Appointing the quango bosses
Two top appointments pending in the quangocracy will give two more Commons select committees the chance to take part in the hip new pastime sweeping the Committee Corridor: confirmation hearings.
Tomorrow, the Treasury Committee interviews Institute for Fiscal Studies boss Robert Chote, armed with the Chancellor's promise that they can veto his appointment as Chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility if they don't like the cut of his jib. As boss of the formidably incisive tax and spending think tank, the IFS, Mr Chote is already a powerful voice on economic policy -- if he is installed at the OBR (and its hard to see why the committee would veto him, but we shall see) he will be asked to validate the Government's approach to the deficit, and all sorts of havoc will follow if he chooses to say it is doing too little cutting, or indeed too much. He'll be a crucial figure, so it is important that the Committee teases out his views on deficit reduction and other key questions, not least so they can be compared with his utterances in the future.
The other key appointment hovering into view is a new chairman of the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Trust, Sir Michael Lyons having announced that he won't seek a second term of office, when the current one expires next April. Doubtless the Culture Media and Sport Committee will want a chance to meet his successor, and given the membership of the committee, the candidate can expect a rough ride. And what's the betting the Committee's highly effective Chair, John Whittingdale, is busy drafting a letter to the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt to demand a veto over the appointment?
I'm Mark D'Arcy and I'll be writing about what goes on in the chambers and committee rooms at Westminster.
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