EHRC - Another worthless crock

As my regular reader will testify, every time the phrase 'human rights' is used, by blood pressure goes through the roof!

Now it seems that some common sense is finally permeating into this area of politically correct bullshit. The independant think tank Civitas says that if it were disbanded, not only would taxpayers be saved millions but proper ways could be found to tackle unfairness.

The scathing report by academic Jon Gower Davies says the Commission looks at issues the wrong way. It blames British unfairness for differences in people’s lives that are beyond the Government’s control and too narrowly focuses on “rights” while ignoring responsibilities.

He goes on to criticise the gravy train of pay and perks within the organisation. In support of the call to disband the organisation, the Taxpayers Alliance director, Matthew Sinclair, said: “The EHRC has mismanaged millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money too many times. It has shown that it can’t be trusted to use its budget properly and should be wound up. There are much better uses for the millions of pounds it spends every year than this politicised and wasteful quango.”

Conservative MP Dominic Raab said: “The EHRC is costly and counter-productive. Its fixation on positive discrimination and quotas is socially divisive, anti-meritocratic and out of touch with the aspirations of modern young Britons.”

Fellow Tory MP Priti Patel said: “I am not surprised by this report as I went through the EHRC annual reports and the waste is unbelievable."

The watchdog has continually been in the news for its controversial judgments. In March it was criticised after saying children should be asked from age 11 if they were gay, with records kept of any who were “questioning” their sexuality in case they fell victim to discrimination.

Football fans were furious when the quango backed Bath City club in offering Polish supporters an 80 per cent discount on match tickets.

It also warned full-body security scanners at British airports could be illegal and would be impossible to monitor if there were discrimination in the way passengers were selected for the checks.

The Coalition has already reduced funding for the EHRC, from £70 million in 2007 to £55 million in 2010-11 and plans further cuts to £26 million in 2014-15.

Frankly that's £26 million too much for something which seems to do more to stir up inequalities than to reconcile them...

(You can read more in the Daily Express by clicking here)

EHRC - Another worthless crock

As my regular reader will testify, every time the phrase 'human rights' is used, by blood pressure goes through the roof!

Now it seems that some common sense is finally permeating into this area of politically correct bullshit. The independant think tank Civitas says that if it were disbanded, not only would taxpayers be saved millions but proper ways could be found to tackle unfairness.

The scathing report by academic Jon Gower Davies says the Commission looks at issues the wrong way. It blames British unfairness for differences in people’s lives that are beyond the Government’s control and too narrowly focuses on “rights” while ignoring responsibilities.

He goes on to criticise the gravy train of pay and perks within the organisation. In support of the call to disband the organisation, the Taxpayers Alliance director, Matthew Sinclair, said: “The EHRC has mismanaged millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money too many times. It has shown that it can’t be trusted to use its budget properly and should be wound up. There are much better uses for the millions of pounds it spends every year than this politicised and wasteful quango.”

Conservative MP Dominic Raab said: “The EHRC is costly and counter-productive. Its fixation on positive discrimination and quotas is socially divisive, anti-meritocratic and out of touch with the aspirations of modern young Britons.”

Fellow Tory MP Priti Patel said: “I am not surprised by this report as I went through the EHRC annual reports and the waste is unbelievable."

The watchdog has continually been in the news for its controversial judgments. In March it was criticised after saying children should be asked from age 11 if they were gay, with records kept of any who were “questioning” their sexuality in case they fell victim to discrimination.

Football fans were furious when the quango backed Bath City club in offering Polish supporters an 80 per cent discount on match tickets.

It also warned full-body security scanners at British airports could be illegal and would be impossible to monitor if there were discrimination in the way passengers were selected for the checks.

The Coalition has already reduced funding for the EHRC, from £70 million in 2007 to £55 million in 2010-11 and plans further cuts to £26 million in 2014-15.

Frankly that's £26 million too much for something which seems to do more to stir up inequalities than to reconcile them...

(You can read more in the Daily Express by clicking here)

Pippa Middleton's a nice bit of crumpet...

If you ever wanted a prime example of the never ending genius of the human mind to do something completely meaningless and trivial, here's a prime example...



Apparently, this resulted from a poll done by Beefeater to find Britains favourite bit of crumpet.

Not only purile, unnecessary and sexist, but also a huge waste of food. After all, there's people starving in Africa, you know...

...and is it just me, or does her bum look big in that?

Pippa Middleton's a nice bit of crumpet...

If you ever wanted a prime example of the never ending genius of the human mind to do something completely meaningless and trivial, here's a prime example...



Apparently, this resulted from a poll done by Beefeater to find Britains favourite bit of crumpet.

Not only purile, unnecessary and sexist, but also a huge waste of food. After all, there's people starving in Africa, you know...

...and is it just me, or does her bum look big in that?

New expenses scandal

Bet you wish you had one of these, eh! It's a shiny bright Government Procurement Card - or to put it another way, a great way for our elected and unelected 'servants' to piss taxpayer's money up the wall...

If you think that the MPs expenses scandal was off the scale, then let me tell that you ain't seen nothing yet.

The cards were first introduced in 1997, the year Tony Blair entered Downing Street. They were designed to be used as a convenient way to pay for low-value work expenses such as travel tickets and office supplies, with all bills settled directly by departmental finance departments, and were initially supplied by Visa. Other companies, including American Express, now also supply them.

More than 140,000 cards have been handed out to staff, who are using them to spend more than £1 billion of public money every year. Dubbed by critics as ‘a Gold Card on the taxpayer’, thay are being widely abused because bills of less than £1,000 a month are not routinely audited. They have been used to pay for fast-food meals, drinks in the pub and even shopping trips to Tesco, with all bills sent straight to the taxpayer.

Local Government Minister Grant Shapps has sent a shiver through Whitehall by calling for every card statement, past and present, to be made available online. The mandarins fear that if they comply it could lead to the Civil Service’s equivalent of the MPs’ expenses scandal in 2009, with thousands of bogus claims being exposed.

And so they should be - not only exposed, but the abusers summarily dismissed and prosecuted!

(Full marks to the Telegraph for exposing yet another abuse of power)

New expenses scandal

Bet you wish you had one of these, eh! It's a shiny bright Government Procurement Card - or to put it another way, a great way for our elected and unelected 'servants' to piss taxpayer's money up the wall...

If you think that the MPs expenses scandal was off the scale, then let me tell that you ain't seen nothing yet.

The cards were first introduced in 1997, the year Tony Blair entered Downing Street. They were designed to be used as a convenient way to pay for low-value work expenses such as travel tickets and office supplies, with all bills settled directly by departmental finance departments, and were initially supplied by Visa. Other companies, including American Express, now also supply them.

More than 140,000 cards have been handed out to staff, who are using them to spend more than £1 billion of public money every year. Dubbed by critics as ‘a Gold Card on the taxpayer’, thay are being widely abused because bills of less than £1,000 a month are not routinely audited. They have been used to pay for fast-food meals, drinks in the pub and even shopping trips to Tesco, with all bills sent straight to the taxpayer.

Local Government Minister Grant Shapps has sent a shiver through Whitehall by calling for every card statement, past and present, to be made available online. The mandarins fear that if they comply it could lead to the Civil Service’s equivalent of the MPs’ expenses scandal in 2009, with thousands of bogus claims being exposed.

And so they should be - not only exposed, but the abusers summarily dismissed and prosecuted!

(Full marks to the Telegraph for exposing yet another abuse of power)

The NHS computer system

Back last year, I wrote a piece about totally crap software and how the government is totally incapable of specifying an IT system and is much less capable of delivering the project within budget and time scales, so it comes as no surprise to find that the latest multi-billion pound white elephant is to be subjected to yet another review.

One of the major problems with commissioning work from third party contractors is that there is no incentive to deliver the system. Every time the spec changes - which happens with government work continually - the price changes and, of course, if it doesn't work properly after delivery then there is the endless debate about what is and isn't chargeable. I liken it to driving your shiny new BMW off the forecourt only to find it breaks down 50 yards up the road and then being told you will be charged to fix it because it wasn't being driven properly.

The National Audit Office started to suspect this thing wasn't going to fly as long ago as August 2004 as you can see from their typically understated concerns here on the BBC website. In February 2007, the Daily Telegraph decided that it was doomed to failure and quoted senior sources at Fujitsu - one of the major suppliers - as voicing concern at the direction of the NHS programme and the lack of vision on how the health service can make best use of new technology.

"What we are trying to do is run an enormous programme with the techniques that we are absolutely familiar with for running small projects. And it isn't working. And it isn't going to work," he told his audience.

As with all things of this nature, there comes a time when the contractor and the government aren't going to agree and,as, usual, the government is going to blame the people who actually know what they are talking about so in May 2008, Fujitsu were fired. At this stage the project was already four years behind schedule.
So far the costs had escalated from £6.7 billion to £12 billion with worse news still to come when in January 2009, the Guardian reported that the system was on brink of failure, something which should cone as no surprise as some people had been on record as saying this for years. However, the issue refused to lay quietly around and die as hundreds of junior doctors were having their job applications screwed up!
 
So here we are in 2011, and the costs are now estimated at £20 billion and, according to the BBC, "things are getting worse"

The response? Well, the government announced there will be a review of the project. This is due to start this week.

Tory MP Richard Bacon, a member of the House of Commons' Public Accounts Committee and long-standing critic of the plans, said: "It is perfectly clear that throwing more money at the problem will not work. This turkey will never fly and it is time the Department of Health faced reality and channelled the remaining funds into something useful that will actually benefit patients. The largest civilian IT project in the world has failed."

But the Department of Health said while the original vision "was flawed", the project still had the potential to deliver value for money.

Yeah, right...

The NHS computer system

Back last year, I wrote a piece about totally crap software and how the government is totally incapable of specifying an IT system and is much less capable of delivering the project within budget and time scales, so it comes as no surprise to find that the latest multi-billion pound white elephant is to be subjected to yet another review.

One of the major problems with commissioning work from third party contractors is that there is no incentive to deliver the system. Every time the spec changes - which happens with government work continually - the price changes and, of course, if it doesn't work properly after delivery then there is the endless debate about what is and isn't chargeable. I liken it to driving your shiny new BMW off the forecourt only to find it breaks down 50 yards up the road and then being told you will be charged to fix it because it wasn't being driven properly.

The National Audit Office started to suspect this thing wasn't going to fly as long ago as August 2004 as you can see from their typically understated concerns here on the BBC website. In February 2007, the Daily Telegraph decided that it was doomed to failure and quoted senior sources at Fujitsu - one of the major suppliers - as voicing concern at the direction of the NHS programme and the lack of vision on how the health service can make best use of new technology.

"What we are trying to do is run an enormous programme with the techniques that we are absolutely familiar with for running small projects. And it isn't working. And it isn't going to work," he told his audience.

As with all things of this nature, there comes a time when the contractor and the government aren't going to agree and,as, usual, the government is going to blame the people who actually know what they are talking about so in May 2008, Fujitsu were fired. At this stage the project was already four years behind schedule.
So far the costs had escalated from £6.7 billion to £12 billion with worse news still to come when in January 2009, the Guardian reported that the system was on brink of failure, something which should cone as no surprise as some people had been on record as saying this for years. However, the issue refused to lay quietly around and die as hundreds of junior doctors were having their job applications screwed up!
 
So here we are in 2011, and the costs are now estimated at £20 billion and, according to the BBC, "things are getting worse"

The response? Well, the government announced there will be a review of the project. This is due to start this week.

Tory MP Richard Bacon, a member of the House of Commons' Public Accounts Committee and long-standing critic of the plans, said: "It is perfectly clear that throwing more money at the problem will not work. This turkey will never fly and it is time the Department of Health faced reality and channelled the remaining funds into something useful that will actually benefit patients. The largest civilian IT project in the world has failed."

But the Department of Health said while the original vision "was flawed", the project still had the potential to deliver value for money.

Yeah, right...

Rotten Boroughs - Bury St Edmunds

Here's a little gem from the Town Council in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

In his election address, the independant councillor, David Nettleton, has made great store of the fact that he has been leader of the finance committee and in this capacity has identified a way to save the town's crossing patrols.

The crossing patrols apparently cost the council around £17,500 per annum and were threatened with the axe, but Cllr Nettleton says that this can be funded because for the last three years they have been paying a retired town clerk £18,000 a year as part of an early retirement package.

So that's alright then - we can fund crossing patrols out of the money we have been wasting because we're not going to be wasting it any more!

And you expect to be re-elected on the back of this piece of financial wizardry? If I were you, I'd keep quiet about it...

Rotten Boroughs - Bury St Edmunds

Here's a little gem from the Town Council in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk

In his election address, the independant councillor, David Nettleton, has made great store of the fact that he has been leader of the finance committee and in this capacity has identified a way to save the town's crossing patrols.

The crossing patrols apparently cost the council around £17,500 per annum and were threatened with the axe, but Cllr Nettleton says that this can be funded because for the last three years they have been paying a retired town clerk £18,000 a year as part of an early retirement package.

So that's alright then - we can fund crossing patrols out of the money we have been wasting because we're not going to be wasting it any more!

And you expect to be re-elected on the back of this piece of financial wizardry? If I were you, I'd keep quiet about it...

Rotten Boroughs : Gosport Borough Council

Apparently there is a little ray of light shining through for our cash strapped councils in their bid to cut costs without damaging front line services. Jollies are still on the cards!

In an effort to cut costs, Gosport Borough Council spent £7,350 on fact finding missions, including a trip to Madrid for a councillor and officials to investigate cutting the waste from...waste! Ironically, Urbaser, the waste management company they were visiting, has a base in the Isle of Wight - still overseas, but only a short ferry ride from Gosport.

LibDem leader Peter Chegwyn said: 'I think it's a shocking waste of public money - for a council that is considering millions in spending cuts, I am outraged that public money is being spent in this way. It's not the way public money should be spent.'

Quite right, Pete. Apparently the excuse was to blame - er - the European Union. The council said EU rules meant that it had to inspect the Spanish company in Madrid as well as its British rivals.

Mark Hook, Tory leader of Gosport, said that the visit to Spain cost about £1,000 and led to the awarding of a contract that would save the council £200,000 per year. Never heard that one before, Mark!

He said: 'These contracts are the biggest undertaking that the council has ever done. The services that Urbaser were tendering for were not being provided on the Isle of Wight and we needed a comparable service to look at. It's like buying a car - you wouldn't buy it without seeing it and talking to the seller.'

I would, however, like to point out that when I buy a Volkswagen I usually go to the local dealership not on a jolly to Germany...

Rotten Boroughs : Gosport Borough Council

Apparently there is a little ray of light shining through for our cash strapped councils in their bid to cut costs without damaging front line services. Jollies are still on the cards!

In an effort to cut costs, Gosport Borough Council spent £7,350 on fact finding missions, including a trip to Madrid for a councillor and officials to investigate cutting the waste from...waste! Ironically, Urbaser, the waste management company they were visiting, has a base in the Isle of Wight - still overseas, but only a short ferry ride from Gosport.

LibDem leader Peter Chegwyn said: 'I think it's a shocking waste of public money - for a council that is considering millions in spending cuts, I am outraged that public money is being spent in this way. It's not the way public money should be spent.'

Quite right, Pete. Apparently the excuse was to blame - er - the European Union. The council said EU rules meant that it had to inspect the Spanish company in Madrid as well as its British rivals.

Mark Hook, Tory leader of Gosport, said that the visit to Spain cost about £1,000 and led to the awarding of a contract that would save the council £200,000 per year. Never heard that one before, Mark!

He said: 'These contracts are the biggest undertaking that the council has ever done. The services that Urbaser were tendering for were not being provided on the Isle of Wight and we needed a comparable service to look at. It's like buying a car - you wouldn't buy it without seeing it and talking to the seller.'

I would, however, like to point out that when I buy a Volkswagen I usually go to the local dealership not on a jolly to Germany...

Forest Chumps

Back in October, the government announced rather ill concieved plans to sell off vast tracts of forest under it's plans to 'substantially reform' the Forestry Commission.

This is a bloody silly idea because - as was discovered when the Scottish parliament came up with a similar plan - you might raise some capital initially but this all leaks back to the new owners. What is effectively happening is that the new owners have the right to chop down all the trees and profit from the timber whist at the same time having access to public funding in order to plant new ones! In fact we are likely to dish out more money to the new landowners than would ever be raised from the sales.

Just to prove the point, the Forestry Commission does occasionally sell off land. One such sale resulted in proceeds of £60,000. The new owner immediately applied for money under the English Woodlands Grant Scheme and was awarded £55,000 to plant new trees. And, of course, he can apply for further grants in the future...

The Forestry Commission is, in fact, a bargain. Last year it raised £75m from the sale of timber, thus costing the taxpayer a net £15m to provide miriad essential services such as tree sciences (e.g. research into potentially devasting diseases like Dutch Elm and Royal Oak), and regulation and licensing of the private forestry sector.

This idea was not thought through properly in the rush to cut the waste out of quangos, and makes no economic sense. It should be scrapped immediately.

Forest Chumps

Back in October, the government announced rather ill concieved plans to sell off vast tracts of forest under it's plans to 'substantially reform' the Forestry Commission.

This is a bloody silly idea because - as was discovered when the Scottish parliament came up with a similar plan - you might raise some capital initially but this all leaks back to the new owners. What is effectively happening is that the new owners have the right to chop down all the trees and profit from the timber whist at the same time having access to public funding in order to plant new ones! In fact we are likely to dish out more money to the new landowners than would ever be raised from the sales.

Just to prove the point, the Forestry Commission does occasionally sell off land. One such sale resulted in proceeds of £60,000. The new owner immediately applied for money under the English Woodlands Grant Scheme and was awarded £55,000 to plant new trees. And, of course, he can apply for further grants in the future...

The Forestry Commission is, in fact, a bargain. Last year it raised £75m from the sale of timber, thus costing the taxpayer a net £15m to provide miriad essential services such as tree sciences (e.g. research into potentially devasting diseases like Dutch Elm and Royal Oak), and regulation and licensing of the private forestry sector.

This idea was not thought through properly in the rush to cut the waste out of quangos, and makes no economic sense. It should be scrapped immediately.

The Quango Song (What a Waste!)

Look - just 'cos I'm out flying somewhere over the ocean doesn't mean that I can't just interject the odd nugget...

Here's a song I did with my favourite backing group, the Blockheads, to commemorate, hopefully, burning (or in this case drowning) all those quangos - although I'll believe it when I see it

The Quango Song (What a Waste!)

Look - just 'cos I'm out flying somewhere over the ocean doesn't mean that I can't just interject the odd nugget...

Here's a song I did with my favourite backing group, the Blockheads, to commemorate, hopefully, burning (or in this case drowning) all those quangos - although I'll believe it when I see it

Get ready for the winter of discontent

Apparently, Ed Miliband thinks it is OK for his party to support strikes to defend against the forthcoming budget cuts and privatisations.

Well that's fine, Ed. Except that it's easy to talk bollocks when you're in opposition.

Let's look at the one inalienable fact that no-one seems to be able to understand in your new Old Labour party : It is cheaper to outsource services than it is for local councils to do it themselves. Otherwise, they would not be doing it.

On the face of it, this is patent nonsense. How can it be cheaper to employ companies who build in profit margins? Surely, if the council uses it's own resources on a non profit making basis then it must be cheaper? But it isn't...

So why is this? Well, the simple fact is that council services are very inefficient because they are tied down by the restrictive practices that your marvellous Trade Union movement has saddled on local government.

So when you are standing out on the picket line protesting, remember - you brought it on yourselves...

Get ready for the winter of discontent

Apparently, Ed Miliband thinks it is OK for his party to support strikes to defend against the forthcoming budget cuts and privatisations.

Well that's fine, Ed. Except that it's easy to talk bollocks when you're in opposition.

Let's look at the one inalienable fact that no-one seems to be able to understand in your new Old Labour party : It is cheaper to outsource services than it is for local councils to do it themselves. Otherwise, they would not be doing it.

On the face of it, this is patent nonsense. How can it be cheaper to employ companies who build in profit margins? Surely, if the council uses it's own resources on a non profit making basis then it must be cheaper? But it isn't...

So why is this? Well, the simple fact is that council services are very inefficient because they are tied down by the restrictive practices that your marvellous Trade Union movement has saddled on local government.

So when you are standing out on the picket line protesting, remember - you brought it on yourselves...

Papal Quiz - The answers!

For those of you enthralled by the challenge I set you with my recent 'fake or real' Papal visit souvenirs, here are the answers :

• Money Box :  Real - available by mail order in the States!
• Benedict-a-phone - I loved this one. Shame it's a fake.
• USB Stick : Real. Honest.
• Chef's Apron : Almost real - I changed the picture, but you can buy a Pope apron with the official visit logo on it.
• Pope's Wine : Real - apart from the miracle bit of course. It's a genuine Californian winery.
• Pope on a Rope : Real.
• Papal Visits for Dummies : Fake - although there is a Roman Catholicism for Dummies so I only had to photoshop a bit of the title.
• Talking Key Ring : Almost real. It doesn't talk but you really can get 'the power of the Pope in your pocket.'
• Naked Pope Pen : OK - it's a complete fake!
• 3 Hail Marys Cocktail Shaker : Realish - the Pope Benedict cocktail shaker is real but I made the rest up!
• I Love the Pope Knickers : 100% genuine.
• Benedict Condoms : Also 100% genuine. On the other side of the packet to "I said NO!" is printed "But we say YES"
• Pope's Special Ale : Real - but I doctored the picture on  the beermat
• Pope Candles : 100% genuine
• Flashing Pope Cigarette Dispenser : What do you think? Of course it's a fake - but wouldn't it be great if it was real?

And the one that got away is pictured above. It's a board game called "Conclave - How men become Pope" and it's available via mail order from the official Vatican gift shop.

The prices are of course complete bollocks, but I'm sure the Vatican would charge this much for similar tacky tourist trash if they thought they could get away with it. Just look at the prices of their tour T-shirts!
 
So how many did you get right?...

Papal Quiz - The answers!

For those of you enthralled by the challenge I set you with my recent 'fake or real' Papal visit souvenirs, here are the answers :

• Money Box :  Real - available by mail order in the States!
• Benedict-a-phone - I loved this one. Shame it's a fake.
• USB Stick : Real. Honest.
• Chef's Apron : Almost real - I changed the picture, but you can buy a Pope apron with the official visit logo on it.
• Pope's Wine : Real - apart from the miracle bit of course. It's a genuine Californian winery.
• Pope on a Rope : Real.
• Papal Visits for Dummies : Fake - although there is a Roman Catholicism for Dummies so I only had to photoshop a bit of the title.
• Talking Key Ring : Almost real. It doesn't talk but you really can get 'the power of the Pope in your pocket.'
• Naked Pope Pen : OK - it's a complete fake!
• 3 Hail Marys Cocktail Shaker : Realish - the Pope Benedict cocktail shaker is real but I made the rest up!
• I Love the Pope Knickers : 100% genuine.
• Benedict Condoms : Also 100% genuine. On the other side of the packet to "I said NO!" is printed "But we say YES"
• Pope's Special Ale : Real - but I doctored the picture on  the beermat
• Pope Candles : 100% genuine
• Flashing Pope Cigarette Dispenser : What do you think? Of course it's a fake - but wouldn't it be great if it was real?

And the one that got away is pictured above. It's a board game called "Conclave - How men become Pope" and it's available via mail order from the official Vatican gift shop.

The prices are of course complete bollocks, but I'm sure the Vatican would charge this much for similar tacky tourist trash if they thought they could get away with it. Just look at the prices of their tour T-shirts!
 
So how many did you get right?...