Email: Reward for failure

Once again the New Years Honours list contains plenty of civil servants and MPs, one of these is Margaret Beckett MP.

Wasn't she the person in charge of Defra a few years ago, the government dept that was late paying farm subsidies, and therefore incurred a fine from the EEC of several hundred million pounds, money which had to be clawed back from various areas including the waterways.

 

The award is in recognition of a parliamentary career spanning almost 40 years, in the private sector she would have been 'let go' long before now, but not in the civil service where loosing the odd few million of tax payers' money does not appear to be a barrier to promotion or getting an honour.

I expect certain Board members of British Waterways/CaRT to be treated in the same way when they jump ship and land in their comfortable pension pots. Still, it's another opportunity for them to grin at a camera.

Ray Robinson.