(I can see the merits of letting some things lie but I'm not sure if you yourself would just shrug about some criminal stuff. Take it from someone who has been there, you wouldn't).

As for both voluntary organisations and quangos "going native" and becoming an extension of government, I'm sure it's an occupational hazard - and a financial one if the piper is being paid by the government. You can see it happening in "our" sector. For years EH supported the idea of digging a vast trench across the Stonehenge landscape to create a cut and cover tunnel - because it was cheap and the government wanted it.

DEFRA's a funny one. They pay farmers a vast amount of European money not to cultivate strips around fields, to only plough to shallow depth, to maintain nature areas and protect archaeology. The latter is very much an afterthought and doesn't get sufficient attention from them IMO. But far worse, the European money may dry up. If that happens it will be a real disaster for both nature and archaeology.

The government, of course, will spin it - setting up a voluntary scheme that costs nothing and doesn't work and telling the world they're "empowering farmers to care" or some such Cameronspeak! ;)