So Adair Turner is to be the new head of the Financial Services Authority. He is the man who was tasked with chairing a commission on the future of the pensions industry, you may recall. Gordon Brown then proceeded to ignore virtually all his conclusions and recommendations. And did the noble Lord utter any complaint? He did not. He's now got his reward with a further five year sinecure. That's how you get on in the world of quangocracy.
This comes hot on the heels of Chris Smith's appointment as head of the all powerful Environment Agency. I would love to know his qualifications for this post as I don't recall him being especially interested in or knowledgeable about environmental issues when he was MP for Islington. The only environmental issues there are how long their sun dried tomatoes and polenta take to prepare. Joke.
17 comments:
I went to a speech given by Adair Turner recently and he is actually a very bright and interesting guy. He does have qualifications for the job having formerly headed the CBI and chaired that commission: and also when appointed to chair the commission he was appointed to come up with ideas but he is not a politician- more a policy civil servant- they are not paid to criticise in public but to argue in private. He will be a good chair of the FSA and to imply that this is jobs for the boys is beneath you Iain.
I'd personally like to hear from you about Patience Wheatcroft's qualifications as an auditor (she has been appointed as such by Boris Johnson). But maybe a Labour appointment is jobs for the boys and a Tory one is fine- no matter the credentials of the respective people for the jobs they receive.
He is/was(?) also 'Climate Czar' - and came up with a great way to save the planet
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3512041.ece
I bet that was worth his salary.
Of course we have all forgotten about the Climate Czar now haven't we? Good idea at the time, ticked the climate change box on the government s CV.
BTW one priceless sentence at the end of the above
"He said: “Our family emissions are significantly above the average, although they are below average for someone of my income. We have installed solar panels to heat the swimming pool at our country home so I think the emissions have gone to under 25 tons.”"
Meantime - good old rant Mr Dale, hope you feel better for it.
Deserved rant of course. And given the guff he sprouted over climate change (and his business/political history) its a moot point as to his usefulness at the FSA. It seems to me Wyatt Earp would have the best CV for that job.
Ahh, nothing like bitching at Labour's use of class warfare and five minutes later use the stereotype of North London Labourites...well done Iain!
Wheatcroft is a non-executive director of Barclays plc and Shaftesbury plc as well as being a financial journalist (ex Business and City Editor of The Times) who should be able to find out where the bodies are buried.
Not sure how good Turner will be - but I suspect he will be too soft on the barrow boys.
Disagree Ian.
I was quite amazed how Brown took Turner's pension report on board and implemented most of it.
As a result I no longer have to pay voluntary NI contributions out of my savings. Well done Adair Turner and Mr Brown for listening.
Despite loathing David Cameron, if he made an irrevocable promise to dismantle every quango in Britain, I would vote for him.
No other "democratic" country has all these - in effect - unelected legislators. It is sickening.
Chris Smith replaces Barbara Young - another NuLab trusty in it for the money. And sooo much better looking too.
Your comments promtpted me to revisit the Pensions Commission website. It's recommendations were quite radical and largely accepted by the government. I am also quite happy with his appointmeent as head of the FSA, cpmpared to the current lot in particular.
Anonymous 8.37. You clearly didn't read the last word of the blogpost.
Sorry forgot to put joke at the end of my comment as well. The 8:37 guy.
In the first poll since last week's Crewe and Nantwich by-election, the YouGov survey puts Labour on 23 points and the Conservatives on 47 - a Tory lead of 24 points.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/2050682/Labour-Gordon-Brown-support-slumps-to-its-lowest-since-polling-began.html
W00t as the young people on the internet say.
Do your homework Iain, Chris Smith was an Opposition spokesman on Enviromental Protection and is currently President of the Ramblers Association as well as having bagged all the Munros - so he probably knows quite a bit about the Environment (certainly more than a petrolhead like yourself)
But would he have realised the difficulties at Northern Rock had he been in post 18 months ago?
Yes, I was reading about this Chris Smith thing in the Eye - not sure how this has come about, but maybe they think he will be 'pliable'. But let us see how the Millennium Dome Minister gets on with nuclear power stations, Heathrow expansion and global warming...
On the other hand, let's not...
Was it ever differnt under John Major ?
On the subject of quangocracy, it will be interesting to see who gets the job of heading the new commission that is apparently now going to make all our major planning decisions for us.
Chris Smith, Head of the E.A. ! Good God, that must be one of most ludicrous Nu-Lab appointments during their dismal period of office.
Smith is another person the new Cameron government will need to boot out sharpish, and to appoint a bona fide scientist in his place. And preferably one who does not espouse the warmist religion (which, however, might have lost its power by then).
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