Mr Carter was still secretary to the hospital where Reardon had once earned his twenty shillings a week, but by voyaging in the seas of charitable enterprise he had come upon supplementary sources of income; for instance, he held the post of secretary to the Barclay Trust, a charity whose moderate funds were largely devoted to the support of gentlemen engaged in administering it.
George Gissing - New Grub Street (1891)
Now the thing is done on a grander scale where the funds are not at all moderate.
4 comments:
If it's taxpayer's money, the funds are apparently never-ending.
I recently googled someone I used to know in Further Education. They had burrowed their way into an astonishing network of institutes, foundations, trusts, committees, federations, liaison groups, advisory boards, and other inessential bodies. All funded, of course, from the money the government provides for the training of young people.
Immediately the term 'cheridee' is mentioned I reach for my cheque book and write an amount to Senora O'Blene.
See, I've registered an interest!
But, but... patronage is how the elites work and recognise their own. There's a whole 'menu' of patronage from membership of committees, through chairmanship of QUANGOs or charities, to knighthoods and lordships.
If you are on the patronage treadmill you must keep running or be ejected. If you decide not to join the club you can live life relatively free of their interference (they are often internally focused and ineffective in the wider world). Whether the networks of patronage should be cut way back is a different question. It's like trying to move a carpet with the furniture still in place. Cameron's famous bonfire of the QUANGOs was merely a damp squib (if there was any chance of it working he wouldn't have stayed PM for long).
Sam - the patronage game seems to be how we are governed in that this is where all the narratives circulate. Maybe it always was this way and we should not expect ant substantive change.
Scrobs - it's a pity that this kind of thing makes us generally suspicious of charities, but it seems to be the most realistic attitude.
DJ - I wonder if anyone actually believed Cameron's bonfire of the QUANGOs would really happen. I'm sure Cameron didn't.
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