Which sectors are fuelling the recovery?

The BBC ask 'Which sectors are fuelling the recovery?'. There is even a graph... Can you spot the sector that the BBC worry the most about? Not a mention of the 'Public Sector' and that's because the public sector does not create wealth it spends it. Maybe the BBC should remember that the next time they have a public sector union boss on threatening disaster if their members are not protected from 'swingeing cuts'.

The ninety-third weekly "No shit, Sherlock" award

This week's award goes to management consultants Knox D’Arcy, as reported in The Telegraph for their simply incredible research to discover that found that council staff 'waste two-thirds of their day'.

A large number of public sector employees are wasting their time and our money - "No shit, Sherlock"

Another Labour government odd links to Trade Unions story

'Whitehall departments are spending millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money paying the salaries of trade union officials. '

So starts The Telegraph in its story that:

'Ministries and Government agencies spent more than £17 million paying staff to carry out “trade union activities” last year.

Some departments are paying staff to work full-time on trade union business.

And some full-time civil servants spend three days a work carrying out union activities and still receive a full salary from the Government.

Public spending on union activities was disclosed in official figures released to MPs.

The Ministry of Justice said it paid its staff to carry out 43,208 days of trade union activity in 2008/09. The estimated total salary cost to the taxpayer was £6.5 million.

HM Revenue and Customs paid its staff for 48,902 days of union activity during, at a cost of £5,918,065

In the current financial year, the Department for Work and Pensions has budgeted to pay its staff to carry out 42,460 days of trade union activity, at an estimated cost of more than £5 million.

Several ministries said they effectively employ full-time union representatives at public expense.'

And on and on and on.

'The total annual bill for trade union activity in Whitehall is likely to be significantly higher than £17 million, because several ministries and agencies have refused to provide figures for their spending. '

I vaguely remember reading about this sort of activity many years back but this passage was news to me:

'Union representatives have had a statutory right to “reasonable paid

time off” to carry out trade union duties since 1975.

Labour gave union representatives more rights to paid time off in 2002, passing a new law allowing union members paid time off for union training courses.'

This is just ridiculous and is yet another way that the Trade Unions and the Labour party are funding each other WITH TAXPAYERS MONEY.

'Mark Wallace of the Taxpayers’ Alliance said... “There is no reason why taxpayers should subsidise the trade unions at all, and this multi-million pound bill must be stopped. The unions are explicitly political organisations, and they should make do with what money they can raise from their members.

“Many taxpayers will be horrified to learn that their money is being used to fund the unions and their big-state, high tax message. It is bad enough that they are issuing threats of strike action, but having to pay for the people organising the strikes adds insult to injury.” '

So far not a word on the voice of the Labour government website.

Busy day - so here are some links

It's going to be a busy day today and anyway the themes for my blog would have been the same as they have been for some days now: the BBC's obsession with Lord Ashcroft and accentuating every piece of positive economic news whilst hiding the bad economic news, the Labour party's leaderships willingness to obfuscate the truth and the media's relentless attempts to demonise Israel. So here are some links that I think you should read:
1. The latest BBC article about Lord Ashcroft, fisk it yourself, I can't muster the enthusiasm let alone spare the time.


2. The BBC's article revealing that 'The public sector wastes at least £25bn a year because of a failure to reform outdated procurement and outsourcing practices'; just remind me which 'prudent' politician has been Chancellor or Prime Minister for the last 13 years.


3. The Telegraph's news, not covered by the BBC, that 'Labour does plan to raise taxes next year if it wins the election, Lord Mandelson revealed yesterday. The First Secretary admitted that “further” raising of taxes beyond the range of measures already announced would have to be considered a year from now.

Public spending cuts would also have to be examined, he said.'. Now why would the BBC not want to report this news?


4. The Mail's article revealing that ' Millions of pensioners could lose up to £200 in a 'penny-pinching raid' on the elderly, it emerged last night.

The Government will freeze vital top-ups to the basic State pension after quietly dropping a pledge to increase them in line with inflation every year.' Again not a word on the BBC about this matter.

5. The Mail has details of Tony Blair's multitude of sources of income - very interesting reading for believers in Iraq war conspiracy theories.


That should keep you busy until I get back...

Public sector public works versus private sector public works

The World Trade Center rebuilding debacle explained.



Thanks to Theo Spark and of course Steven Crowder.

Fraser Nelson asks the unwanted question

Another snippet from Gordon Brown's press conference yesterday this time from Sky's coverage as it appears near the end of the BBC's here.

Watch Fraser Nelson ask Gordon Brown the key question about the truth behind Gordon Brown's "Tory cuts" claim and see the colour drain from Gordon Brown's face as he realises who he's picked to ask a question and that Fraser Nelson is daring to impugn his honesty. Gordon Brown's reply is the usual dissembling that he is now famous for.

Fraser Nelson covers his question, Gordon Brown's response and the true facts here.

What's happened to the money?

Labour's massive increase in spending on the NHS has been mostly unplanned and wasted. Confirmation came this week with the news that there had been a loss of around 30,000 NHS hospital beds between 1997 and 2007. Don't worry though as Tony Blair promised in 1999/2000 that there would be an increase by 2010 of 7,000 beds and Tony Blair is world-renowned for his honesty and for keeping his promises.

Obviously the biggest reduction in bed numbers must have occurred in 1997/98 when Prudence Brown was sticking to the wicked Conservative party's spending plans. Well no, the biggest decrease actually happened in the year ending March 2007 when Prudence had opened the floodgates on public spending.

The fact that over the same period as bed numbers were being cut, the number of deaths from MRSA and C-difficle rose by 400% is entirely coincidental. Although I do seem to recall that the investigation into the outbreak of C-difficile in the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells trust area in 2005/6 reported that one main factor that contributed to the spread of the infection was overcrowding amid the pressure to meet hospital waiting targets.

Why am I not surprised?

From The Sun, "A ROW broke out yesterday over dangerous foreign criminals being held in the lap of luxury.

Killers and rapists are among those enjoying a host of lavish perks while they await deportation.

Their taxpayer-funded comforts include:


Giant plasma TVs;


Nintendo Wii game consoles;


A music room with expensive gear; "


Read the rest, but you can probbaly write the article yourself.

Watch this and think - Private versus Public systems

Thanks to Theo Spark for posting this on hi site. It's Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the US House of Representatives and still possible contender for the Republican nomination for US President. The points he makes are based upon American experience but I think you could easily apply them to the UK experience.

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