Ten reasons to hate the Tories (4)

Point 4 from Cameron's Blueprint for Britain was this:

"We will cut the number of MPs by five per cent, and ministers' pay by five per cent and reduce the number, size, scope and influence of quangos."

Cutting the number of MPs is a gimmick. I've never heard anybody complaining about the number, it's the total cost (including all the second home allowances, staffing allowances etc) that stick in the craw. Cutting the cost in half by paying MPs a flat salary of £66,000 or £80,000 (depending whether you use the arithmetic mean, the mode or the median of the Fun Online Poll results), with no expenses on top, seems a good place to start.

I don't see why Ministers should get a penny extra. MPs who are only prepared to do the job for an extra £100,000 a year are exactly the sort of people who shouldn't become ministers. Either way, a five per cent cut is a drop in the ocean (they'll just give themselves bigger pay-rises for the next couple of years).

"reduce the number, size, scope and influence of quangos"

Hypocrisy alert!! It was the Tories who invented quangos in the first place, as a nice source of income for MPs, ex-MPs, their families and friends etc. The Goblin King himself promised a Bonfire Of The Quangos in 1995, since when the number of people employed by quangos, fakecharities, advisory & supervisory bodies and futile meddling generally has probably trebled.

I'd worry about the paucity of ambition as well. If you promise to "reduce", then a one per cent reduction is sufficient. How about promising to scrap absolutely all quangos, fakecharities, advisory & supervisory bodies and futile meddlers generally?

Ain't going to happen is it? Just to give you a few examples:

1. We know that the Tories are already cooking up plans to use taxpayers' money to support private providers trying to get the long-term unemployed back to work. Why? There are recruitment and staffing agencies at all levels, from the "headhunters" all the way down to businesses that find short term jobs in catering or warehousing (I've had clients at all levels, as it happens). The system works fine and costs the taxpayer nary a penny.

2. We also read recently that "Tory leader David Cameron pledges that a Conservative government would look at the voluntary sector ‘as the first sector’ and would support it rather than stifle it", at which the fakecharity sector must have heaved a huge sigh of relief.

3. We also know that the Tories are already taking advice from their own kind of fakecharities, such as the Public Health Commission, which is part-funded by the government and part-funded by industry lobbyists.

4. We also know that large "consultancy" businesses are "strengthening their ties" with the Tory party, in the hope of being awarded (or retaining) juicy contracts once the Tories are in government.

I hope that's enough examples to give you an idea of where we're headed...