Many people have told me how much they enjoy watching the TPA slug it out with pompous, po faced council leaders (of all parties) about their inflated expenses, upmarket bentleys and grandiose schemes to spend large sums of our cash on prestige projects of doubtful value.
Yet it's worth remembering it's not just about waste and predictable tricorned delusions of grandeur down at your local town hall. It's also about value. Some jobs are worth paying for, just a some are not. Take these two current examples. The Northern Way is one of those sustainable economic development quango of quangos. They are advertising for a chair on £20,000. Meanwhile the Ministry of Justice is advertising for a Director of Children's Services at the Family Justice Council. The role is unpaid and is to focus on child protection in the family court system.
Now I'm sure these are not perfect examples and that lots of people will say how worthy regional economic development quangos are (although I think business does better when it's left alone to get on with it), but I can't see why one of the other quango members can't just step up to chair this thing. Meanwhile, I am puzzled why what looks like a serious and responsible job in protecting our kids is completely unpaid.
The essence of my point is that we should look not just at the excessive pay of senior public sector workers, we should look more deeply at the value of the actual jobs that are done and how we might improve the balance. I'd be interested to know what Centre Right readers think.
