Moving on up
Daniel Korski 3:35pm
If Muhammad won't come to the mountain, the mountain must come to Muhammad. Or so goes a
saying popularised by Francis Bacon. It seems Andrew Mitchell, the Development Secretary, has taken this to heart and decided to move his entire Department — DfID — closer to the
Foreign Office, MoD and, of course, No 10.
After years of relishing its location — both geographically and functionally — a distance away from Whitehall, where all the other government departments are located, DfID will, I'm told, move to 22-26 Whitehall, next to Horse Guard's Parade.
The key point is the cost saving involved — at the moment DfID's current building at 1 Palace St costs around £10m a year whereas 22-26 Whitehall will cost around £3.5 million a year. And as the new location is a Government freehold building, whereas 1 Palace Street is a building DfID rents from a commercial landlord, there are other advantages. This is exactly the kind of move that a cash-strapped public want to see. But don't expect support for DfID to shift dramatically as a result.
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AndyinBrum
January 31st, 2012 3:47pm Report this commentIt seems a remarkably sensible and well
thought out idea.
Whats the catch?
Mudplugger
January 31st, 2012 3:49pm Report this commentSo it's nothing to do with having a better line-of-sight for the Olympic Beach Volley-Ball then ?
Trumpeter Lanfried
January 31st, 2012 3:59pm Report this commentWhat's DflD?
starfish
January 31st, 2012 4:08pm Report this commentWhy not go a step further, be radical and move the HQ to a nation shortly to become independent and a notable recipient of UK aid.....
Mr L
January 31st, 2012 4:15pm Report this commentThis sounds like a stunt. This department should be abolished, not moved.
Halcyondaze
January 31st, 2012 5:03pm Report this commentAndrew Mitchell is a hand-wringing bed-wetting little apologist whose liberal conscience is appeased only by giving away vast amounts of our money to other countries - most of which will soon be out-stripping us while shipping vast numbers of their people over here to live off our welfare system.
He is the perfect example of why our crippled country is in the state its in - and if the Tory Party hadn't turned into the confused, self-hating mess it's become under Cameron he would have no place in it.
JohnPage
January 31st, 2012 5:08pm Report this commentOf course the department should just be abolished. You knew someone was bound to say that, didn't you.
anon
January 31st, 2012 5:10pm Report this commentIts astonishing that for years a government department has been renting property off a landlord for the sole purpose of kudos when government owns empty buildings smack bang in the middle of Whitehall. What exactly did we let happen with our hard earned taxes over the last decade? Were we asleep while spending like this was going on...?
MartinW
January 31st, 2012 7:07pm Report this commentSending all that aid money to India, eh? Doubtless hoping it will lubricate the way to some commercial juicy contracts! How is that working out, Mr Mitchell? They are going to buy French combat aircraft. Doh!
Merk
January 31st, 2012 9:02pm Report this commentIt's a staging post for his assault on the MOD building; the Whitehall vultures are circling over the supine form of Britain's defences. Anyway, Cameron doesn't need a department for defence, he's a one man Army and military genius.
I S
January 31st, 2012 10:29pm Report this commentGets his tongue closer to Cameron's arse.
john gerard
February 1st, 2012 12:04pm Report this commentForeign aid is about salving the 'guilty conscience' of the developed world, and nothing to with actually wanting to help people. If they really wanted to help people, they'd stop doing it, and close down their waste-of-time aid departments. The money's pis*ed away in these countries. And what's there to be guilty about anyway? So we colonised a few countries? big deal. That's the way the world worked at the time, and still does. Powerful countries act in their own best interests. Giving them money now isn't going to change history. Get used to it and stop whining and whingeing about our past - it's done. The British empire was great. It's a shame we still don't have it.
James
February 1st, 2012 9:29pm Report this commentHaving visited last year, I can tell you 22 Whitehall is a nice, modernly-rennovated building whereas 26 is a long-neglected, rat-infested hovel with a Grade I listing. Nelson would cry at its state.
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