Strike two

Despite the deluge of ConDem achievements proffered by a Lib Dem spin-site, two of today’s new items manage to put government competence in a different perspective.

The first is news that the government is “resigned” to billions of pounds in bonuses being paid out to bankers this year – despite assurances that such excesses would be curbed. Only last month, Business Secretary Vince Cable said the coalition government was "fully signed up" to tackling the bonus culture in a banking sector whose reckless actions have been widely cited as a primary factor behind worldwide recession and subsequent impact on public spending.

Of course, not everyone thinks this is a bad thing. Executive head-hunter John Purcell told the BBC "It might be politically uncomfortable and possibly socially disturbing, but it's realistic economics and I think we've just got to suck it up. That's the way it is." Thanks, John.

The second is the findings of a cross-party Commons committee that plans to axe scores of quangos will not deliver significant savings or improve accountability. According to Bernard Jenkin, chairman of the Public Administration select committee, the government’s cull of public sector agencies was “was rushed and poorly handled and should have been thought through a lot more”.

The committee concluded that ministers need to rethink which functions public bodies should perform and consider transferring some of these functions over to mutuals and charities. MPs added that the potential for cost savings was "probably exaggerated".

Rather pathetic outcomes for a government which is supposed to have accomplished so much. On this basis it seems very likely that many other claims listed on Freedom Central will look equally hollow when exposed to the light of democratic scrutiny later on.