Mutt, dining with friends

An amusing and informative tale of the government functioning of Port Naain as told by Tallis Steelyard and penned by Jim Webster. Also, a book by Jim Webster on offer accompanied by the review of a reader.

Tallis Steelyard

I have often wondered whether it is possible for us to do without bureaucracy. Some will tell you that we need a bureaucracy because it supplies the underpinnings of civilisation and without it; we would lapse back to barbarism and within a generation would be struggling to remember how to make fire. It is notable that the people who claim this tend to be bureaucrats.
Still even in Port Naain we do have a bureaucracy. Yes, our system of Sinecures helps to limit it. The idea is that the various civic tasks that need doing are divided up into manageable chunks and the wealthy of the city bid to fund these tasks. They then ensure the work is done, using their own money and normally using their own staff to do it. In return they sit on the Council of Sinecurists which runs the city, in as much as anybody…

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