Imagine you are a taxpayer enjoying a perfectly good service that is free at point of use. In its wisdom, the body in charge of that service spends your taxes on a capital project to replace the service and then starts charging at point of use. Then to cap it all, they spend more of your taxes sending you literature trumpeting what a marvellous modern scheme it is and therefore how delighted you should feel.
Sadly, successive governments have acclimatised us to this kind of bungling (often by calling it PFI). But surely the ICAEW would be cleverer than that? Apparently not. If you visit the new lounge at Chartered Accountants Hall, you’re in for a big surprise. Gone is the old world charm. Gone are the plump armchairs where you could read a newspaper along with a free cuppa.
It’s not the occasional outlay of £1.50 that upsets me – it’s more the emotional contract that I feel as a member of ICAEW. There are a host of sensible logical reasons to justify keeping up membership. What gets me is that the only fun reason (access to a nice lounge and a free cuppa when visiting the City) has been culled.
Hence it will take me a while to regain my formerly positive regard for the ICAEW… but them sending me a few tea vouchers might go some way to help…
