That independent schools generally take the opposite approach.
4. That playgrounds are deemed unimportant for snow clearance.
5. That there is no forward planning, or any that merits much attention.
6. That buckpassing is generally to be expected.

If we do not change our attitudes to this, then next winter will bring the same nonsense. Children are understanding that this is how it is. "My hands are tied!", is one thing they've heard. All we get is a vague "apology" - "We would like to apologise for the inconvenience this will cause".

Britain cannot cope with drought, with floods or with snow. The reason - because of underfunding and a propensity for washing of hands by those "in charge". They take the shilling but fail on the delivery.