In the news this week-
Non-existent asylum centres cost £35m- "Botched plans to detain thousands of asylum seekers in the depths of the countryside have wasted £35 million of taxpayers' money. Officials at the Home Office have also been accused of a cover-up after scores of documents about the proposed centre disappeared. Labour ministers originally planned to build four holding centres in rural areas five years ago. But the plans were shelved three years later after opposition from the Refugee Council, the Red Cross and thousands of local residents." (Telegraph 5.11.07)
ID Cards now to cost £5.6bn- "The projected cost of the identity card scheme will be £5.612bn over the next 10 years, the Home Office says... Lib Dem spokesman Nick Clegg said it was a "vast waste of taxpayers' money" which should be spent on more police. "It is becoming more and more clear that identity cards are going to be a vast waste of taxpayers' money. The fact that the cost keeps changing shows how loose a grip the government has got on the finances of this ill-judged scheme." (BBC News 8.11.07)
Gary Glitter to cost you £250 grand pa- "Paedophile Gary Glitter is set for a dramatic New Year return to Britain - and it's going to cost YOU £250,000 a year. The snivelling pervert is desperate to settle down abroad - but more than a dozen countries so far have told him to get lost. So he looks certain to come back to Britain after finishing a prison term in Vietnam for abusing two little girls. And under European laws, the ageing baldie will be given round-the-clock police protection against revenge attacks, a free home and up to 12 minders to guarantee his safety. Shockingly, UK taxpayers will have to foot the bill for Glitter's freeloading lifestyle, which experts reckon could run to more than £250,000. It is similar to the case of paroled serial rapist Iorworth Hoare, 58, who does not have to pay for his police protection despite winning a £7million fortune on the National Lottery while on day-release from prison in 2004." (People 11.11.07)
£20m pa school fees for diplomats' kids- "Taxpayers are being billed more than £20million a year to the send children of Foreign Office diplomats to top private boarding schools. Thanks to a little-publicised perk, revered institutions such as Eton and Winchester are among schools available to foreign-posted ambassadors and other embassy staff. Most of the 540 children educated privately are boarders and campaigners question the wisdom of spending an annual average of around £24,000 per child so diplomatic offspring can go private." (Metro- 1.11.07)
£500m wasted on reading scheme- "The millions of pounds spent attempting to raise the standard of English in primary schools has had almost no impact on children’s reading skills, according to a devastating critique on the education system... The Durham University study, led by Peter Tymms, concluded that the National Literacy Strategy, which includes the “literacy hour” daily English lesson, had made a “barely noticeable” impression on reading standards, which had barely improved since the 1950s. The report said: “£500 million was spent on the National Literacy Strategy with almost no impact on reading levels.” The apparently dramatic rise in primary school test results “exaggerated the changes in pupils’ attainment levels and were seriously misleading”. (Times 2.11.07)
Total for week- £6,155,250,000