Thursday, 4 December 2008

The TaxPayers' Alliance's Public Sector Rich List
Nearly 200 public sector workers earn more than the Prime Minister, 
with four of them enjoying salaries of more than £1 million a year, 
it is revealed today. - (The Sunday Telegraph 23/11/08)
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No scanners to read ID cards
Britain's first biometric ID cards cannot be read because the 
government has not issued any scanners   (Observer   30.11.08)   
[They're costing billions - nobody wants them - and even the 
government isn't serioius asbout them! -cs]

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Councils in Devon, Somerset and Hertfordshire have all withdrawn 
recycling services for  some or all of paper, plastic, cardboard and 
aluminium foil because they can neither sell the materials nor have 
antywhere to store them now that the Chinese economy has collapsed.  
(various including Telegraph 29/11/08)

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Basildon council is to spend an extra £223,000 on top of £2 million 
on upgrading their head office despite the fact that the whole 
building is
earmarked for demolition as part of the town centre's transformation.
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Barnet council spent thousands on sending both its chief executive 
and the council leader on a course on leadership skills in Boston 
despite the fact that the CEO is leaving to run the Greater London 
authority and the council leader is tory candidate for a seat he 
might reasonably be confident of winning!
(both Sunday Telegraph   30.11.08)

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The latest initiative to tackle binge-drinking
"Forget tougher sentences and more bobbies on the beat, the latest 
weapon in the war on drunk yobs is... bubble blowing. Revellers at 
pubs and clubs will be handed bubble-blowers with the aim of 
channelling over-boisterous behaviour into harmless fun... But the 
latest initiative has been condemned as a 'nursery school gimmick' 
and a waste of taxpayers' money." -( Daily Mail 1.12.08)
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European Commission coffee machines proved poisonous
EU commissioners and their staff would have to stand in line at the 
coffee
shop again, after the 20 state-of-the-art espresso machines installed in
January for their exclusive use proved to brew highly contaminated 
coffee. - - - findings proved that the levels of heavy metals in the 
coffee were a danger to the health of EU officials, at more than 
17,000 percent above the legal threshold for nickel and over 16 
percent for lead.
[foiled again!  That nickel was expensive -cs]  (EU Observer  4/12/08)

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Women's work
Today I made a new bicycle out of macramé and knitted a meal for a 
family of 10 out of cabbage scavenged from my local allotment. 
Tomorrow, I plan to craft my husband a suit and new briefcase out of 
old bits of blanket. I do not actually have a husband, but if I did, 
that is what I would do. Because according to the new crop of how-to 
books vying for the Christmas present pound, the old-fashioned way of 
making do and mending is the best strategy for staying afloat 
financially.  (Emma Jacobs FT 4/12/08)
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Now that the "genie is out of the bottle" so to speak and it is clear 
that members of the government can be held to account by the police 
(legal system), let's now arrest those that are suspected of wrongdoing:

Tony Blair - Iraq War and Cash for Honours
Lord Mandelson - Mortgage Fraud
Alistair Campbell, with others - Harassment of Dr David Kelly
John Prescott - Assault and Abuse of Office
To name just a few.  Justice served, not party politics,  should prevail
(Source ?)