Yet more non-jobs on the public payroll

Every Wednesday in The Guardian is a selection of advertisements for jobs in, usually, local government. You know the sort of thing “Five-a-day Co-ordinator required”, “Walking to school Organiser”, etc, etc. The kind of jobs that never used to exist years ago when we all managed to walk to school without interference from the local council.

Times change and so, apparently, do our needs. If you add up all the salaries on offer for these "jobs" it comes to £787million (slightly less than the £787 million total advertised in 2005). The average starting salary for a full time position was £36,893 a year - £11,405 more than the average private sector wage in 2006.

Many of the jobs are patently ridiculous and utterly unnecessary. However, it does generate a way for Labour to buy votes. If the Tories promise to abolish many if not all of these positions, which they should do, then these people will naturally vote Labour to keep their jobs and gold-plated pensions - something not available to those of us in the private sector who actually do a proper job.

I choose just one “job” to advertise the ridiculousness of the situation. Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council advertised for a Civil Resilience Manager on £39,132-a-year. A council spokesman said: “Most, if not all, major local authorities now have an equivalent post. Emergencies could range from serious highways incidents, building collapses, and large fires requiring evacuation.”

Is that not the job of the local police and fire chiefs?

The spokesman continues: “The Council also needs to be prepared, like all local authorities, for the possibility of pandemic flu and terrorist activity.”

Yes, because Stockport is so high on the list of Muslim terror targets...