Bearing in mind the momentous events of 2008/09 when Britain both spent and borrowed so much money that its international credit rating is under review, the continued spending by Government Departments in 2008/09 makes staggering reading.

In simple terms, Government income has declined because of less people in work, lower wages for many and lower interest rates on investments (therefore less income tax). One would have expected Government to cut back on expenditure to take account of its lower income. But no, it actually INCREASED expenditure for nearly every government Department! Those of you who know something of Keynesian economics may say that is not so bad because investments in infrastructure (roads, railways etc) can be used to re-start failing economies. You would be wrong because the Transport Department is only one of two that have actually reduced their budget – by  6%. (the other is the FCO but that may make sense given that the Government has signed the Lisbon Treaty which inter alia creates a Euro Diplomatic service with all the problems that entails for the British traveller!)1
Some examples of increased expenditure include HM Revenue and Customs by 10%, International Development 15% and Devolved Spending for Wales 8%. But the figure which is so big it will not fit on the spreadsheet is HM Treasury by an incredible 49,891%! The Treasury footnote claims the large increase reflects the payments made in supporting the financial sector. So the £109.5 Billion spent by the Treasury even exceeds, just, the Department of Health expenditure which presumably includes the NHS.

Given the magnitude of these figures one would have expected the Government to have made cut backs in such non-essentials as advertising. But no, the Central Office of Information (Propaganda Ministry?) has increased its advertising on TV, radio and in newspapers. Senseless messages which tell us how much CO2 we could save by driving 5 miles less every day, stopping smoking, paying our taxes on time, carrying a condom at all times (a new meaning for the Boy Scouts’ BE PREPARED motto), locking our doors before going out (because are Police are too busy to catch burglars), etc etc – all the Nanny State social engineering mix of carrot and stick. It also spends our money to tell us what a great job the Government is doing and adds crass “newspapers! (e.g. Your Somerset) to its armoury of propaganda. So many of these messages really only underline how badly Government is doing in its duties and trying to push responsibility on to the Taxpayer. For example police adverts implore us not to leave valuables in cars because car crime is so high compared with overseas. Police priorities are usually completely misplaced: the target of 14% (not met) clear up rate for burglaries contrasts starkly with 83% (achieved) for so-called hate crimes. So name-calling and the like of people whom local folks did not invite here is prioritised over the trauma of having your home broken into. The police cannot protect our homes and yet prosecute those folk who try to do it themselves. And lawyers and liberal Judges are the only real beneficiaries.

Quangos

Thank heavens for organisations like the Tax Payers Alliance (TPA) which unearth Government waste (http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/) .  They report that Quangos were funded to the tune of more than £90 billion of public money in 2007/08 an increase of £13 billion on the previous year. The TPA investigation found semi-autonomous public bodies – ranging from the BBC to regional development agencies – employed more than 534,000 people in 2007/08. Government at Westminster funded 960 bodies costing £82 billion, while the Scottish Executive spent £7.3 billion on 146 organisations. The Welsh Assembly spent £1 billion on 37 bodies, while nine organisations cost the Northern Ireland executive £700 million. This totals a cost of £3,400 for every household in 2007/08 – a figure which will have grown since.
Governments have often promised a bonfire of Quangos but little ever happens – in fact quite the opposite with expenditure rising overall in double digit percentages. The only realistic approach is to reverse the Burden of Proof: EVERY quango will be scrapped unless each can provide an over-riding reason why it should remain. Some (those without regulatory functions) could possibly be privatised. But the idea of having over half a million people in unelected and often barely controlled organisations at huge expense to the taxpayer cannot continue.

Local Government

One of the major problems is that Local Authorities, like Police Forces, are essentially dependent on Central Government for a large part of their funding. They are seldom efficient (our local Mendip Council was recently found to be one of the least efficient of all and by coincidence (?) its Chief Executive resigned). So there is little incentive to regard the recipient of services as a Customer. Basically we have too many people in offices trying to bend facts to satisfy targets and boasting of how good they are. In contrast there are not enough workers on the streets picking up litter, snow clearing and collecting rubbish.
In 2006-07, councils in England and Scotland spent over £400 million on publicity, £1.9 billion employing managers earning over £50,000 and over £4.3 billion on employer pension contributions. The total of the three expenditures is therefore £6.6 billion2.  Saving just 10% on those three areas alone would therefore reduce expenditure by £660 million. Instead the Councils boast when they “only” increase local tax bills by 3%
Remember when all the Council office staff fitted into a small Town Hall (you will if over 50), whilst now new purpose built offices have been built all over the country. And many of the “staff” are not even council staff but out-sourced employees, perhaps of the company that collects your TV license (if you pay it).

EU

It is now widely recognised  that our direct expenditure to the EU is over £45 Million per day and rising. Even UKIP cannot keep up with the rise and still prints leaflets with the previous £40 Million per day figure. That enormous figure does not include the huge cost of abiding by and implementing the massive number of EU Regulations and Directives (over 70,000 and rising), which is estimated to cost Britain £184 Billion by 2020.3

Conclusion

The Government, nor Conservatives and LibDems, have not realised that the cataclysmic events of the last few years herald a completely new Century and way of Government. Huge Civil Service departments and Ministries are no longer viable. The 20th Century flirtation with Big Government has resulted in disaster with the have-nots having a larger say than those who actually pay for the services – and the bureaucrats leaping in to expand their little personal empires under whatever banner is currently being unfurled by the politicians and their sycophants in the Press. Thus we have had the Elf ‘n’ Safety bonanza, the Multi Cultural bandwagon and now the Global Warming fiasco. Unfortunately once a client base is created, it is not scrapped before the next fashion comes along with all its costs and staff. In the 21st Century we must start again by questioning any Political Correct initiative and scrapping all but the most essential of the Quangos and Ministries. The ratchet process of building layers upon layers of bureaucrats and public expenditure cannot continue.
We must:
*Quit the EU
*Scrap all but the most essential Quangos
*Scrap or Downsize every Ministry
*Downsize every local government Council

We cannot afford anything else



Copyright 2010 Barry Harding
PPC Somerton & Frome UKIP