Quango army in Britain, bleeding us dry

And one vast empire soaking up huge amounts of our cash are government quangos.

This is a vast industry '“ the boards and agencies which make up Britain's unseen and unelected government.

How many quangos do you think there are in Britain? How many people are employed on them? How much do they cost and how much is this per UK household?

Don't know? Well, prepare to be shocked.

There are 1,162 quangos in the UK, employing a huge army of 700,000 bureaucrats, costing the taxpayer 64 billion '“ and that costs every household 2,550 in tax.

Frightening, isn't it? And for the information of all you wonderful people who voted Labour and allowed this to happen, the number of quangos by Labour has risen by 50 per cent over the past decade.

Surprise, surprise, the government has failed to publish a list of this huge army of unelected bodies, despite a Parliamentary Select Committee recommending it be published.

Hats off, therefore, to the TaxPayers' Alliance for doing the job instead.

They claim that even the government itself does not know the full extent of the unaccountable quango industry, which ranges from the massive, e.g., Job Centre Plus (staff: 70,042, cost: 3.5 billion) and the Courts Service (staff: 19,986, cost: 704.8 million); to the bizarre e.g., the British Potato Council (staff: 49); or the West Northants Development Corporation (staff: 34, cost: 15.3 million).

When the total number of quangos is added to the other government subsidiaries such as local authorities and NHS trusts, the total number of organisations controlled by the UK government rises to 2,063, costing the taxpayer 257 billion and employing more than 5.1million people.

No wonder we're the most governed people in the world!

This army, their salaries and pensions are being paid for by those who actually do meaningful and useful work in the private sector.

This huge army of pen-pushers is growing by the day '“ a huge mass of people on our backs.

It really makes you wonder how long it will be before their weight brings us all down like a pack of cards!

I can do no more than repeat the comment of the author of the TayPayers' Alliance report and its analyst Ben Farrugia.

He writes: "Government in the UK is now so large, diverse and complex that it is impossible for anyone to manage effectively, let alone Ministers with no prior experience of management and little in-depth understanding of the work carried out by their departments.

"Government today tries to do too much, and consequently fails; the structure of government needs to change if we hope to see better value and significant improvements in our public services."

In other words, let's do a huge hatchet job on all these quangos.

Sue if you fall over a petal

Every other week I hear another story which makes me despair over Britain. The one I have just written is bad enough. The one below takes the biscuit (or petal!)

A London florist has been found negligent after a man slipped and injured himself '“ on a petal.

The man fell onto his right hand and then his right knee. Now the florist will have to pay him compensation.

The High Court has ruled the florist "failed to have a reasonably effective and safe system for dealing with the danger of fallen petals".

According to an Appeal judge, there was no reason why the man should be looking down at his feet to avoid the petal as he walked past the florist.

So, according to wonderful British law, we can walk blindly along the pavement not bothering to see what we are stepping into or upon and sue the pants off everyone if we fall.

No wonder that people trying to run a business in Britain today are despairing.

Two million Brits quit UK. No surprise

The other item of news I read was that in the past 10 years, two million Brits have left the UK '“ the biggest exodus from this country in almost a century.

Little wonder, is it, when we've got the nonsense government and ridiculous laws in Britain today.

Last productive Brit out, don't bother to turn off the lights. Leave it to the 700,000 left in quangos bleeding us dry.