Let The Bonfires Begin

Good news I think. The bonfire of the quangos has began, at least the building of the bonfire even if no one has actually set light to it just yet. I am extremely heartened by that and I note that our First Minister has said that it will save some £25 million pounds. Now call me cynical but quite how its going to save that much money when there will be no compulsory redundancies I'm not sure. Does this reduction in the number of quangos mean that we will stop paying lots of those people who seem to have been clinging to the gravy train?

Of course the FM can pull whatever figure he likes out of the air because it will be almost impossible to do a like for like comparison. Such is the way of politics. Quote a number, any number, and don't expect to have to prove it later.

What disappoints me most is the lack of reform for VisitScotland. All that's been said is that VisitScotland will rationalise its own 14 regions to six - in line with new structures in the Enterprise Networks. This might not be that good an idea. Already VisitScotland find it almost impossible to give proper regional representation. So obsessed are they with driving everything through their web site.