Jobs for the (Party) boys from the South East.

We have known for quite a few years that NuLabour friends are getting the bulk of the well paid posts on Quangos. These are rewards for those who retire from parliamentary seats at the bidding of the leadership to find a safe seat for a favourite, or consolation for those who lost their seat in the elections, as well as promotion for reliable or long-serving officials.

What emerged a few weeks ago in an investigation by the New Local Government Network and reported by the Guardian is that the vast number of these patronage appointments tend to be concentrated in London and the South East. Perhaps this is not so surprising, in that NuLabour was a metropolitan construct which took over from traditional Labour.

The Boards of these quangos, which spend £123 billion a year, or about 21% of all public spending compared with 15% spent by local authorities, are concentrated in the South. Just four relatively prosperous inner London boroughs, - Camden, Westminster, Islington and Kensington and Chelsea, have 15 % of the national total of board members. This compares with 2% in the whole of the North East, 5% in the North West and 5% in the West Midlands. More than half of all board members are resident in London and the South East.

In some important Quangos the vast majority of board members live in London, - National Portrait Gallery 93%, the British Council 80%, Channel 4 75%, and the British Museum 70%.

A cabinet Office spokeswoman claimed that people appointed to these boards are appointed solely on merit. This may be the case but the boards certainly lack much input from vast areas outside London and NuLabour.


(The study considered the main residence of a sample of 1,000 board members drawn from 78 Quangos across all policy areas. The fact that they were able to select 1,000 from less than 10% of all quangos gives an idea of the all-pervading influence of these bodies.)