British Taxpayers are funding child benefit paynets for 37,900 children who live in Poland.

The money is going to support those who have remained in their homeland while one or both of their parents lives and works in this country. The costs are estimated at £20M p.a.

We must be mad.

 GT

"Thousands are being forced to wait six months or so for tests or treatments because of problems with the £12.7 billion up-grade of NHS computers"

Not a lot new there then.

GT

During last month, August, the country's borrowings increased by £16.1 billion. That's almost twice the budget for the 2012 Olympics. Just to pay interest on its debts the Government has to find £30 billion+ p.a. That's £500 for every man, woman and child in the country. Spending on social security is due to rise from £156.6 billion this year to an alarming £193.4 billion in 2013-14.
Meanwhile, the unions have made it clear that they will, in no way, accept a pay freeze.
We are now in the 'calm' before the 'storm'. Watch out.

GT

Following the news that the investgation into the "Rover" affair had only cost us £80.000.000, I was relieved to see today that inadvertant overpayments to Civil Servants had been limited to £1.522.995 over the last three years. In one case, a junior civil servant was supposed to be paid £22.000 p.a. but was actually paid £40.500.

Good to learn that the interests of the taxpayer are not being overlooked then.

GT

RED BULL. What a success this business has been. In providing a caffeine boosting drink to rival Coca-Cola they have made a fortune.
Maybe now's the time for "Relaxo" the new drink in a can which relaxes one at a time of stress.
Could be a winner: there are a lot of stressed people out there!
GT

There are people working in banks "which we own"(!) who are earning hundreds of thousands, or even a million pounds plus, in annual salaries and bonuses.
There are not too many of these people and although they are "bank workers" they are actually very specialist market traders who pay 40% (soon to be 50%) of their earnings in tax and make the majority of the bank's profits.
They all work in the part of the bank in a business that used to be called "merchant banking" until the 'big bang' in the eighties when high street banks were allowed to acquire and consolidate the smaller, but highly profitable merchant banks.
Rather than put a 'cap' on the salaries of these highly stressed traders, I think it would be much preferable for the banks to float off these activites, thus releasing much needed capital. Investors could take a stake in the new concerns and the "banks" could return to their original core business of taking deposits and advancing loans.
GT

After an expensive case in the High Courts, it was ruled that a transgender killer who was born a man could be transfered to a woman's prison where it will cost an extra £80.000 p.a. for "her" to be looked after as "she" may not be acceptable to other women in-mates.Yes friends, this was yet another victory for the Human Rights legislation which has cost the taxpayers a lot of money that we should not be spending.
Gordon Brown told us yesterday that the cost of each of our brave soldiers in Afghanistan is £390.000 p.a.
GT

 In my day, it was a well known fact that having 'taken-over' a company, its profitability could be instantly improved by getting rid of the Chairman's pet project.

It would appear now that McKinsey & Co., no doubt at great expense, are advocating a version of this approach to be adopted within the NHS. This is a good thing.

The NHS is renowned for the proliferation of personal fiefdoms which exist in all its institutions. I'm afraid it's often a case of "if you don't complain about mine, I won't complain about yours".

It is also the case that there are no brownie points at all for filing complaints about inefficiency. Despite McKinsey's attempts, I see little changing.

GT

"Murderer serving a life sentance wins the right to have birthmark removed on NHS"

So reads the headline on page 5 of today's Times. Need I say more? A double murderer has won a long running High Court, publicly funded, victory to undergo cosmetic surgery to remove a birthmark.
This, at a time when we are supposed to be cutting back on un-necessary expenditure.
In allowing this sort of thing to happen, we know we are now right down the slippery slope. Remember the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire? We too, are most definitely on our way.

GT

I suppose nostalgia comes with age, but "collecting" is now an interest, fuelled by watching recorded episodes of "Flog-It". I say recorded, as I don't want you to think that I am a mid-afternoon TV watcher. Recently my wife and I went to a "live" Flog-It" and met Paul Martin, the host. What a pleasant person he is.

There is a good collectors site at www.collectors101.net Give it a go (Joe) as they used to say ....

GT

I’ve always been interested in cameras, ever since I was a boy. In those days things were quite different. Digital cameras had not been heard of and there were great pleasures to be had, developing a film and then making prints from the negatives in the darkroom.Cameras are like cars. Now they all look the same. In the old days there were many different makes all exciting in their own way.Have a look at www.classic-camera.net where memories will come flooding back.

GT

If you see this post it means that BlogEngine.NET 1.3 is running and the hard part of creating your own blog is done. There is only one thing you need to do from this point on to take full advantage of the blog and that is to set up the first author profile.

Write Permissions

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Username and password

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On the web

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