Just downloaded this.
Why do we not have a revolution and shoot some of these b****gers.
So much for caring sharing socialism--casn't blame Maggie for this.
11 years can be an eternity--please let's have a change.
This is worth the time and trouble to read.Tell me if it doesn't make you furious.
How MPs spend your money
By Sarah Modlock
I often wonder why people become MPs. In my younger, less cynical days I always assumed it was to help people, fight wrongs and promote rights. These days I wonder if it's more about a power trip. And the salary, perks and pension.
The highly-publicised expenses row has left the great British public with an even dimmer view of politicians, if that were possible. The string of revelations about second homes, fixtures, fittings and more has provoked a wave of anger. But despite promises to look at the rules which have allowed this, I'm not holding my breath.
In this piece I'm going to set aside the expenses row for now as it has been well-documented. But I will say that quite apart from the sleazy system which allows MPs to abuse public funds all within the 'letter of the rule' I have never understood why MPs can walk off into the sunset with a paid-for second home when surely a portion of the property and any goods (washing machines, TVs etc) which have been paid for with taxpayers' cash should remain state assets and used by the next MP?
Of course the expenses row (£93million of taxpayers' money claimed last year) has been momentarily eclipsed by the pay row (they awarded themselves a 2.33% pay rise from 1st April which takes basic pay to £64,766 a year) and the pension row (£13.2million of taxpayers' money will be used to fund them next year). Wow, I'm in the wrong job. But what about the other abuses of our cash? There are plenty more:
£12,030 spent on golf balls in the last three years. These were commissioned and used by UK Trade and Investment (part of the Dept for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform) to dish out to business contacts as gifts.
£62,000 spent by Culture Secretary Andy Burnham on a dinner party in an art gallery to discuss the credit crunch with 20 guests from 'creative industries'.
£2.4m (and counting) paid in rent on a luxury office building which was rented by the government in October 2007 but never used. The 56,000 sq ft London offices, belonging to German fund manager Realis, were supposed to be used to provide extra space while Westminster offices were upgraded.
£1.5m used to pay for the development of a new slogan for tax inspectors. The slogan...wait for it: "HMRC Ambition" was meant to boost morale for HM Revenue and Customs, taking 450 civil servants more than 9,000 away-day hours to devise. The best bit is.. it was then dropped less than 12 months later and replaced with "HMRC: The Vision". A spokesman said "The Vision was founded on the Ambition and the work that came out of it but we believe we have moved on and need to express in more straightforward language where we are heading." Great.
£370,000 given to foreign prisoners who have been freed early in the 18 months since June 2007 as part of the End of Custody Licence scheme. The money is given to the offenders - including those who committed violent crimes - as compensation for the 'inconvenience of an early release'. On top of a £46 discharge payment, they get a subsidence allowance of £168.24 a week. The scheme was designed to relieve prison over-crowding.
£73m paid in benefits to dead people last year. The Department for Work and Pensions admits it is trying to claw the money back (from grieving relatives) but expects to have to write-off £27million.
£178m spent last year by the Central Office of Information on advertising, according to Neilson Media Research. Only private sector giant Proctor and Gamble spent more.
£77,000 spent on refurbishment of Peter Mandleson's office. The Business Secretary decided he did not like the £20,000 re-decoration work completed just before he took office and so spent a further £57,000 of taxpayers' funds on more work. The figures were revealed in a series of Parliamentary questions.
£400,000 spent by the Foreign Office on Tony Blair's work in the Middle East since he left office. Department figures reveal that four civil servants and a political analyst have been sent to work for him.
252 Jobcentre Plus staff kept on the payroll despite having no job, according to the Department for Work and Pensions. Of these, 122 have had no work to do for six months, while 105 have not had a job for a year.
£600,000 spent holding cabinet meetings outside London to prove that ministers are 'in touch with the country'.
£50m spent so far by the Department of Transport on 'pay as you drive' schemes designed to charge drivers for road use (I thought that's what Road Tax was for?). None of the schemes have been implemented to date.
£72m spent on consultants by the Education Department. This amount would pay the salaries of 2,057 teachers for a year. The figures were obtained through Parliamentary questions.
£5bn spent on adult literacy drive 'Skills for Life' which has been deemed a "dismal flop" by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee. The Committee's report said "By 2007, despite the expenditure, the evidence was that a large proportion of the adult population still could not read, write or count adequately."
£21.5bn spent on new roads, schools and hospitals after private sector funding collapsed in the recession. The Private Finance Initiative was designed to let private companies build, run and maintain large public projects in exchange for payment over the life of the contract but has proved controversial.
£2,000 per head - the cost of a luxury hotel-based 'diversity' course for civil servants, run by the National School of Government, part of the Cabinet Office.
£4.27m worth of items stolen from Whitehall departments last year. The Fraud Report 2007-08 reveals that 25 out of 47 government departments or agencies reported internal theft. The cost was up from £3.85million the previous year, despite the number of cases falling by nearly a third, suggesting that fewer staff were getting away with more. Eleven cases involved theft worth more than £100,000. Laptops and PCs are often stolen but two Land Rovers costing £30,000 were taken and never recovered.
£8.5m spent on public relations by the Passport Office last year according to Freedom of Information figures. £4.4million was spent on public relations by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence.
£20.3m spent by the Home Office on TV advertising over the last five years. The department defended the spend, saying its "campaigns addressed important issues such as drug misuse, burglary and vehicle crime."
I could go on. And on..... But you probably cannot read much more if the red mist has descended.
