The Archive

Bobbing along

Bob Neill, the minister for Local Government, has spoken out against the profligacy of our local councils.

"They were living it up at the taxpayers' expense whilst thousands of households were struggling to make ends meet." he froths.

"It's unforgivable that a culture of excess was allowed to flourish for so long." he rants. And then, presumably, he exploded in a ball of hot indignation.

Now, I'm against waste as much as the next taxpayer. So let's have a look at the crazy spending spree these people have undertaken.

"Today's figures show the communities department spent more than £1,600 on massages for staff and £539 on an awayday trip to Blackpool pleasure beach. It also spent £626 on a trip to the Attenborough Nature Centre, near Nottingham."

So the staff got to go to Blackpool and had a trip to a Nature Centre (about as close as you can get to a 'cracking owl sanctuary' without actually becoming post-modern and ironic).

'living it up at the taxpayers' expense' eh Bob.

If that's your idea of living it up, I pity your friends and family, Bob.

Is it just me, or do you get the feeling that the Tories are actually getting turned on by all this austerity? I suspect they relish a return to the good old days of rationing, spankings by strict Nanny and regular bombing of the East End.

Hmm, maybe that last bit might be ok.

And finally, theyworkforyou.com informs me that our austerity minded Bob has "Voted very strongly against a transparent Parliament."

And finally finally, I'm off to Turkey for a couple of weeks, but will try to post whilst I'm there, assuming they let you have the internet in Turkish prison.

posted by Peter The Great @ 9:50 PM