The waste monster
We thought we’d just leave these here for the record.
(Readers might also want to keep this link handy for the next time Unionist politicians are trying to whip up outrage about the Scottish Government spending a couple of grand on hotels for the First Minister or whoever.)
Your taxes in safe Westminster hands, readers. Do send in any we’ve missed.
The total wasted on ID cards, the Dome, the destruction of Iraq and all the rest of the above is over £500 billion – that’s money, remember, that’s been basically poured down a toilet with nothing to show for it. Now, £500 billion is a fairly meaningless figure to most people, so here are some of the things it would pay for:
– the UK’s entire housing benefit bill for 29 years
or
– the UK’s entire Job Seeker’s Allowance bill for 103 years
or
– the UK’s entire Child Benefit bill for 42 years
or
– the UK’s entire Tax Credits bill for 17 years
or
– the entire education budget in Scotland for 195 years, or restoring and funding the Educational Maintenance Allowance in England and Wales for 902 years
You get the idea, we presume.
The refurbishment of the Houses Of Parliament is going ahead at a cost of £3,000,000,000. I’m sure there will be no overspending or financial muddles over that.
Thames House – Original budget £60m, actually spend £226m and the other building at Vauxhall Cross in London, initial estimate of £22m to an eventual bill of £81m.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/622959.stm
“Do send in any we’ve missed.”
Stu, you’re going to need a bigger internet..
The one that springs to my mind was Labours big NHS IT System that went t*ts up..
http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2295455/abandoned-nhs-it-project-costs-taxpayers-gbp10bn-and-there-may-be-more-to-come
Failure – Funded by the UK Government.
Is the trip to Mars cancelled now?
Wembley Stadium’s soaring costs:
http://www.theguardian.com/football/2006/feb/02/newsstory.sport8
Pergua Dam, one of the most infamous UK Aid for Arms deals ever:
http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2012/dec/12/pergau-dam-affair-aid-arms-scandal
Running total of the amount wasted on the Julian Assange siege:
http://govwaste.co.uk/
Additionally, I beleive HS2 costs have more than doubled from around £30 billion to £70 billion. The only link I can find is the Telegraph though so meh. Interesting to note the US went to the moon for about the same price adjusting for $ value of teh Apollo project to 2014.
Brilliant Stu
OT great mention by Prof Robertson today on RT UK ‘re wings post yesterday AYE
A photo of Jim Murphy would also be applicable. He is another failed project costing lots of public money.
“The one that springs to my mind was Labours big NHS IT System that went t*ts up..”
That’s included in the second link.
I would have thought any project run by the MoD over the last 40 years?
“Wembley Stadium’s soaring costs:”
These things are value judgements, though. However crazy the price, Wembley did get built. It’s there and being used. The stuff in this list is money that was basically just poured down a toilet for nothing.
(Okay, the Dome is there, but we spent nearly a billion quid on that and then just gave it away to a private company.)
You forgot the £billions spent of Lord Irvine’s wallpaper.
Don’t know if these count, but off the top of my head, the 2012 Olympics, the Dome, probably the M25 London ring road.
Like I say …apologies if wrong, but I’m at work, and have a few seconds to have my first quick glance at Wings this day!!!!
Said before, I’ll say it again: it’s one thing to vote Conservative because you share Conservative values. Really, I can’t fault that. It’s another thing to vote for such a crowd of incompetent, inefficient, ruinous fools who are running the country into the ground.
This is why I think the SNP have such a chance at the GE: because even if you don’t agree with all of their politics, you can surely respect that they’ve actually done a pretty good job of governing Scotland. You simply cannot say the same of New Labour or the Coalition, regardless of your politics – not when both have absolutely demolished the UK’s economy, credit rating, international standing and more.
The Nimrod MRA4 fleet, built for hundreds of millions of pounds, then scrapped before entering service. The total costs were estimated to be between £3.4bn and £4bn.
The aircraft would have been based in Scotland (at Kinloss), and it was suggested that the intended roles of the aircraft would then be filled by the Duke-class frigates and Merlin helicopters. However, none of these are based in Scotland!
After reading about Falkirk Council having a 40M budget gap i e-mailed them to get the PFI figures.
11 days afterwards,after having to prompt them,i got the reply.
Council budget 14/15: £332,685,000
PFI:Interest payment £12,812,000
Repayment of debt £3,642,000
Operating cost £8,921,000
As you can see,we’re paying near £12.8 Million a year just in interest payments while only reducing the initial loan by only £3.6 Million.
Exactly what the operating costs are for,i don’t know.
Perhaps someone can explain?
Aircraft carriers without aircraft?
Stuart …I know this is kind of pulling away from proper examples of bad investment, but to be quite honest, I suppose the key one that Labour really screwed the nation on, and cost us a ton of money would be …the war in Iraq.
No matter how much they screech about what the SNP spend money on …the Iraq War ends every argument.
Money down the drain?
Trident, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and yet people still think Devo Max, leaving “Defence” and Foreign Affairs in Westminster’s hands, is a good thing.
Wasn’t there a new Air Traffic Control IT system that was abandoned when it didn’t work?
Also the two new aircraft carriers – yes we have the carriers for the money spent, but they’re kind of useless without any planes to put on them.
What strikes me most about this article is actually the comparison of welfare bills at the end.
The two most expensive bills mentioned are housing benefit and tax credits.
Where does housing benefit go? Greedy landlords. A direct transfer of money from the state to the well-off.
What do tax credits do? They make up for the fact that companies are not paying their staff living wages – they are a subsidy for big business and another direct transfer of money from the state to the well-off.
Meanwhile the right-wing press moan about the number of jobseekers receiving benefits, which is tiny is comparison.
Aircraft for the new carriers-change of design after contracts signed by MOD then Govt decided they’d ordered the wrong version.
Now this https://archive.today/GuPYC
Figures not given but you can bet it’s a lot
#Funded by UK Government
Rev says : (Okay, the Dome is there, but we spent nearly a billion quid on that and then just gave it away to a private company.)
No we didnt!
We gave it away to a Private company PLUS told them we would happily give them subsidies until the Dome ever returned an actual profit!
Rev
How about a nice cheerful story…I’m getting ready to slit my wrists 🙁
…I suppose I can wait to May 🙂
pmcrek says:
Ah, but did Apollo go through any Tories back gardens? 😉
“the war in Iraq”
Indeed, but that one was included in the previous article, and it’d be a bit unsporting to count it twice.
And then there was the London Olympics, with an initial bid of £2.4bn. This increased to an astonishing £9.3bn, with some critics suggesting the true costs was nearer £25bn!. However, the typically corrupt UK government claimed that as the final costs were £8.9bn, the games came in under budget!
Now, I’m not a mathematician, but I am quite convinced that if the initial budget is £2.4bn, and the final costs are £8.9bn, then that cannot possibly be an underspend.
Widespread corruption and never ending lies – Funded by UK Government.
Oh Gordon!….You’re so 2008!
£1.7bn of taxpayer’s money is being spent settling Metronet’s debts following the failed privatisation of London Underground and it worth reminding ourselves that it was Gordon Brown, who forced through the controversial Public Private Partnership of the Tube when he was Chancellor. A further £300m will go to Transport for London to cover its cost in taking on Metronet’s contracts
http://www.power-to-the-people.co.uk/2008/08/waste-taxpayers-money-labour-government/
Maggie Thatchers State Funeral!
Brenda’s Diamond Jubilee 2012
Nuff said 🙂
Pitcairn Island is a 2 mile long rocky outcrop and home to a population of 55, including many paedophiles.
Funded by UK Government
https://archive.today/pm2Vx
“Sexual assault trials of 2004”
“In 2010 a senior Pitcairn Island official faced 25 charges of possessing images and videos of child pornography on his computer.”
“Children under the age of 16, even from the cruise ships, who wish to visit the island, must obtain the prior entry clearance.”
“The UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office does not currently allow their staff based on Pitcairn to be accompanied by their children.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitcairn_Islands
Possibly “saved” some here – but the lawyers fees? Maybe an FOI would get the cost – so far – but it ain’t over yet.
http://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240240513/Home-Office-wins-appeal-against-300m-Raytheon-payment-over-e-Borders-cancellation
Nimrod early warning systems replacement went down the UK Funded crapper. £4-5 billion wasted and no early warning systems, especially over Scottish waters. RAF Kinloss was the Nimrod base so with no Nimrod, that base has gone now. Another SLab/Brown triumph of extremely weirdness.
https://archive.today/CTSBs
Nimrod destruction cost taxpayer £3.4bn as MoD ignored ‘cost implications’, MPs say
The destruction of the Nimrod surveillance aircraft fleet wasted £3.4 billion of taxpayers’ money, according to an MPs report which concluded that short term defence cuts have led to huge costs.
Rev O/T sorry!
Now we can see why you were so quiet yesterday! Those calculations alone must have taken some time to do.
The bloopers probably jumped out of Google right at you-no search needed :-)There were so many.
Let’s be kind. How about another list of the Westminster projects that have come in on time and on budget?
PFI
Guardian estimates £242b, Telegraph £300b. A lot!
Interestingly, these figures are all in the same ball park as the costs to Scotland of being the the Union for the last 25years or so.
Now we know where our excess tax subsidy to London goes … “down a toilet”.
“Useless Public Sector Projects Cost UK £120bn”
“Bumper Book of Government Waste”
Funded by UK Government
https://archive.today/fVyS6
Hey Rev, you should do something on all the projects the current Scottish government has delivered on time and budget versus unionist (mainly SLAB) late and over budget projects i.e. parliament building and trams.
Jim Murphy, nine years collecting government handouts when at university and gaining nothing but a membership of the Bazooka Joe club in that time.
and what about the sale of council houses? BT, British Gas, Corus, BA, the electrics, BNOC, English water and the Royal Mail at undervalues for crony profit?
Now we pay charges for these and still our taxes have not gone down.
Och cmon stu, we lost,get over it.It’s what the majority voted for.Christ,nae wonder this corrupt union is £1.5 trillion in debt.They are chucking it about like confetti.
Oops..sorry Stu.. The NHS I.T project was there.. I just battered right in there..
Learn to read young man.. Learn to read :$
Marco McGinty @ 4:20
I don’t believe those figures include the cost of the EW system specifically designed for Nimrod. Problem was, when fitted , it prevented air flow to the intakes thus making it totally useless.
I thought it was the Tony Blair Lifestyle Fund
And then there is the new electronic signing pads installed in Jobcentres since last October. The system, that should have been operational since November or December, is still not up and running.
No-one knows when the system will be operational.
Esther McVey’s total incompetence – Funded by UK Government.
hMMM, THE SECRETARY OF STATE FOR SCOTLAND????
We sure get nothing for that one!
UK FUNDED ( as usual with Scottish Taxes ) Oh, that is how they designed it to work!
galam-not an exhaustive list,but strange how that figure above is very close to the £300 billion in oil revenues estimate for the past 40 years.
O/T but a bit of fun
Tweet from Pete Wishart asking us to vote for him in WM social media awards so it can upset MP’s! Done it:-) Anything to oblige!
https://t.co/0xvHKlESHy
galamcennalath says:
Now we know where our excess tax subsidy to London goes … “down a toilet”.
We contributed to their drains too, oh, that is what sharing is all about, we earn it, they take it, they spend it, sorted.
Of course
FUNDED BY THE UK GOVERNMENT
How about that NATS air traffic control system how did that work out ?
Failed ESA Project.
Funded by UK Government
https://archive.today/w6xkw
Lollysmum@5.15
I obliged Pete too. Thanks for that.
O/T : Cracking read here (Rev kept this quiet)
https://commonspace.scot/articles/556/flying-high-wings-over-scotland-editor-on-holding-the-media-to-account-and-the-mystery-project-red
@Rob James
“I don’t believe those figures include the cost of the EW system specifically designed for Nimrod. Problem was, when fitted , it prevented air flow to the intakes thus making it totally useless.”
Rob, I think you could be mistaking the MRA4 for the AEW3 variant (the one with the bulbous nose), which was scrapped in the 1980s. The MRA4 was scrapped in 2010, and it was intended to replace the Nimrod MR2, which was still in service during the MRA4’s development.
Superficially, the MR2 and MR4 looked very similar. The main differences were better engines allowing for an extension to the flight range of the aircraft, and an upgrade of the electronics systems.
Owen Jones book ‘The Establishment and how they get away with it’ is bursting with examples. Should be compulsory reading and posted through every letterbox in the country. Nobody could vote Lab/con/Lib ever again after reading it. Health Warning – may increase your blood pressure.
http://anotherangryvoice.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/40-golden-rule-pfi-legacy.html
Why have bloggers always been ahead of journalists in the last decade?
Perhaps it is not a case of being ahead…more likely that we never heard the other side of the story.
Voted for Pete Wishart, anything to oblige.
I also follow his Blog.
“MoD waste millions on failed computer system”
Funded by UK Government
https://archive.today/Ymdqb
PFI – a transfer of wealth from the general public to the Neocons. Is Broon’s speechifying fees and the mighty global positions he now inhabits, his payback by the Neocons? Really just what does he have to say of insight and knowledge to warrant the fees he is receiving?
The sell-off of half our gold reserve by Gordon Brown while gold was at its lowest price in years (partly caused by Brown telling everyone he was going to dump 400 tons of gold on the open market) which lost the UK tax payer nearly 13,000,000,000 if sold at today`s price.
More recently, it has been suggested that the sale, and its seemingly inept management, was a deliberate attempt to drive down the gold price in order to rescue several banks which had highly leveraged short positions in gold.
It should say Funded by HONEST UK Taxpayers as the dishonest ones don’t even pay enough to cover the air they use
OT/ but you’ll all like it:
The results of the ‘Scot goes Pop – daily Record poll is in.
Doesn’t look good for the Redcoat! lol.
http://scotgoespop.blogspot.co.uk/
@M4rkyBoy
Operating costs will be for schools etc built under pfi with the maintenance etc by a private company for X years no getting out of it was part of the deal. So any services provided under a PFI contract. That is one way, amongst many, that the private sector mint it under PFI.
Everything from PFI to the Dome was “Funded by the UK government with the endorsement of dozens of Scottish MPs and over a million Scottish voters” but I guess that’s a bit harder to fit in a JPEG.
@Macart
Now that’s unfair
The Aircraft Carrier (singular) will have (eventually)
the Lockheed Martin F35b jet fighter will be supplied, just not on time.
In fact according to The Business Insider quote “Due to a design oversight, the internal weapon’s bay of the F-35B is too small to carry the required load of the new Small Diameter Bomb II)
Now you would have thought with all the money thrown at it by the MOD, the Americans would at least get it right.
So the new jet will only be able to carry 4 bombs instead of 8. (The MOD will probably sell this flaw as an asset, stating that pilots will be more careful not to waste any over target)
http://uk.businessinsider.com/the-f-35b-cant-carry-its-most-advanced-weapon-2015-3
Bank bailout? umpteen billion?
Coalition in 2010-Cancelling the schools building programme in England & Wales even though contracts had been signed with building companies. Cost them a fortune in compensation claims
Illegal war cost a fair bit of dosh with little to show for it bar corpses.
According to advert on Classic FM every household in Scotland will receive a booklet entitled “Changing Scotland” which will outline the AGREED benefits such as votes for 16 years old, income tax which we can spend ourselves and two and a half billion benefit money.
When was all this agreed? The booklets will be through your door this month.
A countering leaflet from the Scottish Gov might be appropriate
Howabout the unionist oddities that run Aberdeen in a classic red and blue tory coalition and their rejection of oil billionaire Ian Wood’s offer of £100 million or so to destroy/renovate Aberdeen’s Union Terrace gardens?
It was a tough decision for our unionist cluster fcuk council so they held a city wide referendum, Aberdeen said YES, then council said no anyway. Why they even held a costly referendum is just one more teamGB mystery but right click Union terrace gardens Aberdeen and SLab’s Wullie Young pops up like a rash everywhere. He’s been caught lying about their next SLAb/UKOK white elephant nightmare too.
Troll’s on the evening shift today
Bad news bears banging on about A&E figures again?
its beginning to sound like a concerted hate campaign.
@Muscleguy
So it’s basically like paying for a factor or management fees?
Like,’we’ll loan the money to build the school but on the condition that you pay our management company to maintain it’ etc?
how not to waste money
http://www.gofundme.com/mjicqo
Stephen Gethins winning NEF and watching ming campbells face……..priceless
🙂
West coast rail fiasco cost taxpayers £50 million
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/west-coast-rail-fiasco-will-cost-taxpayers-50m-8510826.html
RJF – your last post came across as very weak. Please up your game. If you are going to counter the wit and facts on this site then you need to be much, much more interesting.
Pedant alert! The UK Government does not have any money they just re-allocate (and waste) our money.
Pete got my vote too.
That would not cover jimbo morphy’s expenses
LOL …whisper ….this isn’t part of Project Red …is it?
As to your previous article …now that I’m home, I’ll go and have a wee peek in a mo!
But while here …I’ve just checked my own little hoard of information that I had stored away on my PC during the referendum. The list below was projects planned for London. Now, I’ve just done a quick copy and paste, so apologies if some of the entries are repeated. However, I’m sure time, effort and money may have been spent on some of them. Some of them may have been mothballed. Some may have even be completed. But …it might just jog other folks memories, and thus, they may have slightly more information at hand (if they also have their own wee library of information from the Referendum). Anyway …here it is…and remember …it’s a copy and paste job from an old document …so no moaning!!!!
Projects around London (Past, Present, Future)
– The new £40bn HS2 rail-line
– Trident
– The Garden Bridge. A new Bridge in London. Cost £150 million.
– The London Crossrail project, which is estimated at £14.8bn
– Refurbishing Westminster for £3bn
– The £4.2bn London sewer upgrade, and so on.
– The possible £47.3 Billion to be spent on a new London Airport, 50 miles east of London on an island estuary. The costs could escalate due to possible new motorways, rail lines, roads, costs for closure of other or downgrading of other London airports, even new towns to support the complex!)
– South Bank Refurbishment
– upgrade to Regent Street
– upgrade to Park Lane
– further upgrades to the London Underground
– upgrade to Trafalgar Square
– upgrade to the surroundings of the Tower of London
– the new fountain for Princess Diane
– the Mayor’s Office
Like I said, this list is just to jog folks memories. It may not be accurate, but it is certainly something for folk to go burrowing in …and who knows what they may dig up!
Stupid arse unionist John Mackay booms out the headlines for tonight’s STV news at six programme,
“A&E targets missed AGAIN!”
Followed by me reaching for the remote control to turn the channel to something more pleasing on the eye.
I wonder if the advertisers and sponsors of STV know just how many viewers are turning off STV because of their increasingly biased news bulletins.
Just like the Tories and Labour joining forces, I can see the same thing happening between STV and BBC Scotland.
Thank fcuk I don’t pay for all this Unionist propaganda.
O/T apps. what are the odds on J Murphy cutting the ribbon for the reopening of the Clutha bar wearing an egg and blood stained shirt within a week of the GE.
The Scottish parliament
10 times over budget and three years late.
caz-m :
Thats Professor John Mackay to us lesser mortals.
Hon prof via Glasgoe Caledonian Uni – who’d a thunk it ?
BBC banging on about A&E again via you know who.
I’m certain that spending somebody else’s money
is the easiest thing in the world.
But wasting somebody else’s money,
only a politician does that without batting an eyelid..
Ask Gordon or Gideon.
O/T:
Gordon Chree on STV News on about NHS waiting times this evening. Towards end he says the figures could ‘influence how people vote in the year of an election’ or words close to that.
This will perhaps be more likely to be true if you choose not to educate your viewers by informing them that, even in the event they think Labour would do a better job in this regard, it will do people no good to go voting for them on that basis in this particular election.
If you don’t seek to educate and inform, but simply parrot this kind of idea you are effectively propagandising, Gordon. Or do you not know the difference between retained and devolved powers, eh?
John King, I see your wee friend has appeared again.
Now if you must take him for walkies, play nice. He really aint very good and would seem to be a slow learner . He really needs to up his game to play with the wingers.
Manandboy says @6.33
“Ask Gordon or Gideon.”
But for pure brazen cheek you cant beat Ian Duncan Smith
wasting £500 million on a failed it project in the DWP
@ Johnny 6.33. Yup, they think the Scots are all daft.
Voting Labour in the GE will do nothing for Scotland NHS as it is and always was separate from the English system. Just the same as education and our law system.
Thanks to the referendum a lot of folk are now aware of this. We really need to get it out there for folk who are proud scot buts.
Mind you, according to them, we are all better together.
Aye right.
Hi John King.
“The Scottish parliament
10 times over budget and three years late”
Surely 300 years late?
8=)
I was watching Reporting Scotland’s slamming of the SNHS this evening, only to report to wings of course, they were at Forth Valley, so I was watching very carefully for Slab supporters/ actresses/nurses.
I saw some folk in nurses uniforms, didn’t recognize any of them from Slab leaflets, though.
john ferguson at 6:21
I’ve twice heard a rumour, from independent sources, that Murphy got a payout of £1000 from the Clutha distress fund. Sounds unlikely, but even if it is not true it could be worth spreading it and let him deny it – ‘no smoke without fire’ syndrome might kick in and bring him down a peg.
The bungled privatization of Royal Mail.
Undervalued by around 38% by the UK govt and their advisers Goldman Sachs.
National AuditOffice said it cost UK taxpayer 780m I seem to recall.
Ah good old Stu. Yet again you come up with the evidence as to why we are all Better Together. Hmm … think I may have to rephrase that … 😀
Readers might also want to keep this link handy for the next time Unionist politicians are trying to whip up outrage about the Scottish Government spending a couple of grand on hotels for the First Minister or whoever.
I think that is the LEAST we can all do. 😛
Marie Clarke says
“I see your wee friend has appeared again.”
Naw Im bored with him now,
besides he bit me
can I have a hamster? 🙂
beedeedeetee says
“Surely 300 years late?”
TOUCHE. 🙂
Has anyone seen the photo of wee Dougie “please be my pal” Alexander trying to make friends with a passer-by :-
http://www.msn.com/en-gb/travel/article/incredible-photo-shows-a-weasel-riding-a-woodpecker/ar-BBi9UTj?ocid=LENDHP
Don’t think that even this will improve the SLab vote !!!
Gary
@RJF 5:54pm
PFI FUNDED BY THE UK GOVERNMENT? Your at the wind up NOO! You canna be that stupit.
My Great Grand children will be funding PFI thanks to Gordie the weirdo.
How come we got to pay for (and still are) paying for LONDONS big useless tent?
JEEZE HOW LUCKY WE ARE thanks for informing us how good the ENGLISH are to us, I might never have known. Never mind we have got trident and HS2 to help you lot out with…BIG THANKS!
Again thanks for the muppet show provided by EBC Scottish news that’s some cast the Big Burd, Glen Gormless, Jen ta marra msp, the glum El Bradford, the Dug, and Dim Jim what a team what a team! Thanks RJF MUCH APPRECIATED TA
@ GrahamB at 6.57
Murphy (or someone on his behalf) has already categorically denied receiving a payout from the Clutha fund, and has made the usual jibes about cybernats being despicable for suggesting that he had.
So, although I was brought up never to believe anything until it had been officially denied, I think that one should be left alone.
John King, Aye I think we were all board with him yesterday, but he’s a bit thick and he’s back to try again.
Are you sure that he bit you and no the ither way roon.
Anyway, aye, you can hiv a hamster if it keeps you happy.
GrahamB says:
3 March, 2015 at 6:57 pm
I don’t know about others but that is not a very smart post in my opinion.
Crazycat-that is Murphy’s Achilles heel. If only someone would take him to task over his expenses on national telly mark my words his creepy skeletor mask would slip bigtime.
And as our glorious Imperial Parliament did nothing to stop any of this waste can we put down their cost as waste as well?
Graham B
I think it is unwise to go with a story unless you know the facts. If it transpired that such a thing was the case then it would certainly raise eyebrows but it seems unlikely to me. Lover of expenses though he is I doubt Jim is that crass and such story would backfire on the teller if not backed with facts and proved wrong.
GrahamB 6:57pm
Jim Murphy- Clutha. This rumour was doing the rounds elsewhere recently and from memory there was NO truth in it and things got a bit out of control. Best to keep Wings away from this!
£375 billion on QE(Free money for the bankers to play with).
How much has the F35 stealth aircraft cost us so far and is it flying yet ?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/transport/farnborough-airshow/10977537/Everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-F-35-Britains-70m-new-stealth-fighter.html
Anyway, aye, you can hiv a hamster if it keeps you happy.
🙂
@Clootie 7.19 Agreed it was not a very smart post. Keep well away from this sort of thing.
It would play right into their grubby little paws.
http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/uk-labour-to-adopt-scottish-labour-free-tuition-vow
Funded by the current UK Govt – Cost of detaining MPs at Her Majesty’s Pleasure.
Lord Hanningfield (2011), 9 months for false expenses claims of c£14,000.
David Chaytor (2011), 18 months for false expenses claims of over £20,000.
Lord Taylor of Warwick (2011), 12 months for false expenses claims of £11,277.
Elliot Morley (2011), 16 months for false expenses claims of over £30,000.
Jim Devine (2011), 16 months in 2011 submitting false invoices totalling £8,385.
Eric Illsley (2011), 1 year for false expenses claims of £14,000.
Denis MacShane (2013) 6 months for false expenses claims of c£13,000
Chris Huhne (2013) 8 months for perverting the course of justice
“…the startling statistic that in 2011, while 0.13 per cent of the general population was in jail, a shocking 0.61 per cent of House of Commons members were in prison.”
http://tinyurl.com/mnlbmrq
It’s already been denied by the fund managers
Ooft, belly punch!
Anyone see SLAB BBC piece on Scot Gov corp tax position. SNP reasoning seems reasonable enough – I think 🙂 Thats not the issue – the piece is like a Rev article (obvs not as well researched, written or as enjoyable) giving SNP’s position since 2007. Why can’t the fuckers just show some consistency across any political party when reporting like that. It just makes me so sad but fucking more angry. Any idea how many people marching to SBC and why is it not publicised by the Rev and others – no point if a couple of hundred turn up!! Scunerred.com 🙁
MI5 and MI6 in cost coverup
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/feb/18/richardnortontaylor
As we’re talking about health & waste here I posted this originally on another thread but it’s also pertinent here
An example of PFI in NHS England
I was talking to a Senior Sister whilst having treatment. Her department had just been moved to a wing built under PFI contract. She had asked for a clock to be put on the wall & for a 2ft long shelf to be fitted to another wall.
Two assessors & a lot of tutting later & the verdict was ‘That’ll cost £750 of your budget Sister.’ and we wonder why the NHS has no money
I have absolutely no criticism of the NHS though-I’m a frequent flier with them since someone prescribed me a medication that induced diabetes 4 years ago but they have done their utmost to look after me.
I blame Brown & his sheer stupidity in merrily signing PFI contracts right up until the moment he left office & Gideon is still signing them now, with neither having any thought for the future & how they will be paid for except by giving hospitals to private companies & the populace being expected to take out health insurance. People like me won’t get cover if we switch to that system. So here we are about to ape the USA yet again if we don’t fight to stop it.
https://fbcdn-sphotos-c-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/11025661_10152601421037653_5235759902704253948_n.jpg?oh=0bfc43ed39d809988cfaa2986062b1aa&oe=55815FAF&__gda__=1434021840_b980789018a840f8c4ccae8a9c45f1dc
Sorry for last post, not sure how to get pic into here 🙁
Think we need stickers of that to go everywhere their is a dodgy official on 🙂
Rev
Too many union flags flying around threads these days. Can we call a halt on this torment please?
@gavin lessells says:
“According to advert on Classic FM every household in Scotland will receive a booklet entitled “Changing Scotland” which will outline the AGREED benefits such as votes for 16 years old, income tax which we can spend ourselves and two and a half billion benefit money.
When was all this agreed? The booklets will be through your door this month.
A countering leaflet from the Scottish Gov might be appropriate
I agree.
The SNP were also part of the Smith Commission.
The Scottish Government opinion should be heard too.
Perhaps it could be distributed by members to save money.
I think there is some confusion among some people over what areas are devolved or not, even now.
I was talking to someone last year who thought that NHS Scotland was a branch of the UK NHS.
It would actually be nice to see an annual household leaflet from the Scottish Government detailing their plans for the year head.
Along the lines of a companies annual report.
In a way, we are all ‘shareholders’ in the Government.
How about the umpteen enquiries, such as chilcot, not published until past their sell by date. Or were they just jobs for the boy’s. Priceless
Maybe getting Westminster a facelift could be a blessing. We want Trident removed,well they could put the subs underneath in the bowels of government they would be in the perfect place to protect the “parliament” buildings. Access to the Thames would be easy and Westminster would be assured of being on top of defence! Win win imo!
Can’t see the problem..I mean Trident is safe isn’t it..no nasty radioactive stuff getting out and contaminating the area. People living in the London area would be perfectly safe with the added benefit of knowing that Russia would be so intimidated by this deterrent it wouldn’t “buzz” the city..ever
Just watched the Keiser Report on the crack den economics of our Governemnt – literally! May explain a lot of the above.
http://rt.com/shows/keiser-report/236921-episode-726-max-keiser/
May have been mentioned already – I’ve only briefly scanned the comments tonight but what about all the long grass inquiries and commissions. Levenson, Chilcot, Smith etc.
I’m sure there’s quite a few more, but I can’t be *rsed going to look.
Quite a few tens of millions there I’d think.
1. Sellafield screw-up
That comes on top of a previous catastophy that was closed down only a few years ago:
2. Another Sellafield screw-up
The catastrophy above was started when the previous Tory Government was in power and closed down by the current Tory Government.
Westmidden ‘couldn’t run the proverbial brewery piss up’ comes to mind.
Shuggy @7.39 pm
That statistic made me laugh out loud, thanks for posting it.
Fixing the result of the Scottish Referendum to stifle the true voice of the Scottish people, thereby, rendering the exercise pointless, questionable and a complete waste of money.
Should have played nice. Payback, GE 2015, enjoy
And these are spends in London and the South East that are in excess of anything spent elsewhere in the UK
Upgrade costs of London underground £6,800,000,000
Heathrow terminal 5 £4,000,000,000
M1- J10 to J13 improvement scheme £503,000,000
M25 junctions 6a and 10 £294,000,000
Annual cost of houses of parliament £448,200,000
London gateway dredging £400,000,000
London gateway £1,500,000,000
Olympic games £3,000,000,000
Crossrail tunnel £16,000,000,000
New sewers £4,500,000,000
Fast trains to euro tunnel £5,800,000,000
Wembley £798,000,000
Finally, in future one could add the cost of the next London airport at £50,000,000,000
600 HMRC staff paid to sit at home for months after IT bungle
http://order-order.com/2015/03/03/hmrc-paid-600-staff-to-sit-at-home-in-it-bungle/
@ Rev Project RED, ah donts like it ,gets up and leaves
Wheelchair.
On second thought’s am taking the Wheelchair ATOS is watching.
Could you not have chosen another colour,Cerise sounds nice, ( ah la Mrs Brown).an awe the wummin wuld like a Cerise coloured book.
Ah mean You have to think of the fairer sex, battleaxe’s ah know but in ah dirty fight, ah strong wummin at your back scares the shit right oot them aka ( Black Maria ) 6ft of Queens enforcers knocked oot wie wan punch.
Sumbody gie me ah push batteries flat again.
Maybe already mentioned but what about the money spent on jets for the new aircraft carrier that werent suitable. Now we’ve got new “carriers” (missing the aircraft)
@Edward
My mistake, I mixed up farce with waste. 😀 Though at one point I recall the plan was for two aircraft carriers.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-17656638
Then of course there was the Harrier sale. 😀
http://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/2013/09/whatever-happened-harriers/
ronnie
Beats me how you & John King come up with these quips. I pity your wives- must be hell to live with your own in-house comedian 🙂
Wrinkleyreborn
Put your specs on-your name has changed again 🙂
@Capella,
Yes I love the Keiser report. I did try to tell people under the ‘london provides’ spell in the lead up to indyref that infact all the great city produced was debt – the issuance of fiat currency by private institutions and of course the placing of bets on the future value of things.
The two big fall down points for me in the lead up to the referendum were:
1) the inability of peon to differentiate wealth from debt.
2) the lack of understanding of what a currency actually is.
People looked at the UK as the safe haven. To me it’s a burning ship.
OT My daughter Karen on STV news at six talking to Nicola about what she does, right after KD soundbite. She is the woman with the spectacles and the black and white striped dress.
About 15:30 in.
http://player.stv.tv/programmes/news-at-six-edinburgh-east-full/
Sorry Stu – this is a long list but here goes…
Post-war peanut planting scheme (Labour) 1951 £36 million (= £1.1 billion today)
Blue Streak missile programme (Conservative) 1959 £300 million (= £10 billion today)
Promotion of workers co-ops, including the Scottish Daily News (Lab) 1970s £10 million (= £63 million now)
DeLorean (Lab) 1970s £77 million (= £386 million now)
Gordon Brown’s scrapping of the 10p starting rate for income tax (Lab) 2007 £2.7 billion
Mis-selling of pensions (Con) 1993 £9.7 billion (= £17.5 billion today)
Child Support Agency (Con) 1993 £1 billion (close to £2 billion today)
Exiting the ERM (Con) 1993 £3.3 billion (= £6 billion today)
Total costs of Millennium Dome (Lab) 2003 £828 million (= £1 billion now)
Individual Learning Accounts (Lab) 2000 £290 million (= £450 million now)
Tax Credit Overpayments (Lab) 2007 £2 billion
Asset Recovery Agency (Lab) 2003 to 2007 £32 million
Rural Payment Agency (Lab) 2006 £350 million
Jubilee Line Overspend (Con & Lab) 1999 £2.5 billion (= £3.8 billion now)
London Underground PPP (Lab) 2007 £20 to 30 bilion
ID cards (lab) 2000s £300 million
The derivatives Market – £0.5Trillion – guaranteed by the UK tax payer.
Sorry ios8 turned “people” into “peon”. Bloody thing.
Wish I had a link, when Blair was in power they kept £250,000,000 of poverty relief destined for the Highlands and Islands paid by the EU, because the H & I are / were deemed the poorest part of Europe!
I listened to the Radio Scotland news the night at 6- hospital waiting times again. If this is going to be once a week can we just storm PQ now whilst we are all sober and relatively calm rather than wait until we are bilin’ mad?
Joking aside – condemnation by the radio Scotland colLABorator, followed by condemnation by Jenny Marra. The absence of right to reply by the Scottish Government did not even seem strange although it of course flies in the face of all norms of balanced journalism.
Imagine the inverse situation: Scottish Government miss their own target and Radio Scotland play it down, then Scottish Government spokesman comes on to minimise impact and big up their efforts. No opposition representation. Critics would be claiming that we are living in a totalitarian state with the media a mere government mouthpiece. And they’d be right.
A one week target missed by a few percent and we are staring into the fucking abyss? Do labour even know what targets are for? We have targets in my work – we work towards them but if you fall short it’s not game over. If a public or private body hits every target then guess what – the targets ain’t high enough!
Targets are meant to be difficult to achieve… otherwise they are mere backslapping excercises.
Next piece on the radio was Murphy and his Damascene conversion to free student fees so I suppose that offers some balance as it simply highlights what a bloody ethical vacuum Murphy operates in.
He will say ANYTHING to get votes, will perform any back flip, will make up anything they can think of, will even soften his stance on independence (watch for it) if he thinks there are votes in it.
The SNP need to start attacking the BBC – we need a constant murmur from around the top on the bias issue until the rest of the population finally become as sceptical with the MSM as we are.
Lollysmum says:
As we’re talking about health & waste here I posted this originally on another thread but it’s also pertinent here
An example of PFI in NHS England
I was talking to a Senior Sister whilst having treatment. Her department had just been moved to a wing built under PFI contract. She had asked for a clock to be put on the wall & for a 2ft long shelf to be fitted to another wall.
Two assessors & a lot of tutting later & the verdict was ‘That’ll cost £750 of your budget Sister.’ and we wonder why the NHS has no money
Perhaps, as P.F.I. is wee Gordie Broon’s baby, the Senior Sister you had a talk with Lollysmum should get the clock and shelf installed and send the bill to Broon. After all did he not make around £1,000,000 on extra political activites last year? 😉 I’m sure he can aford to pay the bill. 😀
@ Peter (7.52pm).
Peter, if you don’t want to leave untidy long URL’s in your posts you can use the archive facility to tidy them up a bit, like so:
https://archive.today/JZNQM
Just bookmark this archive link and use it whenever you need to.
http://archive.today/
btw, I like your sticker response to the BritNat Banner.
🙂
Eventual Destruction of the currency – funded by the UK govt…
http://www.positivemoney.org/how-money-works/how-much-money-have-banks-created/
Just looked at a Scottish Office tweet listing devolved / non devolved powers. There is a link to “Our United Future” where they state:
“More than 50% of Scottish Parliament spending will be funded by Scottish tax?”
I assume the subliminal message being that the other 50% is a subsidy from English tax. Perpetuating the myth.
@ Lollysmum 8,32 Irene Kings the long suffering Wife.Ma Wife stays roon the corner LoL.
Lesley-Anne
Vindictive bas%%%d that he is, he would get her sacked no matter how good she is.
@ Elizabeth
Naw, its no flying yet. As Edward said they cant fit its bombs in and the software for firing its cannon is nackered. So, should be about another 3yrs before its ready.
The only navy in the world without air cover.
Who rules the waves ??
@ Lesley-Anne Under PFI its inhouse contracted ah bit like the Cinema Popcorn 400% profit,buy it or leave it but your no bringing yer ain in.
OT but would i be right in thinking that Toby Young’s inclusion on QT tomorrow night makes the panel 4 unionists to Val and Humza? And is his inclusion just to make the show palatable to middle england?
Still, probably a fair fight considering KD is worse than being a man down. 🙂
£268billion divided by Murphy’s annual expenses of approx £200,000 keeps Murphy in luxury for approx 1.3 million years !!!
OR
536 Billion litres of Irn bru to get Murphy through the million plus years of canvassing…..!
(2ltr bottles irn bru currently £1).
After I put my post up I thought about it and sort of came to the same conclusion Lollysmum. 😉
Damn I forgot about that one Ronnie. Guess that is why I’m the village idiot then. 😀
@ GC (7.45pm).
As far as i know there are several hundred defo going and a couple of hundred “maybes” and whoever else joins in on the big day.
Are you going?
Sunday 15th March @ 14.00 hrs.
Gather in George Square before walking to Pacific Quay, Glasgow.
Possibly give our friends at The Rectum a wee wave on passing.
🙂
http://www.indyscot.info/details.php?ref=163
Some years ago, it cost £105 to hang a picture (donated by an artist) and a similar amount to change a fluorescent light at the PFI-funded Community Hospital in Stranraer. Most of the cost, ca. 95%, was in so-called “management fees”. Apparently, it is prohibited under the contract to do these simple tasks without permission from th management company. With charges like these, is it any wonder that SNHS is in financial straits?
Just as a wee follow up to Graeme Doig’s post about Question Time here. 😉
The panel includes Liberal Democrat chief secretary to the treasury Danny Alexander MP, SNP minister for Europe Humza Yousaf MSP, leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson MSP, Labour’s deputy leader in Scotland Kezia Dugdale MSP, journalist Toby Young and crime writer Val McDermid.
I don’t know whether to laugh or cry over this panel. I mean wee Danny Alexander AND the wee dog impersonator BOTH on the same programme at the SAME time!
I hate to puncture your idea of 4 versus 2 here Graeme but I believe Val McDermid was a supporter of Scottish independence. 😛
Could we actually be witnessing a political FIRST tomorrow night … 3 versus 3! 😀
@ Graeme Doig.
Thursday night, (QT), this is Tuesday mate!
🙂
@ Lesley-Anne village idiot aye, but what a Edumacated idiot lol,you should get into Town mair often & share your knowledge.
£88,933GBP Wings total at 9.45 pm. tonight.
What a team we are.
I do hope Nicola shoves a Referendum into next years SNP Manifesto.
Woww this is really depressing stuff, imagine what we could have with all that money. Why do we allow such stupid greedy people get their hands on this kind of money. Its clearly obviously they are not qualified..
@caz-m
I am sure plans are afoot.
The Herald is upset with plans for a Scottish database.
https://archive.today/KOGEy
Once that is in place everyone who has a vote can be checked for bona-fides.
Our day shall come
ronnie anderson says:
@ Lesley-Anne village idiot aye, but what a Edumacated idiot lol,you should get into Town mair often & share your knowledge.
Nothing but the best in village idiotacy from me on here Ronnie. 😀
Oh I don’t think the folks in the village like me much … they keep running away from me … even before I get a chance to open my big ugly mouth! 🙂
As if to prove my idiotacy I got confused, well there’s something that never happens … NOT 😀 , I put a post up about QT but didn’t pay enough attention to the panel members … DOH!
I assumed, without actually looking that there was an SNP candidate on the panel hence my 3 versus 3. I should have known far better than ever expect the BBC to hold a BALANCED panel! 😉
Aye yer right enough Stoker. Just back at work after a long absence. Lucky if i remember it’s 2015.
Leslie-Anne
Was aware of Val’s credentials but surely Toby’s from the dark side.
Read David Craig’s ‘ Plundering the Public Sector’. Labour’s recklessness knows no bounds!
Sorry Graeme we seem to be posting out of sequence here. 😀
I hope my last post sort of rectifies the *ahem* confusion. 😉
Casper1066 says:
“Why do we allow such stupid greedy people to get their hands on this kind of money.”
1,617,989 of us didn’t but apparently 2,001,926 did.
And 15% of the electorate failed to vote.
Take from that what you will.
😉
O/t I’ve been a supporter of the SNP for 50 years. They really do have to come out fighting, or we are going to have the same result as the Referendum! Not quite there but almost!
Nicey, nicey is not going to do it when we have Stewart Hosie being cut off midstream on STV last night and a stream of anti SNP on Facebook.
We can’t lose this again SNP! Take note!
Lesley-Anne
You had me thinking for a wee second but we got there in the end.
Cheers LA.
@ Graeme Doig Good on you getting back to work hope everything goes well for you,all the bestest.
I’ve been noticing a load of Union flag stickers appearing in Giffnock with “Britain, Love it or leave it” on streetlights/utility boxes. Not too sure who s putting them up or why but no sooner is one peeled off a new one replaces it.
Apologies for going O/T here but just been alerted to this from someone on Twitter. It concerns a certain Newspaper group. 😉
http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2015/news/six-editor-roles-to-be-axed-in-regional-publishers-restructure/
£89,063 folks 🙂
Fiona -if you’re lurking here I’ve left a message on the other thread
Graeme Doig says:
Lesley-Anne
You had me thinking for a wee second but we got there in the end.
Cheers LA.
Doff’s hat! 😀
the state is already, imperceptibly, starting to decline and to disintegrate, and the stage of prodigality and waste begins
Cheers muchly Ronnie. I was planning on being through at PQ on 15th but may now struggle to get the day off.
Where there’s a will though … 🙂
Wullie Rennie Super Computers on ID numbers
If it walks like a duck (ah dey )
if it quacks like a duck ( ah dont )
its a duck
Wullie Its ah EGG ah Duck wan, costs mair but whit ah splatter when it hits YOU.
Nae claiming expences fur dry cleaning noo.
The Olympics.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6453575.stm
@ peekay – someone who better not meet Robert Peffers.
I think they’ve gone mad if this story from RT is to be believed:
A UK veterans group has slammed an armed forces resource meant for use in schools in the wake of a critical report jointly published by the Quakers and the anti-militarist NGO Forces Watch.
The 58-page Armed Forces Learning Resource 2014 was branded a “poor quality learning resource” by the report’s authors, speaking to the Independent.
They were particularly critical of a foreword by Prime Minister David Cameron and comments by Defence Secretary Michael Fallon.
Cameron opens by claiming: “Around the world, the Royal Navy, British Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Marines stand for freedom, fairness, tolerance and responsibility … There is not a single person in this country who is not a direct beneficiary of their sacrifices and bravery.”
In the course of the resource, Fallon argues: “The military ethos is a golden thread that can be an example of what is best about or nation and helps it improve everything it touches.”
http://rt.com/uk/237309-veterans-slam-military-resource/
Such indoctrination is only possible in a fascist state. It reeks of the 1984 slogan “war = peace, freedom = slavery”.
They said there on Scotland 2015 that Salmond had his quote about tuition fees carved into that stone. Was it not done independently of our former FM and he just happily turned up to its unveiling?
268 billion wasted, pissed away.
That is around nine years of the Scottish Government current annual budget.
Scotland 2015…can it get worse?
Angus says:
“Wish I had a link, when Blair was in power they kept £250,000,000 of poverty relief destined for the Highlands and Islands paid by the EU, because the H & I are / were deemed the poorest part of Europe!”
Here you go Angus – is this the one you’re looking for?
https://archive.today/3virK
Lesley Anne
QT panel a bit odd to say the least with two Tories, Ruth and Toby. Danny as the unsympathetic Liberal and Humza and Val for Yes. It is Kezia though that looks isolated. Toby, if I recall, is a bit of a motor mouth but not particularly interested in Scottish politics and is likely to be for skewering Miliband.
No idea how this will pan out as a QT. No idea what sort of questions will be fired in either. I think Humza will acquit himself well as likely will Ruth but there is potential there for car crash telly, with Danny getting peeved, Toby going off on one about UK politics and Kezia being Kezia.
I don’t really know Val as a speaker at all.
Fiona Fairhead’s salary of £110,000 as 3-day-a-week Chair of the BBC Trust while she is also paid £10,000 a day from HSBC and £130,000 from PepsiCo.
Hard working woman! Could save some on that salary.
http://rt.com/uk/236781-hsbc-bbc-trust-fairhead/
Peter @ 7.52,
If I could suggest a slightly more subtle approach, simply replace the ‘nd’ with two asterisks.
To be honest HaS I think the questions will, at best, be tame(ish) even the BBC could not be so thick as to raise a rumble in Glasgow over the SNP … or could they? 😉
I totally agree with you about the exciting prospects of live(ish) televised car crash happening. (albeit about 2 hours after the actual event happened)
As far as Val is concerned I think you’ll find she can be a very accomplished speaker. I seem to remeber seeing her on a QT a year or two back. 😀
@M4rkyboy
Exactly that.
Paula Rose says:
@ peekay – someone who better not meet Robert Peffers.
Forgive my ignorance here Paula(or anyone else that wants to explain) but who’s Robert Peffers
Scotland’s lost £220Billion Oil Fund. Westminster secrecy and lies. Westminster gets away with murder.
How much do newspapers editors? What are their excuses and expenses for printing nonsense.
Taking ‘Funded by UK Government’ to a new level perhaps or just another way to perpetuate the mythical subsidy junkies?
Or simply another attempt at exerting dominance?
“Border flag flexibility sought”
“A Berwickshire councillor has asked whether flags other than the Saltire can be flown on the Scottish side of the border with England.”
Michael Cook has made the inquiry regarding provision at Lamberton on the boundary between the Scottish Borders and Northumberland.”
“He said three Saltires currently fly on the Scottish side.”
“Mr.Cook whether a county flag of Berwickshire or the union jack could also be flown north of the border.”
(from the BBC teletext service)
Lollysmum says
“Beats me how you & John King come up with these quips. I pity your wives- must be hell to live with your own in-house comedian ”
Think about us,
do you think its easy being us?
having to live with this huge burden of comic genius 24 hours a day!
what?
what do you mean heres your coat?
Im not leav—————
The 11% (£2Billion) Oil tax increase on the Scottish Oil sector,a year in the 2011Budget. Now 80%+ (50% revenue take + Oil taxes) loses Scotland £4Billion+ a year. Scotland has lost £16Billion+ in revenues.
While (foreign) Multinationals,making vast profits, tax evade through the City of London,
peekay says
“I’ve been noticing a load of Union flag stickers appearing in Giffnock with “Britain, Love it or leave it” on streetlights/utility boxes. Not too sure who s putting them up or why but no sooner is one peeled off a new one replaces it.”
LARD
A block of lard over the lampposts and phone boxes, they wont stick!
🙂
peekay says
“Forgive my ignorance here Paula(or anyone else that wants to explain) but who’s Robert Peffers”
He’s our resident constitutional expert and no one but no one gets away with calling rUK Britain, as he points out (and he’s right) Britain is still Britain whether we are a collection of independent countries or a single ahem entity as we are now,
Britain is an archipelago of several countries not a single country, no more than Scandinavia is a country, see?
When Norway gained independence from Sweden in 1905 it didn’t cease to be a “Scandinavian” country,
A lot of people (wrongly) assume Britain=UK
Q.E.D.
Thatcher introduced student loans (£3000 max? ) but everyone got one. Not dependant on household income. There were still Grants (mean tested) for those who needed one. Just the same as Scottsh Gov policy now – except loans now £4000 Max. Course Fees were introduced for those whose four year (course) allocated had been accessed, but wanted to continue in Education. Scottish students still have to access loans and pay back.
Murphy nine year education, but no degree. Playing the system, no longer available, Murphy’s time at Uni spent learning to play the system. Learnt well.
Thatcher ‘why should the working class pay for education of the wealthy? Thatcher got a State funded education. Westminster MP’s got a State funded education. Without State funding people would not have a proper education. The expansion of education is due to State funding. At one time only 10% of the population had access to further education, now everyone has access to further education. A highly educated population is an investment.
Here ye go peekay
this is why people who insist on calling the UK Britain biles his pish (and mine)
The term Britain is a linguistic descendant (reflex) of one of the oldest known names for Great Britain, an island off the north-western coast of continental Europe. The terms Briton and British, similarly derived, refer to its inhabitants and, to varying extents, the smaller islands in the vicinity. “British Isles” is the only ancient name for these islands to survive in general usage. Its first written appearance was by Pytheas of Massalia in the 4th century BCE. It originates with a group of P-Celtic speakers, resident on Great Britain, who were referred to, and perhaps referred to themselves, by the earliest known form of the term “British”.
Ysee?
a term used for these islands many centuries before Scotland/England/UK existed!
Scotland 843ad 9th century
England 927ad ahem 10th century
1st recorded description of Britain
The oldest mention of terms related to Great Britain was by Aristotle (c. 384–322 BC),
Makes me think of Tam Dalyell’s bookcases and Eric Joyce’s oil paintings but they do exist.
Employing Gordon Clown, first as chancellor, then as Prime Minister, at a cost of … ehm, give me time … calculator has exploded.
Another thought. All that new infrastructure, mainly south of Birmingham, is going to have to be maintained in future years.Wonder where Westminster’s priority will be when money is needed for that.
Amusingly, the Taxpayers Alliance is a tad annoyed about this as well.
peekay says: 3 March, 2015 at 10:30 pm
“I’ve been noticing a load of Union flag stickers appearing in Giffnock with “Britain, Love it or leave it” on streetlights/utility boxes. Not too sure who s putting them up or why but no sooner is one peeled off a new one replaces it.”
Hi peekay, just like Yes & Naw was, maybe this could be countered with Saltire stickers sporting the words “Scotland, Love it or lose it” or something to that effect (for fairness an awe that) 🙂
Scotspersons should now be under no illusion that this is still a Scotland vs ‘the current three amigos’ general election/referendum thing-a-me-jiggy.
Need to vote Scottish National Party (for at least this one time only) or Scotlands voice gets put into lock-down.
We need our say, within the U of K.
Labour’s failed ID card scheme from 2002 – 2010 LSE estimates that it cost between £10bn – £20bn over its short life.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10164331