Oct 2009 06

Busted! Public Bodies at the Conservative Party Conference20

Conference season is a time for debate and discussion. Groups want to have their say and lay out their stall. Which is fine, as long as that stall isn't at the taxpayers' expense.

Yet last years conference's were so overwhelmed by quangos and public bodies that it was easy to forgot that any other type of organisation existed. Taxpayers' money was being spent by bodies trying to win the support of politicians, or guarantee themselves future funding. That alone is serious mis-allocation of precious resources, but such also spending constituted a back-door way of funding political parties with taxpayers money.

TPA research successfully revealed that RDAs alone had spent over £250,000 in their efforts to lobby politicians at last year's Conference (see here). It was an embarrassment for the Government, and back in January 2009, Sir Gus O'Donnell (Cabinet Secretary and the country's most senior civil servant) responded to our revelations by making it very clear to all departments that public bodies, particularly quangos, needed to have very good reasons for spending money at any of this years' Party Conferences.

But some still persist. Below are some photos we've taken of quango or council stalls in the Conservative Conference hall. Each of these stands will cost hundreds, probably thousands of pounds. Wonder what their very good reason for being there really is?

Tameside Meteropolitan Council

Tameside at conference 

Financial Services Authority (FSA)*

FSA at conference
* While the FSA doesn't rely on taxpayers directly, it is funded through a mandatory levy on all the financial companies it regulates. That's a job which, if the Conservatives come to power, may be under threat; indeed Tories have said they would abolish the FSA outright. Is this stall at Conservative Party conference just a well intentioned effort to spread the 'money-made-clear' message? Or are they, as the sceptics might suggest, up there to lobby the Tories into changing their minds about the future of the FSA?

Audit Commission**

Audit Commission at Conference
** Another quango that has recently felt under threat. The think-tank Demos has recommended that the whole organisation should be scrapped, and even Vince Cable has taken issue with some of the Audit Commission's functions. 

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  • Daran

    Whilst Labour must be given some credit for funding public services more realistically than John Major and Maggie did for so many years, sadly they have gone to the extreme opposite. Pumping money in aimlessly with no fiscal discipline – hence why there is even now so much public money slopping around the vaults of city halls and the like (investments in Iceland anyone…).
    And it seems from the threats of public sector unions that once you put money in to the system and build up the public sector machine you can never dismantle it even if financing it at those levels ongoing will bankrupt the nation.
    It seems the arrogance and selfishness of the public sector knows no bounds, even as it must know that the private sector has been put to death near enough over the last year and for the next one.
    Perhaps not public sector arrogance, so much as public sector stupidity. Their final salary pensions will finish us off in the long run if we don’t break the backbone of the big governement Labour has saddled us with.
    I await with eagerness my 2010/2011 Council Tax complete with it’s obligatory 3-4% increase.

  • J D, Gosport

    Daran
    The average civil service pension is less than £5000 per year. Hardly an amount that “will finish us off”.
    What nearly did finish us off wasn’t the Publc Sector which has an average salary around £15,000 pa, but the private sector bankers where bonuses of ten times that are still not uncommon and 100 times that figure not unheard of

  • Steve Robson

    Well said JD.
    We should never forget it was the PRIVATE SECTOR which caused this crisis and this debt – institutions run by the TPA’s friends, schoolmates and backers. How the TPA continue to blame the public sector for the problems is amazing sleight of hand. Their mates wrecked the economy, so they blame some people they don’t like!
    …and Daran is unlucky with his Council too. I have been promised NO increase this year and the average for the last three years is 2%. Over four years that will be 6% – LESS THAN INFLATION despite increasing demands.
    Daran’s may have gone up 12 to 16% or he may be imagining it like he is the size of the Pensions and who is to blame for the mess.

  • Daran

    I’m not absolving the greedy bankers of their crime. Far from it. They should be horse-whipped IMO. But Steve, it was these same bankers that your beloved Gordon the Moron fell in love with to help pay for his MASSIVE expansion of the public sector, that in turn has amongst other things seen council tax rises across the country of percentages increases far greater than many peoples salary rises.
    He was more than happy to take the banking sectors ‘alleged’ profits (which of course was only on paper, not real…).
    So I guess you could say it’s as much Gordon’s fault really isn’t it! – he seems to have a hand in most things that are screwed up and wrong in this country.
    He was responsible for controlling the finances when he was chancellor just as he was supposed to be in control when the banking system imploded as PM. He can’t absolve himself of the pubic finance crisis. He was THE man in charge with responsibilty for making sure we could afford the pubic spending Blair and subsequently himself were committing to. To quote a famous Bill Clinton t-shirt slogan “It’s about the economy stupid”. Eg, having a healthy one based on REAL wealth creation – not retail spending fuelled by credit, sucking in imports, or public sector expansion, or finance sector or leisure sector etc etc.
    It’s called MANUFACTURING Gordon. It’s what you make and sell… Try looking it up on Wikipedia sometime you d*ck.
    Gordon didn’t give two hoots when Rover when t*ts up. Too busy schmoozing with the bankers @ The Mansion House no doubt.
    And yet still he doesn’t get it. Wanting to spend spend spend his way out of trouble.
    Well, the party’s over and big goverment is finished. As are the Labour party for a while. Thank god for small mercies.
    And don’t lecture us on ‘poor’ public servants either JD. Of course not all public workers are well paid. But many many are and some stupendously overpaid. The pubic sector is out of control under Labour. Everybody knows that. Time to reign it all back in again, so that we in the private sector who have to faceup to having little or no pension at all in some cases (£5000k – huh, a luxury for many with decimated private pension funds) can start to benefit from a lower tax burden to help rebuild a real personal wealth that isn’t via a credit card.
    Finally – one example of public sector pay verses quality of service delivered:
    Disgraced Sharon Shoesmith – £130,000 former salary. Based on UK 2009/10 average Band D council tax that’s the equvalent of 110 households entire council tax take just to pay for her one salary alone! How many Sharon Shoesmiths and her ilk are out there in council land. Far too many, that’s how many.
    When you see it like that it’s shocking math isn’t it. So is big government working for the benefit of the public? Of course not.
    I rest my case.

  • Daran

    Oops! Spot the comical typo above :)

  • Daran

    One more thing JD.
    The public sector can bloody well stop it’s whinging about pay freezes & cuts too. As a highly qualified and experienced IT tecnician who in total *just* about makes the UK national salary average we have been told in the last week that for a 2nd year running we will receive no pay rise. We lost our bonus this year, and it won’t pay out in 2010 either most likely. The bonus made up my income to UK average, it wasn’t extra before you say anything.
    Add to that our 10% pay cut that we agreed to in June this year for 6 months so we could avoid any more redundancies, a pay cut which also may continue on into 2010.
    So welcome to my (and many others) world of private sector reality as opposed the cloud cooking world of public sector you inherit.
    You can see why we in the private sector are sick to death of public sector moaning.
    Your jobs are nigh on guaranteed at the moment – as is your pension and your current salary.
    I stand to lose £9000 income over two years.
    So stop f*cking moaning about your plight. You have it easy.

  • Steve Robson

    I can assure you that public sector jobs are not guaranteed. At least 10% of public sector jobs will go in the next two years.
    And Sharon shoesmith may not have done a good job and she may have deserved to lose it. She did not deserve to be bullied and crucified by idiots who know nothing about the facts (ranging from Sun readers to Ed Balls-up). She did not kill that child; evil people did and childrens departments (including Haringey’s) save thousands of children from evil people every year. The Right including the TPA never focus on those lives saved do they? Instead they call for less resources and belittle the people doing the job, which puts more children at risk. That is why I hope Sharon Shoesmith wins her case.

  • Daran

    ” At least 10% of public sector jobs will go in the next two years.”
    Good. The jobs should never have been created in the first place.
    “That is why I hope Sharon Shoesmith wins her case.”
    Rewarding failure eh Steve. You know what, I think in that case the bankers should keep their bonus culture. What’s good for the goose and all that.
    After all, the recession is just about money. It’s not like anyones going to die or anything for their failures.
    Shame the same can’t be said of Ms Shoesmith’s failures. Someone did die didn’t they ;(
    And incredibly, still you want to give her yet more public money to enable her to have a nice early retirement.
    You’re an idiot Steve.

  • steve robson

    OVERWRITTEN DUE TO SWEARING – MODERATOR

  • Julie

    My son has not had a pay increase in 5 years. His shift hours have been increased from 4 x 9 hour shifts to 5 x 8 hour shifts, no pension scheme at all, statutory sickness pay only. Salary £22,000.
    My husband and I jointly paid into a private pension paying £350 per month for over 30 years which was going to provide a pension of £16,000 p.a. but guess what – it will now pay a pension of £3,500. We are in receipt of state pension now (I am 61 and my husband is 65) and still having to work to live. I resent that the tax I pay on earnings is making a contribution towards the pensions of public sector employees who have the luxury of retiring at 60 (and sometimes 50). – Do you get the drift?

  • steve robson

    not really no I don’t. You may as well resent their pay as well because the pension is just part of that. And if you don’t think we need a public sector that’s fine, but you may change your mind when you need it or when you see the society left behind. Also very few retire at 50 (apart from uniformed services) and many are now at 65 (all of local government for a start).
    Just because your son is badly treated is not a reason to resent others who are more fairly treated. I agree with the pay freeze in the public sector anyway, though it will clearly be at least two years, probably more.
    And your pension decline is the fault of the private sector not the public sector, just like the recession itself. Attacking public employees because your private sector investments, like mine, have plummeted makes no sense at all.
    I guess even I and Daran agree on horse-whipping failed bankers, but the TPA is noticeable silent. I can’t imagine why/

  • Nice Boy Nigel

    Daran
    One minute you state that public sector jobs are guaranteed and then, when faced with reality, you state that it’s a good thing that jobs are going because they are not necessary!
    How do you know that? How do you know what jobs will be cut?
    Do you really think that the public sector has tens of thousands of “ethnic diversity transgender lesbian refugee rights outreach workers” all on 50K and a pension who can simply be got rid of and no-one will suffer any loss of service?
    If so, you are deluded. My local police force are already shedding posts and the Council I work for is too. Whitehall and Central Govt will start to after the election, regardless who gets in.
    I’ll be honest, I work in the public sector and I have (pretty much) a safe job. I know I’m lucky and I’m very grateful. And I show that by doing a large amount of voluntary overtime (like many of my colleagues). Having worked in both sectors, I can say, in my experience, that this is far more common in the public sector than the private, which rather goes against the somewhat hackneyed “cushy public sector non-jobs” comments on sites like the TPA’s.

  • Daran

    Touchy touchy now are we not Steve :) And yes I like the Kaiser Chiefs very much thank you.

  • steve robson

    Nigel
    We know that loads of people in local government do lots of unpaid overtime, some working ridiculous hours. Many also spend lots of their own money because expenses are so difficult to claim. But you’ll never get an admission of that from people like the TPA; their agenda is to destroy the public sector for the benefit of their rich backers and their own political careers.
    Setting workers in the private sector and public sector against each other is key to the TPA strategy and unfortunately people like Daran and Julie get suckered into it. It diverts blame from the real culprits who are their friends amongst the super rich and the bankers. If they focus on the small number of high earners in the public sector and imply these are somehow a large group (while actually fifty times more people earn less than £20K than earn more than £50K, 0.2% of staff earn £100K compared to 2% in the private sector), we might not notice that their friends are worth £100 million and earning £15 million pa.
    They are very succesful at these tactics too as demonstrated by my anger at Daran for calling me an idiot yesterday which led me to a not very nice response. And I don’t even work in the public sector now.
    In the end we’ll all lose out, but at least their billionaire backers will have a few more million pounds in the bank. I was going to name a couple of these backers, but they are all faceless, fortunately all the details are in yesterday’s Guardian, though funnily enough, the Mail and the Sun didn’t run the story.

  • Daran

    I’ll be honest, I work in the public sector and I have (pretty much) a safe job. I know I’m lucky and I’m very grateful. And I show that by doing a large amount of voluntary overtime (like many of my colleagues). Having worked in both sectors, I can say, in my experience, that this is far more common in the public sector than the private, which rather goes against the somewhat hackneyed “cushy public sector non-jobs” comments on sites like the TPA’s.
    Well good for you Nigel. You are dedicated and more power to you. I don’t blame anyone in the public sector for having there jobs. Simply that many of them should never have been created.
    I don’t want you personally to lose your job. Or anyone else.
    But I also don’t want my retired mum to worry herself to death about how she’s going to pay the increase in her Rutland council tax, when the Rutland District Council have wasted 10′s of thousands of pounds re-carpeting the council head office either.
    + I’m not sure the argument about overtime has any meaning in the debate. I’ve never worked at any company where doing lots of overtime / home working wasn’t common. Maybe you’ve been lucky in the private sector.

  • Daran

    “My son has not had a pay increase in 5 years. His shift hours have been increased from 4 x 9 hour shifts to 5 x 8 hour shifts, no pension scheme at all, statutory sickness pay only. Salary £22,000.
    My husband and I jointly paid into a private pension paying £350 per month for over 30 years which was going to provide a pension of £16,000 p.a. but guess what – it will now pay a pension of £3,500. We are in receipt of state pension now (I am 61 and my husband is 65) and still having to work to live. I resent that the tax I pay on earnings is making a contribution towards the pensions of public sector employees who have the luxury of retiring at 60 (and sometimes 50). – Do you get the drift?”
    They don’t get it Julie. Never will.
    It’s nice and comfortable for Nigel to kid himself that the private sector is sharing the pain of this recession, but it is of course a myth. There won’t be any major job cuts in the public sector any time soon. Gordon has already confirmed that. And RELATIVE to the numbers lost in the private sector they will be small fry. Until the Tories come to power and get to grips with Gordon’s debt mountain little will happen, so realistically it could be another 2 years before public jobs are shed en masse. By then the worst of the recession will be over.
    The private sector of course started losing large numbers of jobs a year ago this month.
    Sorry Nigel, but for the last 13 or so years public workers have had it good, what with the luxury of almost guaranteed job security and pensions. That gravy train is coming to an end rapidly now of course.
    But as you know Nigel (and you too Steve), that’s a luxury the private sector NEVER enjoys. Just ask the hundreds of thousands of unemployed former private sector workers who since October last year have become on first name terms with the public sector employees who sign them on at the dole offices.

  • Daran

    Typo correction:
    “It’s nice and comfortable for Nigel to kid himself that the **PUBLIC** sector is sharing the pain of this recession, but it is of course a myth”

  • Daran

    Tories “billionaire backers”.
    Steve, seriously! Are you freeking kidding us! This is territory a New Labourite should not tread upon EVER!! You have far too many skeletons in the party donation cupboard to throw stones at others.
    Remember the Dome scandals? Huh? Or conveniently forgotten those have we Steve?
    Let me remind you of the sorry tales of Labour’s ‘nothing is too below the belt for a few quid’ policy:
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/blair-promoted-labour-donors-jets-to-czech-leader-657266.html
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1384344/How-Labour-donation-swung-deal-for-tycoon.html
    http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/1103614.stm
    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-387850/Hinduja-brothers-bankroll-Labour.html
    Oh and then there is Mr Bernie Ecclestone. But hey, that’s another story…..

  • steve robson

    It doesn’t matter what evidence we give you does it Daran, you just ignore the facts and stick with the prejudices or attack back. You really are being used by this lot you know, they really don’t care about improving anything, just destroying it. Thats why they highlight trivia and ignore the bigger picture. But fyi, I acknowledge too the mistakes of New Labour especially the cosying up to the rich and the waste on the wars. I’m more old Labour than New labour myself anyway. The huge majority should have been used better and some money has been wasted. However most of the deficit has been spent because of the bank bailout and the recession and that would have happened anyway. And if Gideon Osborne and the opportunist Cameron had been in power, they would have called it all wrong and plunged us into depression. Most economists agree that Brown and Darling have called this right. Public servants losing their jobs isn’t going to help you one bit. Equal misery maybe, but actually more unemployment will be worse for everyone.
    And for all the labour mistakes, there are real achievements too; peace in NI, minimum wage, civil partnerships, early years services, massive improvements in health and social care to name but a few. Have you really forgotten what a terrible shape the NHS was in in 1997? Yes they should have done much better, but I know its much better than the alternative. Its just a cycle though, in 1979 the Tories got in because the economy was a mess, in 97, Labour got in because people were fed up of wrecked public services and an uncaring society. Now the Tories will get back in and wreck it all again for a term or two before people want Labour back again.
    Meanwhile real life goes on whether we have more money or less and at least we have more good bands like the Kaiser Chiefs than ever before. And theres nothing like a right wing government to generate good rock and roll in opposition to it.

  • Daran

    “It doesn’t matter what evidence we give you does it Daran, you just ignore the facts and stick with the prejudices or attack back”
    And I say the same back to you my friend!
    “You really are being used by this lot you know, they really don’t care about improving anything, just destroying it.”
    That is your opinion – I see no substance in that view.
    “Thats why they highlight trivia and ignore the bigger picture”
    They highlight the mess this country is in, and that is NOT trivia Steve. OVERWRITTEN DUE TO SWEARING – MODERATOR. This country SHOULD be great. You can judge a nations pride by the number of people leaving. Look at the figures for that Steve. People want out. I personally know so many people who either have or are considering emigrating. Not for the sun, but just to leave behind the mess and social decay Labour have brought to us over the last 3 terms.
    “Have you really forgotten what a terrible shape the NHS was in in 1997?”
    No. Just as I have not forgotten the poll tax. I hated Maggie for that at the time. But then I had little money back then (a bit like at the moment then…). But what we did have back then was a semblance of immigration control, some semblance of law & order where police did not have to fill in a flaming risk assessment form before catching a criminal, a social security budget that was not breaking the nations finances so high is it and a personal taxation regime that did not make you look at your payslip and wonder why you bother.
    “Now the Tories will get back in and wreck it all again for a term or two before people want Labour back again.”
    Who will tax and spend and bankrupt the country again – and then the Tories will come back and yes so it goes on. Better to be down the pub with a pint eh Steve ;)
    It all started so promisingly Steve. But oh my has it gone wrong!
    Labour have had their chance and blown it. It’s simply time for a change.
    **** I have just read that Gordon is to anounce a sale of the nations assets worth £16bn.
    !!! :) I guess it’s not only Maggie who sells the family silver! And think about it, who will buy these assets?
    Big business and wealthy individuals.
    And who will finance the purchases?
    The investment bankers!
    I hope the irony is not lost on you Steve ;)