Unelected, unaccountable and over here

The proliferation of unelected, unaccountable public bodies is particularly apparent in Northern Ireland. Given that these commissions, forums, consultative groups etc. draw from the public purse, but do not derive their mandate from any type of electoral process, you might expect that they would be subject to a fairly rigorous selection process.

Not so. To justify his £60,000 appointment, Bill of Rights Forum chairman Chris Sidoti had to undergo no interview process and was not required to apply for the job. It is comforting to know that the man who has decided to lead the attempts to foist this needless bill upon us (and his initial charge was only to advise whether this was actually necessary) underwent such a transparently fair process of selection!

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