Government in the round ... and round
Naturally, there’s no irony whatsoever in The Guardian, of all newspapers, finding fault with big government ... not a hint of hypocrisy in their critique of the “multi-agency approach” to, for example, the exploitation of illegal migrants by criminal gangmasters. No, the hot-button plight of oppressed and abused workers calls forth an altogether too blinding and pavlovian response for wider considerations to apply. So we get this:-
The tangle of Whitehall responsibilities for illegal working and gangmaster activity reflects the fact that they touch every aspect of the UK’s economic structure. So many authorities are involved that the tangle is almost impossible to unravel:
The illegal working steering group is chaired by a minister at the Home Office.
The informal economy steering group is chaired by the Inland Revenue.
Operation Gangmaster is led by the Department for Work and Pensions, which reports to the informal economy steering group.
The informal economy working group is chaired by Customs and Excise while reporting to the Inland Revenue steering group.
The Gangmaster coordination group is chaired by the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and reports to the minister for food and farming.
The DWP has its own fraud steering group dealing with Operation Gangmaster.
The National Crime Squad chairs the group coordinating the enforcement activities of police and immigration.
Ministers involved are chaired by cabinet subcommittee MISC20, chaired by a Home Office minister.
Enforcement of the law is divided between a plethora of agencies - from the Inland Revenue for supervision of the minimum wage and tax fraud, to Customs and Excise for VAT fraud, the immigration department for identity fraud, the Health and Safety Executive for unsafe conditions, the Agricultural Wages Board for wages in farming, and local authorities’ environmental health departments for housing conditions.
One wonders how much advertising revenue the Guardian gained from the departmental recruitment all this entails. At least they are honest, I suppose, about whether or not it will work.
