JG's blog

So Bernard Matthews bought a load of dodgy birds from Hungary, dumps a load of meat in open bins, had un-fit for purpose sheds which had leaky roofs and mesh that had been gnawed by rats and his farm was at the centre of the biggest outbreak of bird flu seen in Britain. As a result he culled 159,000 of these birds because of his business's poor hygiene. So what is the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs response to this buffoon's Del-boy-esque business practices? They have given him £600k. Jack Straw, the Leader of the House has said “All of us are uncomfortable about the reports of high levels of compensation to Mr Matthews’s firm.” So why has your government seen fit to give him over half a million pounds of our money? I bet old Bernie can't believe his luck, a truck load of cash and he didn't have to flog one of his Turkey Drummers to the ever growing obese nation.

I've just picked up this story for Recess Monkey and also ananova.com. Opposition Greater Romania Party MP Corneliu Bichinet has come up with one of the most sensible and amusing policy plans for keeping Romanian MPs in check - and I am backing it for use in the UK. Mr Bichinet has proposed that all MPs are weighed at the start and the end of their tenure and taxed heavily if they have exceeded a weight limit as a way of curbing long and expensive lunches. Any that have put on more than 50kg would be judged guilty of cashing in on their position and would have to pay fines. He quoted as saying "Most of them are skinny when they are elected, and yet invariably at the end they turn into big fatties. MPs who put on 50kg should be punished because it shows they took advantage of their public position." Genius.

A new report published today has shown what we already knew - the government has failed on its drug policy. It seems that the more the government has intervened, the worse the problem has got. "The prices of the principal drugs in Britain have declined for most of the last 10 years and there is no indication that tougher enforcement has succeeded in making drugs less accessible" the reports states. The report put Britain as having the second worse drug problem in Europe. The total value of the UK market for illicit drugs is estimated at £5bn a year. All very depressing stuff.

It wouldn't feel right if there wasn't an NHS story on Picking Losers, so here goes. Surely the Department of Health must be the worst financially managed "business" in the UK? The National Audit Office seems to think so, and I agree. It turns out that those hard working doctors who received on average a 27% pay rise have seen their work load decrease. That's right - we are now paying even more for less. Edward Leigh, the chairman of the Commons public accounts committee, which oversees the work of the NAO, is pretty damning in his assessment of this department - "The bottom line is that the Department of Health has increased consultants' salaries without demonstrating any extra productivity in return... This is one more example of weak financial management by the Department of Health. It drove through the new pay deal with scant regard for proper evidence and solid financial forecasting."

So we are told that we will be fined an outrageous fee if we put our rubbish out too early as it encourages mice and rats on to the streets? But what better way to encourage mice and rats on to the streets (as well as a pretty awful smell) than to only collect our rubbish every two weeks? That is what four in every ten councils are now doing. What in the name of God is going on? Why do I pay my council tax, exactly?

Following on from yesterday's post about the Iron Chancellor's historic decisions coming back to bite us all, it appears (though this has been no secret) that the PPP investment in to the London Underground has been as disaster. Gordon Brown went against the advice of Bob Kiley (one of the world's leading transport experts) and the Mayor and went for a PPP arrangement. This is a worrying trend - it seems that Brown listens to no-one but himself even on issues he knows nothing about. The result is that the Metronet shareholders are looking like they are going to jump ship, leaving the tax payer to pick up the bill no doubt.

The time is drawing nearer and nearer where Tony will have to finally announce he is stepping down and the long, long awaiting "leadership contest" can finally begin. Since the Labour conference last year where Blair had them screaming in the aisles, this government has been completely paralysed and achieved next to nothing. As I have argued before, this is probably better than what they normally do, but it does beg the question what have we been paying for all these months?

I haven't mentioned the NHS for a while, but it was always going to come back. So here goes - the National Health Service's £12.4 billion national computer system. It's not a particularly new story, but confirmation of what we all feared has come out yesterday from the Commons public accounts committee. If there was a "Loser of the Year" award for the worst conceived policy or project, the NHS IT system would win hands down.

The government is being urged to get VAT removed from school clothing - and quite right. It is the government that back schools having a uniform promoting the benefits of equality, i.e. no fancy Dans coming in with all the latest street wear, while the spotty kid with an interest in robots and computers gets bullied for wearing his older brother's hand me downs (it's not cool to be clever these days, in fact it's positively frowned upon; another feather in the cap of the famous line "Education, education, education").

The problem with this is kids come in all different sizes so even though VAT is waived for the under 14s, the fact that we have a nation of fat kids means that adults can fit in to much the same clothes as the kids - therefore it is done by size not age. I don't know whether to laugh or cry when I read that some shops were selling boys' blazers with a 52in chest and trousers with a 42in waist. Who breeds these monsters?! Of course, if the VAT was waived just for school uniforms by age, then it would be easy to enforce as you would assume (hope) that only a school kid who had to wear the uniform would buy it... All this does beg the question, should clothes be viable to VAT in the first place - I wouldn't call them a luxury, they are most definitely a necessity. The government is once again cashing in on things that we have no choice but to pay up for. As way of a point to prove it is a necessity, the last thing I want to see is a 14 year school boy with a 52in chest and 42 inch waist walking around in his birthday suit - a powerful argument to scrap VAT on clothes altogether, I'm sure you'll agree.

So the government are going to offer incentives to get a few motorists to try out their road pricing scheme. Motorists who become guinea pigs for the governments tax raising plot will be given a discount on fuel duty in return for strapping a little black tracking box in their car. This is as a result of the Government's genuine shock and surprise to just about every single person in Britain when they responded badly to the road pricing plans via the anti road pricing e-petition that got 1.8m signatures and mass media coverage. And who said Labour is out of touch?

One hundred and eighty-five thousand pounds. That is how much a dozen local councils in England and Wales have raised through fixed penalties from households putting their rubbish out on the wrong day. This includes households who have put the bins out just a few hours too soon or left their wheelie bins on the road. Is this just another case of local government's desperation to get as much money of their residents as possible through any means?

The Home Office is right up there with the best at wasting our money. Its Secretary of State has even described it as "not fit for purpose". But that was before tough, no nonsense John Reid got his hands on it and sorted the whole shambles out. Wrong. Despite knowing many years ago that we would be in this situation if nothing was done, our prisons are full. So what does Reid do? He is wasting £5 million a month in payments for emergency accommodation in police cells. Since our prisons became jammed packed last October, tough John has blown £23m on renting out prison cells. A note for the government's forecasters who are about as accurate as Mystic Meg, the overall cost is double the estimated figure given to MPs last year.

So the government wants us all to ditch our cars and get on public transport? And why should I, you ask? Well, it's a nice little earner for the government for a start. The Office for National Statistics has revealed another spectacular failure for John Prescott (has he had any successes?) and the transport policy of the Labour Government. Bus fares have risen by 52.9 per cent over the past decade. While train fares rose by 46.2 per cent between January 1998 and the start of this year. However, according to the AA, the driver of a small family car has seen their motoring bill rise from 41.52 pence a mile in 1997 to 56.15 pence in 2005 - or 26 per cent. All, I'm sure you will agree, are ridiculous increases in their own right, but it turns out that drivers have got off lightly compared to those who followed government advice.

It is reported today, in the Telegraph, that the Government spends as much as 85p in every £1 spent on health in Labour Constituencies. It is not the first time that we have learnt the Government has been using financial incentives to win votes and I'm sure it won't be the last. There have been the classic Gordon Brown tax freezes and handouts in election years to curry favour with the voters over the past few years. Now details from a Parliamentary question show that of the 46 multi-million-pound hospitals built in England since Tony Blair came to power, 33 are in Labour areas. That amounts to £3.5 billion out of a total spend of £4.1 billion.

What makes governments and local councils think they know best about just about everything?  If I have a leak in the bathroom, I'll call the plumber not Councillor Jones or my local MP.  If I want finacial advice I am highly unlikely to ask someone in the Treasury, I think I'll stick to the real professionals.  So why does this nannying government insist on telling the real professionals how to do their job all the time?  The latest piece of "we know best" guidance is to teachers.  New guidance published today gives nuggets of advice such as not over disciplining persisten

And so to the latest attack on motorists and the Government's obsession with giving more power to the least appropriate people. A Department for Transport's feasibility study into "pay as you drive" includes proposals to use debt collectors to chase unpaid fees. And these glorified thugs will have a right to force their way in to your home, no questions asked, and take what they think is worth a few quid. The system barely works at present with crooked or bullying bailiffs only allowed in to premises by consent.

A report by the London School of Economics for the Prince's Trust charity, entitled The Cost of Exclusion gives us a very dim view of our future. It appears that the benefits handout culture of Great Britain is producing a population of "Neets" - people not in education, employment or training. Astonishingly, roughly one in five young people faces a lifetime on government handouts, under-achieving in education and runs the risk of falling into crime!

Only a couple more hours and Gordon will giving his final Budget to Parliament. There will be much patting on the back by his loyal followers, though probably mostly by himself. He will claim the longest period of economic growth in the history of mankind and beyond and take all the credit for it (ignoring the rise of China and the stable global economy and the fact that inflation is rising at a concerning rate in the UK).