I want to take quick issue with an aspect of an otherwise sensible post on quangos from Matthew Taylor.

He questions the labelling of quangos as ‘undemocratic’:

“But ministers can be just as easily be held accountable for what goes on in the quangos they oversee as in the departments they run.”

The key word there is ‘can’ and I’d question whether or not recent experience demonstrates that has happened. Arguably, and with respect to Matthew, I could cite several examples over the last few years where it’s been difficult enough getting ministers to accept responsibility for goings on in their own departments let alone these ‘arms length’ autonomous organisations. If senior politicians weren’t so quick to exploit this organisational distance to save their own skins then Matthew’s point would stand.