Friday 27 May 2011

For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more

Well, hard times there may be, but at least one person doesn’t have to stint themselves when it comes to getting things done about the house.

It has come to light that, in the year since David Cameron moved into Downing Street, more that £680,000 has been spent on it by the pm, including £30,000 on his private apartments (above).

Now I didn’t know it, but it seem that an annual allowance of £30,000 is available to prime ministers for the upkeep of their personal accommodation at Downing Street, and that Mr Cameron has spent the lot. I wonder what he’ll use it for this year.

Last year’s lot was spent on plumbing, rewiring and redecorating the place. Apparently the furnishings (loadsa money, but precious little taste in my humble opinion) were paid for by the Camerons.

Another £653,192.34 was spent on external and internal renovation work to the offices and reception rooms in Downing Street. This included cabling, plumbing and energy efficiency improvements. (Jeez, I wish we could have some of that.)

Downing Street would not comment on exactly what the money was spent on and refused Freedom of Information requests asking what changes have been made to the Grade I listed building which the state owns and so is a council house by any other name.

No one would expect the prime minister, or our own first minister for that matter, to live in a slum, although god knows we expect a fair number of “ordinary people” to do so, but you’d have expected a little better in a year when austerity has been the name of the game and Cameron even made a big show of travelling to Spain on holiday with the most awful budget airline, and cancelled his Christmas holidays in Thailand, just to show us “ordinary people” that even “important people” were having to slum it...(well, except Osborne who doesn’t care for that sort of nonsense and trotted off to Klosters).

You see, I can hardly believe that the Browns, weird though they are, would have lived in a slum with water streaming down the walls and dodgy plumbing that required £30,000 spending on it to make it habitable.

It all reminds me of when the Queen Mother died and Charles got her old house. He was given £5 million of state (our) money to do it up. Now I grant you it is a big, no massive, house, but £5 million worth of repairs suggests that it’s hardly any wonder the poor old dear died, as there wasn’t a bloody roof on the place. OK, the decoration might not have been to Mrs Parker Bowles taste, but it was hardly a ruin with the paper hanging off the walls.

And so with Downing Street. They can’t be there THAT much. They have their constituency home and a country estate provided by us. Surely they could have tolerated the Browns’ decoration a bit longer given that some of the rest of us can’t afford to eat.

Why do these people think that they are worth things that we are not? Why do they think that we should pay for them? And why do they refuse us the details about them?

Between the foreign aid budget increases that this man has agreed to and his own insatiable desire to spend our money on himself, no wonder Osborne’s books get in a worse state by the day.


Nauseating picture of the "little women in the kitchen, wearing pretty dresses and talking about recipes while the men get down to talking about important things that they wouldn't understand". (Particularly idiotic in this situation as Michelle Obama could out-think David Cameron before she opened her eyes in the morning.)

29 comments:

  1. tris

    Thank your lucky stars we are in 'The Age of Austerity'

    (When the moon is in the Seventh House
    And Jupiter aligns with Mars
    Then peace will guide the planets
    And love will steer the stars
    This is the dawning of the Age of Aquarius/Austerity !!Oops sorry for that)

    Otherwise Cameron would of spent a darn sight more Wanker (Cameron I mean not yer good self)

    Mind why didn't the Torys organise between themselves to decorate the rooms in the spirit of the Big Society for free Gratis nothing zilch.....

    Cameron not so much feet of clay more a whole two faced self seeking lying duplicitous body
    and here is the Man who will fight to save the 'Union'

    To be honest its just Camerons way of disinfecting 10 Downing street of Gordon Browns presence and then he can call it home

    ReplyDelete
  2. To be honest its just Camerons way of disinfecting 10 Downing street of Gordon Browns presence and then he can call it home

    Simple solution my post on previous thread fits in this one.

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  3. Aye Niko, well, I hope he does fight for the union. There can be nothing more guaranteed to push Scots away than him and Tweedy Forsythe telling us what's good for us.

    Mind you lisping Ed isn't any better.

    As for Nicky... ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...slap me, quick.

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  4. Now that would be nice. Then they could build something useful in Downing Street, like a Tesco maybe.

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  5. The age of austerity doesn't seem to have affected our councils. Inverness spent £3million on their credit card ( 3rd highest in the UK and only includes purchases over £500).
    Meanwhile 'cash strapped' Aberdeen spent over £500K on essential services like Fringe tickets and trips to Sharm El Sheik, Dubai etc

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/council-spending/8541942/Aberdeenshire-Council-credit-card-spending.html

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  6. I noticed one of Aberdeen's purchases...

    HOODIES FOR DANISH EXCHANGE £520.26 banana moon workshop

    Any ideas ?

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  7. Is that Oprah and C.Cole in the pic?

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  8. Monty said...
    HOODIES FOR DANISH EXCHANGE £520.26 banana moon workshop

    LibDem members planning shape of peripheral route?
    or four ways to skin the public!

    ReplyDelete
  9. cynical...

    Found this site. Nice blond babe. Don't remember seeing this hoodie in Aberdeen...

    http://www.banana-moon-clothing.co.uk/3_hoodies/19_ladies/466_girlie_zoodie_p/

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  10. I saw that Monty. For my money these people need stringing up.

    Pickles is hopping mad, although what HE has to do with it is beyond me? Particularly the Scottish stuff which is as much his business as local government spending in Peru!

    Pickles’ whole policy IN ENGLAND is based on localism> He bangs on about it all the time. Local democracy! Of course then he gets himself in a spin about what people do with the local democracy.

    Localism means you leave it to locals to make up their mind what they do with their money, Eric you big thick useless waste of space (lots of space too).

    I think it's all part of a plot to make the cuts look worse than they are, and of course for people who think that they are Erchie, to go on deluding themselves.

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  11. Banana Moon.... Why did they need hoodies to go to Denmark?

    Did they not have clothes of their own?

    Why were they going to Denmark?

    In hoodies?

    Did no one think to buy them some trousers?

    Or shoes?


    Monty, you don't get her included in the price (although at that price, you bloody well should).

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  12. At last I have finally been able to log into my own blog. I don’t know what the problem has been but it seems that I am not alone with these ghosts in the machine. I have reset internet explorer, deleted all the cookies (all of them including the ones you want), reduced the internet security settings and allowed all pop ups, deleted all shortcuts to blogger and finally logged out of blogger and in again. Of course this means that you lose all your preferences, passwords and so on but it seems to have worked as just like Charlie Endell Esq I’m back!

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  13. Of course from now on, thanks to the Tories exempting the royals from FOI altogether, we won’t be able to know how much old big ears spends on doing up his palaces.

    I see that Tory hypocrisy knows no bounds as that great fat prune Eric Pickles has overridden localism by allowing 250,000 tons of nuclear waste to go to landfill near Peterborough. Despite a local poll where 98% said “no” and Northamptonshire County Council also said “no”! Were the Tories not the champions of localism? Yes! But not where there is a huge pile of money to be made. Thank god for devolution or you could bet your bottom dollar that all that lovely radioactive waste would be winging its way to a landfill site in Scotland!

    Incidentally there are seven constituencies in Northamptonshire and every single one is Tory. Good luck to them! That is what you get for voting Tory.

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  14. Munguin, I think I have an idea what your troubles may be:

    "I have reset internet explorer"

    I need to use Internet Exlorer when I'm at work, and it's horrendous for Blogger sites, particularly when it comes to posting. I can't even post on James Kelly's blog when I'm offshore.

    Death to Internet Explorer. Long live Firefox, Chrome and Opera.

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  15. There's an easy solution to all the expenses shenanigans. Some people reckon benefits payments should be in the form vouchers rather than money, so that child payments have to be spent on things for your child rather than on fags and booze, for example. Why not apply this idea to expenses? That would be a pretty easy way of stopping questionable payments.

    Anyway, why on earth isn't there someone in charge of making sure Downing Street is maintained? I'd have thought that was a pretty basic thing. I believe they're called "janitors".

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  16. Welcome back Munguin. Blogger has missed your witty input. It seems you may have to demolish Munguin Towers and start all over again.

    I mentioned Mr Pickles’ interventions the other day on here. It's almost unbelievable that a government that wants the big state in London to butt out and allow people to decide what is best for them locally, would be so keen to override everything that councils and local referenda have suggested the local people not just want, but want by a majority of 98%.

    They say the radio-active waste is safe.... ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. I wonder if Pickles would like it in HIS back yard, or to have the risk of HIS kids, or grandchildren playing in it, or to have it washed into the water courses in HIS area and likely for HIM to be drinking it, or bathing in it.

    I know I wouldn't; and as for believing anything big business says about anything.... yeah right.

    Given that localism was a large part of the Tory campaign in England, I wonder this Northamptonshire will be voting Tory next time!

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  17. tris..

    Maybe it's a cunning plan by Aberdeen to send all of their hoodies to Denmark ?
    Localism is a nonsense ( of course). What they mean is you can have localism as long as it conforms with govt policy. In Scotland local councils who vote against biomass smokestacks and useless windmill farms are regularly overruled by the SNP in Edinburgh who believe in the global warming scam.
    In England local councils who object to nuclear dumping are regularly overruled by the Tory govt who believe in nuclear energy.
    So localism is allowed if it conforms to national policy.

    Munguin..

    I didn't realsie that people still used internet explorer after all it's failures in the past.
    You should give another browser a go. You can keep as many browsers as you like on your desktop so why not try one. If you don't like it then just go online with IE9 again.
    Firefox is here ...

    http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/fx/

    You may have to reload flash for youtube to work.
    I tried Opera but couldn't get youtube to work despite several attempts so I wouldn't use them.

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  18. Hey Doug:

    I tried using Firefox, but I had trouble with Blogger on that too... Ho hum.

    You would have thought that the government would have had a "jannie" for Downing Street. I have no idea how they could have let it get into such a state. Looking at the photograph above, it doesn't even get used, well at least no kitchen I've ever seen look THAT clean.

    Somehow I don't see Mrs Cameron getting David's Mince and Tatties on..

    I agree with you about vouchers for expenses. In any other place, after the widespread cheating and stealing that went on, something would have been done to ensure that NO cheating occurred again. Not in the London parliament though. Oh no, the Honourable, and Right Honourable persons are far too important to be treated like common criminals.

    Vouchers would be perfect. I'd love to see them squirm with embarrassment as they had to use the nasty cheap places for which these vouchers are usually valid.

    Honourable? Right!

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  19. Monty:

    In Dundee the biomass project has been given a thumbs down by our local MSP, Shona Robison. It's not being forced upon us. And I believe that Kenny MacAskill has similarly said no in Edinburgh.

    But I agree that localism tends to be approved of when it is in accord with the government's policy.

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  20. Thanks for the suggestion Doug! But Firefox did not work either ;-( I forgot to say that I tried that but I don’t use it very often and don’t know how to reset it. So I have thrown some more coal on IE and it seems to be working now. Let’s keep everything crossed.

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  21. I am assuming that the problem was not purely local to me as other bloggers have been reporting problems of late. Conan couldn't comment on his blog the other day!

    I sometimes think they make things overly complex these days. They should get Bosch to do everything. German washing machines wash clothes not like italian ones that seem to have a setting that makes the tea as well, but that never works!

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  22. Why on earth are you making tea in the washing machine Munguin?

    You really need to take more water with the gin on a Saturday morning!!

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  23. Talking about localism, I see that Cameron's wife's father has lost an appeal against the building of an abattoir just up the road from his baronial home.

    I wonder if Pickles will be daft enough to call that decision in and reverse it.

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  24. CH:

    Can't wait to hear the ballad of Iain Gray.

    I was sure that "Don't sleep in the subway" would have been on though!!!

    ReplyDelete
  25. the ballad of Iain Gray


    There was a scrote called Iain Grey
    From the killing fields he found his way
    To the mean streets of glasgae toon
    where the oldies tracked him doon
    Tae a wee subway in the toon
    6 inch salami on rye
    Or a probing question fae a sly
    Oldie worried aboot their future
    Under Elmers ill fated plans
    Tae tax oor hooses into the sands
    But oor wee Eck kicked him oot
    And that big fat boot
    Baillie her name
    Pie eating her game
    For she has no shame
    Munching away while people lose their hame
    said stop !
    Ye cannae stop PFI and hospital building
    How will I get my wee directorship if I don't follow through
    On promises to other Labour grandees ?
    Nae worries said Jack O' malawi
    Fir I wis in the same boat
    Some scrote said I couldnae enjoy being lord o the african isles
    So I got a lovely ermine suit
    And now stand proud in 'the other hoose'
    They know I'm a shit but hey £300 a day plus expenses do I care ?
    This ode disnae rhyme
    But it's nae crime
    Compared to the slime
    Who rob Scotland of it's future
    Pathetic key
    Jackie burd
    And her unionist pals
    Hope they live tae see a free Scotland
    So we can laugh at them and tell them tae GTF
    Scotland shouldnae sleep in the subway
    We should kick them all oot
    Gie the twats the boot.

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  26. Burns?

    No, not Burns... who then?

    Ah... I think it's my old pal Monty.

    LOL

    Nice one Monty. Get someone to put music to it now and it will be at the top of the Scottish charts in no time.

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  27. tris..

    I'm thinking McGonnagel :)
    It disnae look sae guid now that I've sobered up lol

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  28. Och away Monty.

    Some artistes do their best work while ratted!!

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