Francis Maude and the Quangos

This is one of the best pieces of news to come out of any government for years. Not because it can save money, though it may, not because it cuts back government, though it does, but because such a system of public management is undemocratic. Each Ministry is responsible for a facet of national life. Some responsibility is delegated to local government. All are elected, Quangos are not. Nobody knows who they are, what they do, why they are there or how they arrived. Yet their power reaches into every nook and cranny of our private, professional and working lives.

Now there is to be a bonfire of this chaos which is so muddled that even the government cannot answer either how many people are involved or what they all cost, because nobody knows. If ever there were a reason to light the match it is that.