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Lockdown Cash.
SPECIAL INVESTIGATION: You've spent the year watching every penny, now hear how the public sector has squandered £5.6bn of taxpayer cash on everything from luxury travel to lavish bonuses, and fine dining
A major investigation carried out with the TaxPayers' Alliance has found that £5.6 billion of taxpayers' money has been frittered away on luxuries. The investigation involved more than 4,000 Freedom of Information requests and the analysis of thousands of government contracts and databases. The Mail's probe, which found that the exact waste figure arrived at was £5,577,988,036.64, exposed how Whitehall mandarins banked at least £42 million in bonuses last year and how thousands were spent on first-class flights at the Treasury, on luxury retreats, on hipster takeaways including meals at Covent Garden's The Delaunay (top right) and even on luxury beds for dogs (bottom right). Pictured left: Ofcom's new chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes who pocketed between £15,000 and £20,000 on top of her salary with Prince William at Buckingham Palace.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8975691/Major-probe-reveals-public-sector-squanders-5-6bn-cash.html
A major investigation carried out with the TaxPayers' Alliance has found that £5.6 billion of taxpayers' money has been frittered away on luxuries. The investigation involved more than 4,000 Freedom of Information requests and the analysis of thousands of government contracts and databases. The Mail's probe, which found that the exact waste figure arrived at was £5,577,988,036.64, exposed how Whitehall mandarins banked at least £42 million in bonuses last year and how thousands were spent on first-class flights at the Treasury, on luxury retreats, on hipster takeaways including meals at Covent Garden's The Delaunay (top right) and even on luxury beds for dogs (bottom right). Pictured left: Ofcom's new chief executive Dame Melanie Dawes who pocketed between £15,000 and £20,000 on top of her salary with Prince William at Buckingham Palace.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8975691/Major-probe-reveals-public-sector-squanders-5-6bn-cash.html
Comments
HMRC alone used almost £4million of public taxes on working from home, with its staff spending £500,000 on transporting office furniture to employees' homes. HMRC staff were also given an allowance of £80 for an office chair and £120 for a desk. The Cabinet Office spent £11,554 on moving its staff home - including the purchase of a tailor-made designer Herman Miller Sayl chair for a cool £449. Created by Swiss designer Yves Behar, the chair is described on the Herman Miller website as 'the reference point in its class for quality, performance and design', with 'intelligent suspension back' and 'passive PostureFit sacral support'. 'This is a classic case of Whitehall fiddling while Rome burned,' said John O'Connell, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8975839/Cash-wasted-home-comforts-Whitehall-staff-worked-remote.html
A Mail investigation into mandarin expenses uncovered thousands of pounds from the public purse thrown around with seeming abandon.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8975841/How-fortune-public-money-blown-expenses-luxuries.html
Run anonymously-refuses to say who its benefactors are. Run from the same address as Leave Means Leave, and the Conservative Friends of Russia. always love a murky organisation that seeks to question other people, but never itself.
An "exact" waste figure of £5,577,988,036.04? Please. 22.94 % of statistics are made up on the spot. Note how it only actually quantifies what they must see are the "worst" excesses. Like bonuses for staff. and food when working late.
On the subject of waste. 4,000 FOI requests. Which, incidentally, will almost all have been to non-Conservative run Councils. These are not simple requests-they are designed to force Councils to dredge through large amounts of info. The average cost of these will be in excess of £1,000 each.
So-councils forced to spend some £4 million to comply with FOI requests to allege waste. Splendid.
I recall many years ago acting for an NHS authority on a similar campaign. The request was ridiculously wide-ranging, and would cost far too much. So i refused it on that ground. The Solicitors demanded evidence of this, and went to press about it.
I replied that the cost of the FOI request was in excess of that of 10 heart-lung transplants, and costed it out. Never heard back...
But one man's "luxury travel, lavish bonuses, and fine dining" are another man's travel, bonuses and food.
Just to give 1 example. When travelling a long distance to a Court, I would on occasion travel First Class. Why? So I could work on the train. Didn't always bill the Client for the extra train cost-the extra billing sufficed.
On a more important note-season 7 of Bosch is taking forever to film...
I just started listening to his latest book.
Summary
The most important case of his life.
Only this time the defendant is himself.
The law of innocence is unwritten. It will not be found in a leather-bound code book. It will never be argued in a courtroom. In nature, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In the law of innocence, for every man not guilty of a crime there is a man out there who is. And to prove true innocence the guilty man must be found and exposed to the world.
Heading home after winning his latest case, Defence Attorney Mickey Haller - the Lincoln Lawyer - is pulled over by the police. They open the trunk of his car to find the body of a former client.
Haller knows the law inside out. He will be charged with murder. He will have to build his case from behind bars. And the trial will be the trial of his life.
Because Mickey Haller will defend himself in court.
With watertight evidence stacked against him, Haller will need every trick in the book to prove he was framed.
But a not-guilty verdict isn't enough. In order to truly walk free, Haller knows he must find the real killer - that is the law of innocence....
Crime doesn't come better than Connelly.
©2020 Michael Connelly (P)2020 Orion
Critic reviews
"One of the very best writers working today." (Sunday Telegraph)
"A master." (Stephen King)
"Crime thriller writing of the highest order." (Guardian)
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has defended spending almost £50,000 on takeaways for his staff from just one London restaurant during the peak of the Covid crisis.
The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) spent a total of £47,528 on takeaways from Bong Bong’s Manila Kanteen earlier this year, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request has revealed.
Just nine orders costing £43,348 were placed at the fashionable “Filipino-inspired” eatery during April – and another £4,179-worth of orders placed in March, according to spending data requested by the Daily Mail and the TaxPayers’ Alliance.
https://uk.yahoo.com/news/matt-hancock-defends-spending-almost-153515429.html
Spending reached a five-year high last year after rising by £3million in just 12 months. The Continuity of Education Allowance ensures children of military personnel do not have their schooling disrupted when their parents move around the world. Some go to elite institutions such as Eton (left) and Harrow which charge tens of thousands of pounds a year.Ministers backed down on plans to scrap the scheme a decade ago, instead encouraging service families to seek out cheaper boarding schools. But figures uncovered by the Mail and the Taxpayers' Alliance reveal the Ministry of Defence's bill is creeping up again. It funded 4,420 places at a cost of £83million over the most recent financial year - the highest total since 2015. The Ministry of DEfence were also found to have £12,500 flying former RAF chief Sir Stephen Hillier business-class for a symposium in Colorado Springs (top right) and giving £25,000 worth of PPE to the Ukrainian armed forces in May (bottom right) while the NHS was relying on donations.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8979655/Private-school-fees-armed-forces-personnel-cost-83m-year.html
Those Eton fees. That would cover 9 pupils. So-the kids of the Head of UK ops in Afghanistan, that sort of thing.
The alternative to the Continuity of Education Allowance would be a mixture of the best candidates leaving the Army, and their families being put at risk. In short, the Armed Forces would be unable to perform effectively in the world's hotspots.
This article should have been in the Morning Star. Shameful journalism.
This article shows a lack of knowledge as to how these things happen. It goes like this:-
1. Sudden urgent deadline, which means that you have to ask staff to work overtime at next to no notice
2. You need goodwill from those workers, to do things over and above their contract of employment
3. These people would be entitled either to refuse, or to say they need time off for food before working overtime-because the pandemic hit far further and faster than the experts predicted
4. So you lay on a nice buffet, so that people stay working without a break. In order that the urgent work gets done
We should expect the tax payer to pay for anyones kids to attend Eton.
Let alone almost four and a half thousand school places in total.
How the payment of school fees enhances their family security.
Or how it enables them to perform more effectively.
The reason why this story will wind people up, is because the government continually pleads poverty when it comes to feeding hungry kids in school holidays.
There are approx 80,000 full-time personnel in the Army. Thousands of those are employed in places where no-one would want to send their child to school, either because of education or safety standards. In addition, many roles necessitate frequently changing country. It is primarily people employed abroad that get this benefit. It is a lot cheaper than trying to set up schools abroad.
It is essential for the Army to function. And has been since before I went to school
However I would argue that very high ranking officers are well paid, and receive other perks.
I just dont think it sends a good message, when so many are reliant on food banks to survive.
This represents around 4,500 cases at an average of almost 20k per year.
Many people might argue that the money could be better spent on say 4,500 new nurses, police officers, teachers or a combination of the three.
What about mental health?
I appreciate the value of the armed forces, but to serve is their choice.
This sort of spending on school fees for already highly paid people wouldnt be a priority for me.
I just think spending 10k per week for a month on takeaways sends the wrong message.
I am assuming that as the story refers to this money being spent in April, and smaller amounts in March, that it did not continue past April, as that information would be included.
So although the staff have had to meet strict deadlines, and have had to work hard in the 6 months since April, they have been able to accomplish this without being in receipt of a Bing Bong takeaway.
The NHS front line staff have excelled themselves under extreme pressure throughout this period without a Bing Bong.
GUY ADAMS: Every day, vans full of workers and loaded lorries trundle on to the leafy hillside plot in La Moraleja, the Spanish version of Beverly Hills, where a sprawling mansion (inset) is being extensively renovated. The property, with pool, tennis court and 2.5 acres of idyllic gardens, changed hands in September. Similar homes in an area where many celebrities live - including half the Real Madrid team - start at £3 million. David Beckham's former mansion is five minutes away. The new owner is entrepreneur Gabriel Gonzalez Andersson (left), who comes and goes in a top-of-the range Mercedes SUV with tinted windows. Documents filed in a U.S. court this month revealed that Andersson acted as a sort of business representative for a Florida jewellery designer called Michael Saiger (right), who in turn signed 'a number of lucrative contracts' to source gowns, gloves and other kit for the Department of Health (DoH).
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8983591/GUY-ADAMS-stunned-helped-pay-21M-Spanish-PPE-businessman.html