When local councils cut front line services remember this - 'Local authorities have taken on an extra 180,000 workers since 1997, with the total number not employed in traditional front-line roles now standing at almost 750,000, according to ministers. '

The Telegraph reports that:

'Local authorities have taken on an extra 180,000 workers since 1997, with the total number not employed in traditional front-line roles now standing at almost 750,000, according to ministers.

...

Bob Neill, the local government minister, said: “These figures reveal the explosion in town hall jobs and bureaucracy under Labour and reinforce the need for some councils to start cutting out middle management.

“Crazy non-jobs like cheerleading development officers and press officers tasked with spinning propaganda on bin collections provide no value to the public.

...

According to the data, the number of people employed by local authorities in Britain stood at 2,728,000 in 1997 when Labour came to power. Last year the figure was 2,907,000.

There were 741,702 people on council payrolls who were not in traditional “front- line” jobs such as those in education, social services, recreation, libraries, planning, environmental health, culture, heritage or trading standards.'

This rise in the numbers of back-room staff employed in local councils and other state owned enterprises (especially the NHS) was a deliberate policy of the Blair/Brown axis of evil. They were trying to create as large a client-state as possible and that included paying people to do politically correct non-jobs as well as feather-bedding the unemployed. Of course Labour councils will try and cut front-line jobs as that affects the local residents more and, they hope, will create more anti-Conservative sentiment.