... Mr Pickles, the man who spends his life berating English councils for wasting taxpayers' money, has paid his own finance officer £580,000 for 16 months' work. That's around £432,000 a year.
I take that to mean the the English Communities Department thinks that in order to run accounts in a sound way, it is necessary to pay the head accountant over £400,000 a year.
So does that mean that any of the councils in Mr Pickles' jurisdiction would be failing in their duty to have sound finances if they were paying their accountant less than that?
Or is it yet another example of Whitehall departments, which we in Scotland help to fund, being run by greedy incompetent idiots?
Can I respectfully suggest that it is the latter?
ReplyDeletePickles is a horrid individual, I remember him on QT when he tried to justify second homes for MP's by saying 'they needed to be at work on time'...
He's a gonk.
That is all.
;-)
You can indeed, Pa.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of us have no need to be at work on time. And therefore do not require second homes.
Actually, unless they have a meeting or a scheduled to star a debate, MPs have no need whatsoever to be on time. They are their own boss.
A 'gonk' sounds like it might be something quite nice. Are you sure that's what you mean, or were you just being polite?
tris
ReplyDeleteMSPs claimed £11.8 million in expenses last year, up 1.6% on the previous year, new figures show.
The total of £11,849,399 in 2010-11 is £186,801 higher than the previous year’s total of almost £11.7 million.
The Scottish Parliament said the expenses claims represent a real-terms reduction(snigger! snigger snp sophistry and spin) because the increase is lower than the rate of inflation.
They cant just stop can they
that there Eric pickles always says as 'his' one and only joke
I'll just have a jammy dodger yeah well I know where Id like to stuff em loads of em to
Erm, the Scottish parliament consists of more than SNP MSPs, Niko my boy.
ReplyDeleteIf the increase is less than inflation, then I guess it is a reduction in real terms.
Although I'd reduce it even more by making them all walk.
At least we agree about one thing though. Humpty Dumpty the Pickled egg IS a joke, never mind has a joke.
tris
ReplyDeleteYer! paranoid (not unusual in a Nationalist) my comment was generic one applying to our political class as a whole.
'real terms' is flim flammery from whatever quarter and you lose repect
by quoting it
(snigger! snigger snp sophistry and spin)
ReplyDeletedoesn't sound generic to me....
Oh and "real terms" is one of Gordon Brown's more remembered phrases as chncellor...
ReplyDelete"That means this government is making an increase in real terms of....", so apologise for using it. It is indeed devalued.
Since your talking of greed and money sit back and learn how we are all being taken for a ride.
ReplyDelete2011 2012 Inside Job
It is what has went wrong with our British (read: 'Anglo-Saxon') economic way of thinking.
ReplyDeletei.e. the top paid say they are the top talent, therefore we must subsidise them ...
WAIT A MINUTE!
Isn't that like saying, my cat walks on four legs, my dog walks on four legs, therefore my cat is a dog?
IT ISN'T PROPER ECONOMIC THINKING!
duh!
I've been watching that CH. I've got to the bit where they are talking about the rating agencies.
ReplyDeleteGiven all that, why exactly are we paying any attention to anything they say about any of the banks or the Euro countries. They are surely only doing it for reasons of personal gain.
I don't know how they will gain from it of course, but you can bet your left that they will.
The main thing is that they are liars.
Have you watched the BBC show that Cynical has linked to Dean?
ReplyDeleteIt's down to corrupt government and bankers who can buy whatever law they want. Examples shown from Reagan, Clinton, Bush I and II.
And the UK under Major, Blair and Brown are complicit.
Now we have that idiot Cameron getting all British Bulldog and saying that he will protect British interests, when all he will do is protect the banks' interests.
But I take your original point. But this was just a stupid excuse. There are people who could have done it just as well for a lot less. I wonder who he knows, this guy, to manage to get that kind of money out of a broke government.
I've watched it all CH, and I'm just sick.
ReplyDeleteNo, I'm angry with these fat ******** who smugly say, 'I don't have to answer to you; give it your best shot', and others who can't actually remember anything they did despite being so smart as to have known how to write academic papers on the subject only a few years ago.
They are all OK. Not one prosecution. Not one single dollar clawed back of the obscene income they made out of causing a worldwide depression, and worse, ruining people's lives.
I'd put them all in a skyscraper and blow it up.
Vive la revolution (and pseudo-Greeks, re-reflect on Grivas and Ataturk and their anti-imperialism; oh, and chuck in Garibaldi who was inspired, in part, by Wallace).
ReplyDeleteYou see David; it all comes back to Scotland.
ReplyDeleteEn tout cas Vive la révolution!!
We live in a very crap democracy in the UK where the money men rule for their own advantage at all times and it's the pure complicity of MPs that that I find incredulous. I suppose when one has a large number of voters who are happy to accept what the media dishes out as fact it just shows how illiterate our fellow inhabitants are.
ReplyDeleteYes. The trouble is the press is saying he's played a blinder for Britain. He hasn't. He may have played a blinder for the City. That remains to be seen. But he's not done anything for you and me.
ReplyDeleteHe's a stupid man. He's put himself on the outside. There may be a time for that. it most certainly isn't now.
One day the credit rating agencies are going to come for Britain. Our debt is unsustainable and it's getting bigger instead of smaller. but they only go for one at a time.
So, it's all a matter of time before Standard and Poor and the others come for Osborne, unless someone is paying them not to?
Remember they are as corrupt as can be and are only interested in making profits. They check nothing (as per the show I watched last night).
I tried posting twice on Craig's site but they went off into oblivion for some reason or has his moderation policy changed.
ReplyDeleteThis might spoil Niko's supper.
Cynical Highlander
ReplyDeleteYou're being very kind to use the word "democracy" regarding the UK.
The organisation I work for expects me to produce receipts for expenses incurred and reasonable expense claims. It is surely not beyond reason to expect our "representatives" to do the same.
Perhaps that is why my organisation is respected world-wide while these bunch of chancers are a bye-word for corruption where-ever you go..
Dean, do I got the feeling that you are gradually coming over from the dark side but I suspect Niko is a lost cause and according to Mrs Niko the sooner he is lost the better.
ReplyDeleteJohn I am just being lazy!
ReplyDeleteDon't think he's changed. I posted today CH.
ReplyDeleteNice poll.
ReplyDeleteI bet Cameron would give his teeth to have kind of approval rating 62% for!!!!!
Well, I've said it before, John, we don't live in a democracy here.
ReplyDeleteI guess Scotland is closer than anywhere else in the UK, but the certainly England is surely one of the least democratic democracies.
And, as for Niko, Spook told me Mrs Nico is forever trying to lose him, but somehow he finds his way home... no matter how many times she moves!
ReplyDeleteI wonder if Hailsham was wise to deliver such a lecture, CH. He did it in criticism of Wilson and Callaghan governments, but he must have known that the same could apply to a Conservative government.
ReplyDelete