Failed Banks Cash in On Christmas

SO, it comes to the campaign's attention that Lloyds TSB is forking out 35 pounds a head for staff this Christmas for parties!
We think this is an outrage given 5.5bn pounds of cash was pumped into the failing bank recently at the taxpayers' expense.
Shindigs include a booze up at the Preston Marriott Hotel where staff were treated to a five-course Christmad dinner with all the trimmings, booze and party games.
And you think that's bad - what about the RBS splashing out 30k on a Christmas do at Blenheim Palace.
In such times of hardship, and at our expense, this is plain wrong and we take a stand.

Back in Action

After technical issues, the campaign is back up and running. Hope it wasn't missed too much.
As ever, keep emailing us examples of where government can be made better!!

VAT for the Chop?

SO the Sundays are full of speculation that VAT is set to be cut by 2.5% to 15%.
This measure is something the Campaign welcomes and could kick-start the economy to come out of the impending recession by boosting consumer spending.
That said, a VAT cut must happen alongside a raft of other measures to help individuals and small businesses, in particular, through such hard times.
Taxing empty business properties MUST end and the government should at least look at Keynesian-type projects to help curb the rapid rise in unemployment.
Borrowing is going to be a major problem over the next few years but if it has to be done to stop the rot, then we would support it. But only as long as we are not held to ransom.
But what we will not support are high and rapid tax rises "justified" by current conditions. We want to know where our money is being spent and IT MUST be spent wisely and properly.
Cut silly and wasteful spending first before high tax rises.

Strictly Come - Get On With It

THIS campaign is fed up of reading about MPs and senior politicians using parliamentary time and resources to winge about a BBC1 Saturday night entertainment show.
Yes, it's a shame John Sergeant is not On Strictly Come Dancing and you might be upset.
But there is a credit crunch going on at the moment with a major economic downturn needing turning around - Strictly Come Dancing is a distraction and surely there's better things for politicians to winge about.
Stop wasting our tax dollars and do some work!
LET US KNOW IF YOU'VE SPOTTED YOUR LOCAL POLITICIANS SPEAKING OUT ABOUT THIS AND WE WILL NAME AND SHAME HERE.
A couple can be found in the Brighton area. See here: http://www.taxpayersalliance.com/media/2008/11/brighton-argus-dancing-row-gets-political.html

Here is John - the "dancing pig" - in action:

BNP List

THIS campaign does not condone the BNP - quite the opposite, we oppose the racist and fascist views that it often represents.
But we are totally against the witchhunt and leaking of its list of members.
These people are often misguided but they should not be prone to the sort of death threats and attacks that have now happened after pmembers' personal details including names, phone numbers and occupations of members (including children) were published.
Those who leaked this document should be also be named and shamed as the breach probably breaches data protection laws for a start. They should be brought to justice.
Now, it is out in the public, and it is too late.
And the site which features the leak - WikiLeak - has become so overloaded by users trying to download the list it has now gone down!

PFI in Lancashire Hurts, Financially!

TAXPAYERS in Lancashire might not be too pleased to hear that PFI projects in their county is costing BILLIONS of pounds more than what they were first valued at!
A whopping £2.5bn in payments must be found over 25 years for projects originally worth just £424.9m - and that's just county council projects covering a few schools and a waste management project! That does not include NHS and other agency PFI contracts.
And of those billions, £609m must be forked out in interest!
The Campaign for Better Politics thinks this is plain crazy and is yet another example of building public projects by the back door. Enough is enough!
PFI is killing this country and holding us further to ransom in tough economic times. It's time to campaign for it to be scrapped!

A Gallery Nobody Wants Millions Overbudget

TAKE a controversial art gallery and millions of pounds worth of public money and you've got the perfect cocktail for waste!
Yes, and this time it's Colchester Council to burn public money by admitting a further two million pounds is needed to compete the town's Firstsite Newsite Gallery.
The project has a 7.3m shortfall with the taxpayer haing to pay at least 3.75m towards the scheme.
Yet, nobody seems to want the gallery!
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FROM COLCHESTER GAZETTE:
http://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/3856238.Colchester____2m_more_to_finish_off_new_art_gallery/

Failing to Represent

THERE are 19,000 local councillors in England. With expenses sometimes as high as 50k for one of these, it's a very scary number.
And here is another frightening figure in a supposed age of progress with a black president set to take the helm in the USA - just 150 of those are women from ethnic minorities.
This is in an age where New Labour has tried to promote representation within politics. But it has clearly failed.
The 150 figure is in fact DOWN 14 on two years ago.
This is not good enough.
In the words of Barack Obama, can we change this? Yes, we can!

Jolly to the Seaside

THE Lancashire Telegraph has spotted a gem where Blackburn with Darwen Council sent 80 people on a three-day 'jolly' to Blackpool - very nice. And we paid!
They spent two nights at the four-star Imperial Hotel, it is reported, enjoying full breakfasts as part of seminars discussing "health and wellbeing".
And the cost - £23,000!
The borough’s council leader admitted: “It probably wasn’t the smartest thing.”

Now, How to Use A Road DVD - Cost - 15K

READ ON - FROM KENTONLINE

[http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kol08/article/default.asp?article_id=51010]

The senior politician in charge of Kent's roads has defended a DVD that advises people how to use a town's ring road.

The DVD, which offers tips on how to avoid accidents and overcome confusion in Ashford, has been criticised by some as a waste of money and unnecessary. It cost £15,000 to make.

But Cllr Keith Ferrin (Con), KCC's cabinet member for highways, insisted the DVD would be helpful and said it had been misrepresented in the media.

While Cllr Ferrin was prepared to concede there may have been other ways to get the message across, he insisted there was no harm in producing the video.

He said: "Most of it is not about how to cross the road. That is just a part of it and is designed to give people a bit of information about what to expect.

"This is the first scheme of this kind for Kent. People in Ashford will not have come across a scheme like this before and there is no doubt they need a bit more understanding about how it works."

People should not rush to judgement without having seen all of the DVD first, he added. "They should not take my word for it [but] look at the whole video. If they do, I don’t think they would come to the same conclusion many of those who have taken us to task have."

The county council would have been criticised had it not produced something to give people advice, Cllr Ferrin argued.

"If we had done absolutely nothing at all, we would have been criticised. If it was only about crossing the road, [the criticism] would have been fair comment.

"But the concept of shared space may mean something to some people, but not everyone. We had to try to explain what it was all about."

Asked about complaints over the language used in the DVD, which at one point urges road users to "use all their senses", he conceded: "I might have used different words."

How To Throw Away Rubbish - A Guide

YES, because none of us know how. Councils up and down the country have taken to producing videos and sending them out to residents showing people how to throw away rubbish. I just wonder how many of these videos and DVDs have ended up in the bin after being watched. I just hope they were disposed of correctly.
Here's one such example, courtesy of Preston Council... and the videos only cost three grand of taxpayers' money to make!
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The Campaign - Contributions Kindly Welcome

As you can see, the campaign is starting to get going but in order to thrive it needs contributions and an evolving goal.
We are looking for as many people to get in touch and contribute their ideas as well as share where they have seen negligence in local and central government and public agencies.
Email the campaign at campaignforbetterpolitics@gmail.com to get involved and share your thoughts. All contributions are most welcome.
The campaign is also looking for regular bloggers to contribute posts to the site and help promote the cause.

Defra - It's All Balls

YET again, the department for cows and sheep - sorry, I mean Defra, has surpassed itself by splashing cash on another useful project.
No, not schemes to protect Britain from another outbreak of Foot and Mouth - but five grand on caviar inspectors!
The training for 16 inspectors aims to help them"undertake inspections of those trading commercially" in caviar or roe eggs.
Why? Because someone needs to help stop "caviar crime"! Duh! Well, why not?
And if you think that sounds like balls then how about this one. It's emerged that in such troubled times a government quango has spent 12k on golf balls.
The UK Trade and Investment, which answers to new Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, has forked out 12,030.50 pounds of public cash on branded balls in the last three years.
Why, this time? Because we need to give "corporate gifts for business leaders" in rich countries.
Well, I'm sure those golf balls really drove a wedge into key business deals! Caviar anyone?

More Money in the Bin! Literally!

TODAY'S WASTE OF THE DAY! Read on...

Weston Mercury
Refuse blunder wasted public money - council auditors
12 November 2008

"TAXPAYERS' money has been thrown away by a council waste blunder, according to a report.Auditors say North Somerset Council paid hundreds of thousands of pounds too much for its waste collection services from 2002-04.Grant Thornton's report states the unitary authority paid Biffa, its contractors at the time, between £183,000 and £298,000 more than it should have done.It also criticises council officers and the company for destroying historical documents relating to the investigation.The report states the council failed to notice irregular trends in waste disposal until the company's contract ended.The abnormalities relate to the amount of business and domestic waste being produced in North Somerset.In the year after Biffa's contract finished in 2004, the amount of commercially-produced waste increased annually by 3,500 tonnes while there was a corresponding decrease in domestic rubbish.North Somerset Council dismissed the findings and has insisted its waste monitoring has been effective.The unitary authority conceded it had investigated taking legal action against the company, but was advised a lawsuit would be unsuccessful.North Somerset Council environment chief Councillor Carl Francis-Pester said he was disappointed with the report.He added: "This external audit investigation relied heavily on work carried out by our Internal Audit team and as a result of tightened controls, waste management has not been considered to be a significant internal control risk for a number of years."

PMQs Disgrace

The Campaign for Better Politics was one of the first groups to call for an inquiry into the death of Baby P following the apparent failings at Haringey Council.
And today David Cameron at PMQs used his questions rightly not to focus on the economy but on this tragic case to ensure it never happens again.
But the result was a slanging match with Gordon Brown shamefully accusing Mr Cameron of playing party politics.
It resulted in heckling from Labour MPs with even speaker Michael Martin in a moment of wisdom intervening to get a grip on proceedings.
We do not focus only on wastes of tax money but also ethics and proper conduct.
This was not proper especially with the death of a baby boy involved.
Mr Brown must apologise at once.
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Tooty Fruity Loopy

BEHOLD! The powers of the European Union are far reaching and staggering.

And today, the EU is to show what good work it can do by... banning regulations on the sizes and shapes of 26 fruit and vegetables.

What a masterful stroke in such economic times of hardship! Now we can all eat bendier bananas and peachier peaches than before.

And how much time and money does it take the EU to discuss and develop such policy? I'm sure the answer is just as bending - mind bending!

Media

The Campaign for Better Politics is a new pressure group available to comment on all stories.
We will feature all contributions on the website as part of our campaign.
For a quote on any issue email campaignforbetterpolitics@gmail.com
We aim to respond within one working day.
For urgent media inquiries, first subscribe as a member via email and a mobile phone number will be sent to you.

Haringey Council Inquiry Call

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/7706598.stm

Haringey Council is back in the news and yet again it relates to a child's death.
This is the same council which failed spectacularly in the case of eight-year-old Victoria Climbie and has now been at the centre in the case of a 17-month-old boy who was repeatedly seen by doctors and social workers yet was not taken out of his mother's care.
The baby, known as Baby P, was repeatedly used as a punch bag and suffered a broken back. After months of suffering, the baby boy died - he also had eight fractured ribs, multiple sores and missing fingertips.
He was taken to hospital three times, was regularly seen by social and health workers and a paediatrician two days before he died who failed to notice the injuries! He was also on a child protection register with the council!
Lessons must be learned from this case and there must be a full public inquiry examining why no action was taken.
Our opinion is the authorities should hang their heads in shame and someone MUST be held accountable.
We will be watching with interest.

Join the Campaign!

The hope is from this seed will grow a campaign and political movement to stop the brainless from wasting our time and money.
We will highlight idiocy and wrongdoings in a way that is understandable but where lessons can be learned and improvements can be made.
But there are also many strong and effective councils and organisations we will applaud.
And, unlike the TaxPayers' Alliance, we are also interested in ethics, accountability and transparency.
Help keep us in business and let us know what you find!
Happy hunting.