Friday, January 05, 2007

Labour cronyism in Postwatch apppointments

The Post office destroyer Jim Fitzpatrick has announced a number of new appointments to the Post office quango, Postwatch. Specifically there are new chairman for Scotland, South West England, and the Midlands' regions. It will come as no surprise that there appears to be just a little bit of cronyism going on here.

Of the three appointments, two are Labour Party members and former candidates. The first is the appointment for Scotland, Professor Alex Alexander. Alexander is no newcomer to charges of cronyism after it emerged last November that both he and his wife were appointed to another quango.

The appointment for the Midlands' region meanwhile is Najma Hafeez. Hafeez is a former Labour councillor in Birmingham and was on Labour's approved Parliamentary candidate list.

I have to say that I never quite understand why the concept of the "old school tie" is derided so much by those on the Left when their own house is clearly littered with cronyism and jobs for the quangocrats.

Update: For anyone wondering, the third new appointment, Christina Baron, is an active Lib Dem. Yay for balance!

Update: Jonathan Sheppard from ToryRadio wondered how much Postwatch actually costs to run in the Comments. According to their Annual Report they receive about 10,000,000 a year from "Grant-in-Aid" which I presume means Government, ergo the taxpayer.

The amusing thing when you look at the expenditure account is that they pay tax as well. So that's tax on taxpayers money? Good huh?

2 comments:

Jonathan Sheppard said...

I wonder if you could get some figures as to how much Postwatch actually costs. I understand that it is a fairly substantial sum.

www.toryradio.com

Jonathan Sheppard said...

Interesting - and I suspect their salar bill isnt too insignificant either.