Client state?

Two emails have reached me in the last two days which put the finger on one of the biggest problems currently strangling enterprise and efficient local and national government in the UK. I refer to the bloated state of the public sector.
We know that more than half the jobs 'created' under 'New' Labour since 1997 have been in the public sector and many of them administrative, not delivering services, not wealth creating and often of highly doubtful utility in growth areas such as the various inspectorates set up to monitor the achievement of Brown's 'targets' - the modern version of Stalin's five year plans and just as distorting of effort as they were. And of course we have the ones tackling various 'problems', whose whole career structure depends upon ensuring that the 'problems' should never be solved but that ever more 'problem' areas should be identified requiring ever more solvers........and so on ad infinitum.
The latest local government enormity I heard about in the emails, one of which came from the Sustainability Officer(sic) of the Council was of the existence of a Council Travel Awareness Officer, supposedly encouraging bus travel and discouraging car use.
So all you people paying the highest Council Tax in London and/or being means tested for the cost of domiciliary care can rest easy in the knowledge that your Liberal Democrat Council is making good use of your money on such schemes and personnel as this.