It seems that the Department for International Development has spent thousands of pounds of tax payers money on commissioning PR agencies to produce a short film with former Blue Peter presenter, Emmerdale actor and all round hunk Tim Vincent, designed to promote 'ethical' purchasing on Valentines Day.The film was destined for news websites. It had been shot and edited and it was ready to be made public. That is, until a Minister at DFID decided not to approve it. Meanwile Tim Vincent and the PR agencies pick up their healthy fees for services rendered and all at the expense of the you, the Great British Tax Payer. The ad was pulled from several websites (including THIS one) but the wonders of YouTube mean I can still bring it to you. Aren't you so proud of how the government is spending your money?
If you google "Tim Vincent + dfid" you get THIS page. On the Google list it says: "Also, click on the video, below, to hear Dancing on Ice's Tim Vincent talk..." Trouble is, there is now no video on that page. In addition, the Google list says: "DFID commissioned a survey of some of these workers, to find out how life is ..." Strange then that there is no mention of the survey on the page. SO what happened to this survey, and how much did it cost?
So if you are a Tory or LibDem MP reading this, do feel free to put down a couple of PQs to the new DFID Secretary (buggered if I can remember who it is, though) asking how much this fiasco cost us.
16 comments:
Why was it pulled ? It doesn't seem very controversial, or particularly expensive, to be honest.
And it is not as if it is a high concept half hour film with special effects and expensive locations.
Or are you just upset at how few Valentine's you have had this year?
Oh dear, still scraping away at that barrel of yours...
Who knows why it was pulled? anonylabourmong!!! Labour Minister thought they should present it probably. It may not be 'particularly expensive' to a newlab taxpayer funded swamprat, but add all fees and costs and you are looking at what? - 2x the average UK salary? circa £50k - that's alot of 'average' people's taxes you sanctimonious freeloading labour troll.
And Iain only needs expect one Valentine card as he's in a relationship with a fellow human - unlike new labour trolls who seem to just love themselves or slavishly their masters....
@ Anonymous 9:38 AM
Care to hazard a guess at the total costs - including peripherals? Some time since I've done any commercials, but it used to run out at about £1k per second.
So, what's your best estimate?
Well if we scraped away at the bottom of every barrel where just a few thousand quid of our money (which no doubt some people have been subjected to random intense tax investigations and harassed for a few tens of pounds) then either we could reduce the tax take or maybe even help a few more under priviledged people improve their lives (which I'd have though even Labour trolls ought to quite support).
Hey, but then again who cares about wasting other people's money in the first place?
Don't imagine that Tim Vincent was cheap to get - even though he is z-list
Mr Cholmondeley-Warner is back!
It seems that all those wonderfull, patronising COI public information films, so accurately parodied by Harry Enfield are back. What makes them so funny is the fairly explicit underlying message in all of them that our leaders know what is good for us.
Meanwhile, somewhere else...
Look at this man! He's just picked his nose and eaten a bogie. Disgusting. He needs to buck up his ideas and learn the important facts about nasal hygiene. Good heavens imagine...this cove may one day be Prime Minister of England!
Gordon Brown - KNOW YOUR LIMITS!!!
But if it helps the lives of some poor Kenyans, or cocoa farmers in Ghana, or prevents Namibians being caught up in conflict for diamonds, then it will have been money well spent.
OMG - Just how fatuous and 'Nanny State' is the UK becomming?
PS - no way Tim Vincent could have cosat less than 15k for the shoot and with scripting and post-prod; easily 35k spent on this. Which, given how much the UK Govt must waste everyday, probably seems small beer-money.
But, in promoting Fair Trade chocolate, I hope they got dispensation from the NHS which is trying to fight obesity
I do not need the governement telling me where to buy my valentines gifts from. Seriously. What tripe.
How stupid do they think the populations is. And let's be realistic unless the roses from the local garage are from Kenya I doubt it'll make a bit of difference.
Waste of MY money.
Well if the Dept of Communities and Local Government can mix up Newcastle UNDER LYME with Newcastle UPON TYNE nothing surprises me.
Think that's bad and a waste of money? Read this....ooops
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_2727619.html
Why has the end of the blog fallen off?
PR Consultants plus other people`s money could have only one possible outcome.." What a waste ..."Anyway that’s nuffin, have you seen the quid bonfire at SEEDA and UK development agencies Their vast annual budget of £2.3 billion is largely spent on marketing, seminars, internal job creation, monitoring, conferences, action plans. TWO POINT THREE BILLION !!!! Some highlights...
1-Last year SEEDA chairman James Braithwaite spent £51,489 on taxis and ‘executive cars’,
2-The Agency spent £600,000 last year running ten overseas offices, with one representative in Stuttgart paid £89,000 for eight months part-time work.
3-In March Seeda took 13 staff to a property trade fair on the French Riviera, spending £24,000 on participation at the event.
4-One North, the agency for northern England, spent £965,000 on offices in China, the USA, Japan, Korea and Belgium, while Yorkshire Forward splashed out £20,000 on flying 15 staff to a film festival in Dubai.!!!!
Consider £2.3 billion urinated up the partitioning construction , and next time some brain-dead New Lab twerp chirrups Scoolz and ospitalz remind himk where all the money has really gone . Its gone on Management seminars for Slough-moving forward...and a whole flood of similar untreated sewage . I`m mad as hell and I `m not taking it any more ....(if that’s alright with everyone else).
I call for a bonfire of the Bureaucrats.
I didn't bother to look at this. I took one look at that silly man's self-adoring face and thought "Pass".
Also, I hate that Big Brother Fair Trade crap. Buy Belgian chocolates and give the burghers of Brussels a fair shake.
Lol! This is worse than the original post for waste!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/7244768.stm
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