What they spend your money on
James Forsyth 11:28amThe Portcullis column in The Sunday Telegraph has a quite astonishing tale of how the Department for International Development uses its money: “Diligent Tory researchers have established that the ministry spent £8,500 on a survey to find out what sort of gifts British couples buy each other on February 14.”
When you think about the Department’s responsibilities this kind of wastage is really quite obscene. One wonders who on earth signed off on it.
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Perry
May 11th, 2008 12:59pm[Overseas Aid research for Val. Day]
This is a just a taster of the general state of much ‘research’ throughout the ‘University’ and ‘Academic’ (sic) worlds.
Too much grant money. Too little competent scrutiny of bids. Too little practical value in the real world. And a thriving growth industry amongst the luminaries who industriously write pages of blather to justify their bids.
Another area to add to the list for careful investigation when the time comes. Boris will lead the way.
John
May 11th, 2008 1:05pmThe wastage of each and every department since 1997 is quite obscene, but not surprising given that our finances have been mismanaged since 1997 by an obscenely incompetent fool.
Nicholas
May 11th, 2008 1:47pmYes, one cannot help feeling that the rip tide of post-97 money benefitted barmy minority zealots eager to pursue the soviet revolution. Nutters all, but allowed to influence and preside over the degeneration of a once great nation.
Also, the British disease of putting wiser older heads out to pasture and "investing" in the supposed dynamism of gauche young idiots on the rise added to the monumental waste of good money on bad ideas.
I can just imagine some of the meetings where the determination to change something overrode all else, including common sense. The natural result of allowing shallow oiks, political extremists and gobby ambition to replace an establishment rooted in centuries of experience and tradition.
Water
May 11th, 2008 4:25pmPerry has hit it out of the park.
Frank Pulley
May 12th, 2008 2:00am"What they spend your money on?": try:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1560697/Boom-in-quangos-costs-Britain-andpound170bn-a-year.html
Lee Jakeman
May 12th, 2008 3:11amProof that the best bank of all is - The National Income. You can spend without ever having to earn. You can control without ever having to take responsibility. And you can borrow without ever having to pay back.