What one innocent sentence tells us about Government

Today I was obliged to read a document published by the Cabinet Office. The first line read

The Commission on the Future of Volunteering was set up by the England Volunteering Development Council after the 2005 Year of the Volunteer.

It seemed that so much of what is wrong with Government was encapsulated in that one sentence.

The proliferation of Quangos; the spurious Year of Action; the Government’s belief that society – even civil society in the private realm – can be made better by Government intervention.

Not to mention the endless production of utterly pointless and vacuous reports. The money wasted. The manpower wasted. The unbelievable hubris.

There is just no understanding in Government circles that endless talking shops do not achieve anything useful. Or that civil society emerges from below, as individuals come together spontaneously to work together.