Local government waste

Some wonderful stories in today's newspapers about waste in local government.

First, Essex County Council has spent a staggering £62,000 for eight Councillors and five Council Officers to visit Jamestown, Virginia to celebrate the 400th anniversary of English settlement. All travelled business class. According to a Council spokeswoman, many of ‘the original settlers came from Essex.’ Under that logic, they could sneak a trip to almost anywhere on the rates.

Lord Hanningfield, Tory Leader of the Council and one of the visiting party, defended the decision on the grounds that the trip helped build trade links between Essex and Virginia. By all accounts, they introduced two companies to one another – both of which are based in Essex. Hanningfield has been on the local government gravy train for years; there is probably no better travelled local politician in Britain today; certainly none that has had his trips paid for by the taxpayer.

Second, the Evening Standard reports that Ken Livingstone has slammed Boris Johnson for wanting to close the GLA’s offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Delhi, Mumbai and Brussels. I had never realised that the GLA had offices in such far flung places around the globe and can’t imagine what good they do. How many other local and regional authorities have offices in these places?

As with Hanningfield, Ken justifies this stance by arguing that this is good for business. No doubt, the GLA’s record of achievement matches that of the Essex delegation to Virginia. When will these local government figures realise that you do not increase trade by moving politicians and officials around the globe, but by making the movement of capital, goods and labour easier and freer?

Finally, Boris Johnson has announced that he will scrap Ken’s publicly funded monthly magazine, the Londoner, and spend the money instead on planting 10,000 street trees in the capital. The Londoner is the most appalling piece of political propaganda paid for by the taxpayer.

But in Ken’s defence, at least it has a purpose. The magazine that I get from Surrey County Council is so dull and tedious it doesn’t even fulfill that propaganda role. It literally ends up as nothing more than waste. Hardly surprising then, that this week, Surrey County Council announced plans for a second massive Incinerator. Now that is wasting money on waste.