IS THE GOVERNMENT RUNNING A COUNTRY OR A COUNTRY CLUB

Excerpt from Hansard:

Matthew Hancock: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how much his Department and its predecessors spent on wine in each year since 1997. [12829]

Tim Loughton (Education): The accounting systems of the Department and its predecessors do not record information separately on this type of expenditure and it could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Any expenditure on wine is made in accordance with published departmental guidance on financial procedures and propriety, based on principles set out in Managing Public Money and the Treasury handbook on Regularity and Propriety.

WHY?

It would only need a junior clerk to total up the money spent on wine for the last 13 years. Not, you would have thought beyond the capabilities of a government that can prosecute two wars at a time. They don't mind wasting money on wine; they do, however, have a problem wasting money on telling us how much of our tax has gone down their fat greedy necks. Who'd have guessed it?

Mr Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the cost to the public purse has been of (a) red wine, (b) white wine, (c) champagne and (d) fortified wine purchased for the Government wine cellar since his appointment. [26874]

Mr Bellingham (FCO): Government Hospitality buys wines when they are relatively less expensive, and stores them until they are ready to use. Government Hospitality has spent £25,043 on new stock for the cellar since May 2010, all of which has been on white wine only.

WHY?

Half a million people are losing their jobs; Pensioners and other housing benefit claimants are going to find themselves in real hardship because of cuts in their allowances; most, if not every, public service is going to be reduced.

Why is the government spending £25,000 of our tax money on wine? Who will drink this wine, and why, given the parlous state of the United Kingdom, does the government think it has the right to spend our taxes in this way?

I understand that State Dinners held by the Queen at Windsor might be expected to serve some wine, but that's the head of state. Why is the government serving wine? Is the mess we are in atributable to the fact that the government drinks itself stupid at lunch time and then conducts our business in the afternoon?

Can we have an end to this nonsense? If ministers want wine with their meals they should buy it themselves. Our pensioners can afford lunch never mind booze.

Bloody self important drunken gits.

Pics: (1) Is this what the cave at Downing Street looks like? (2) State Dining Room at Downing Street; (3) Well are we all in this together? What do you think?

There are alternatives to the cuts that they will bring down on us

There is a very interesting post across at Forfar Loon’s place. The FT has predicted a certain number of cuts that will have to be made to persuade the money markets of the next government’s good faith, and we wouldn’t want to upset the money markets.

Here are some alternative ideas. Clearly I can’t cost them; I don’t have the means, but they would make a big cut. Are they unthinkable? To them, yes. Is cutting pensioners’ benefits unthinkable? To me, yes. What’s the difference? Them and me.

We could take at least a third of the MPs out of the Commons. They have time for other jobs, as many as 10, so clearly they are under employed. If my boss thought that I had time to do 10 part time jobs, and earn far more from them than I do with my “job”, I’d be given a choice.

We can get rid of the House of Lords and sell off all the artwork to the rich. ‘Oh, but it must be kept for the state’, they will moan. So how many of us get to see the artwork in the House of Lords, remind me.

We can sell off the royal palaces bar one. There must be rich people for whom the dream of living in a royal palace would mean more than holding on to a couple of billion pounds. If they keep Windsor Castle, there is plenty of room for all the many and various royals for whom we are obliged to find luxury accommodation.

We can sell Chequers, Chevening, etc. I know, they were left to the state, and where would the politicos entertain? Well, lawyers can find a way round anything if they have a mind to. Goldsmith certainly could, get him on the job. And as for entertaining, there is space in the ex-House of Lords for a dining room to be made over to politicians for such occasions. No need for them to have country estates.

We can slim down the BBC selling off the nonsense bits and retaining that which a state broadcaster needs to retain. People on nearly a million a year at our expense, who believe that taxis are to be treated like chauffer driven cars, building up massive bills of thousands of pounds per day, are nothing more or less than a joke when we are talking about cutting ordinary people’s jobs and benefits.

Scrap id cards. No, it won’t cause a rise in terrorism. Don’t be silly. Whatever the government does that will cost billions, the crooks will be able to copy within a year, and the government will have to start all over again. You think crooks never heard of biometrics?

Get rid of Trident and don’t replace it. The Generals don’t want it. They have to fight a war on the ground in Afghanistan. They know what they need. Brown, Cameron and Clegg don’t know jack s*** about fighting wars. The nuclear weapon thing is a vanity thing designed to please America and keep these little islands at the top table where they long ago ceased to merit a place. We don’t need them. Germany doesn’t have them and it’s safe; Poland, Italy, Spain, Norway..... and on and on....

Close up all the redundant embassies. I read the other day that we have an Ambassador to the Holy See. What in the same of goodness does he have to do all day with his staff? Apologising for stupid imbeciles in the Foreign Office is not, or at least shouldn’t be, a full time job. Close them down and sell them off. We need embassies in the big and important countries where we do a lot of business and diplomatic work. We do not need them elsewhere. Consulates will do. Remove the massive houses and Rolls Royces from the ones that remain. Sell them. Ambassadors and their staffs are Civil Servants, not royalty.

Empty the cellars of wine in the palaces and government departments. When foreign dignitaries come here it is for business. Of course we need to feed them and feed them well, but the wine could easily be limited and there is no need to be serving stuff that costs hundreds of pounds a bottle.

It’s not 1875. The world has changed.

Pictured: A banquet at Windsor Castle; Chevening, (Miliband's country place); St James's Palace (Home of Princess Beatrice)