The one good thing about IPSA
For years, MPs have been creating quangos to take difficult decisions and let them off the hook.
So much so, that entire swathes of public policy are made by unaccountable officials, rather than anyone you voted for. But what happens when those officials at the CSA or FSA or Environment Agency or Monetary Policy Committee turn out to be flawed?
Not happy with the number of quangos we have already, only a few years ago, I remember a politician advocating the creation of an independent regulator to oversee carbon trading - "like the Monetary Policy Committee manages interest rates". (Not sure the MPC is seen as quite such a model of success after the credit bubble burst .... But I digress)
The little understood, but significant consequence of having an Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) is that it has killed MPs appetite for creating quangos dead.
With MPs themselves now having to live under an incompetent, unaccountable bureaucracy, politicians know how many of our small businesses, families, and farmers feel when confronted by remote officials.
If IPSA is the last quango politicians create as a consequence, it'll have been worth it.