So much government

T HE Balearic government keeps on reminding anyone who will listen that they are short of money and are having to close hospitals and cut social welfare spending. But the answer to many of their spending woes lies a lot closer to home. Why is it that the Balearics with a population of a million people needs four tiers of government? Now, the Balearics is a law-abiding place with few major problems. But we still have a Balearic government, a Council for each of the main Balearic Islands, councils in all the municipalities and the offices of the Central or Madrid government. Four separate local authorities all with their own civil servants. To make matters worse many of these authorities duplicate their responsibility. The Palma city council has a tourism department, the Council of Majorca has a tourism department, the Balearic government has a tourism department and then there is the Ministry for Tourism in Madrid. Can you imagine all the paperwork which must pass between each of the authorities on a daily basis? It must be enormous. No-one has really ever answered why each province of Spain needs so much government. We are being over-governed for sure. Can you imagine all the money which would be saved if two of the four separate authorities were abolished? It would be enormous. Unfortunately, it is never going to happen because the politicians would have to vote on it and it would be like turkeys voting for Christmas.