John Prescott's woes continued today with revelations in The Times that the Deputy Prime Minister's grandly-styled ‘Sustainable Communities Summit’ in Manchester’s G-Mex next year has been covertly cancelled by his successor, Ruth Kelly – with the taxpayer left footing a £300,000 bill.
In March, John Prescott pledged the ‘biggest ever’ Communities Summit 2007 – a “prestigious international event” to bring together “senior politicians and international speakers from around the world.” There would be Prescott’s personal Awards Ceremony & Dinner: Building on the “outstanding success” of his 2005 Communities Summit, and his Department proclaimed that his event would include “the Deputy Prime Minister’s Awards”, “a major exhibition” and a sumptuous “Conference Dinner.” His previous 2005 taxpayer-bankrolled Summit was attended by a European Commissioner, the Secretary-General of the OECD and the Mayor of Chicago.
So just months after Prescott was sacked from his job, Parliamentary Questions by Conservatives have forced the Government to admit that they have quietly abandoned the Summit, leaving the taxpayer with a bill of £291,000 wasted on aborted planning, of which £60,000 were on cancellation fees alone.
In classic New Labour jargon, Ministers have explained this cancellation was due to a “new approach to stakeholder engagement” and since the 2005 summit was so “successful in raising awareness” that a 2007 conference wasn’t needed after all – despite the expense already incurred in organising it.
These words from Prescott sound a bit hollow now: “I am delighted that the Sustainable Communities Summit will be returning to Manchester. The 2005 Summit was the biggest of its kind ever to be staged and I look forward to building on its outstanding success next year.”
Still, it's only £300K of your money. Don't suppose you begrudge it, do you? Thought not.
UPDATE: Many apologies to TheoSpark for forgetting his hattip earlier on!
God i'm good!!
ReplyDeleteI know Prescott's got some weird sexual predilections... but S&M??
ReplyDeleteLooks as if he's enjoying it too.
OK, so NuLab's Political Officers (SPADs) will try to make it look as good as they can. Living in the Westminster bubble, I daresay they just don't get it that no-one believes them any longer.
ReplyDeleteHowever, even though I hate NuLab, give Ruth Kelly some credit for cutting the taxpayers' losses and sparing us the revolting sight of Jabba the Grope grandstanding when he should be doing time.
So that's why he wanted to see what they did on 'cattley ranches'.
ReplyDeleteThe 'Little Big Horn' all over again.
Cattle prod anyone?
Time he moooooved on.
I asked the little girl "Where are you taking that old bull?, she replied, "He wants to service that young cow bending over that desk".
ReplyDeleteI said can't your boss do that?" She said (in a deep and sensuous voice), "Nope, he's away on another freebie and anyway the old bull will suffer an inferiority experience due to previous Tory misrule."
Apologies to all genuine beasts of the field.
tooatbo
Hooray, at last, she's taking him to the abbatoir!
ReplyDeleteSilly woman, she can't even get that right. You have to hobble a pig around the ankle.
ReplyDelete"the Deputy Prime Minister's Awards" ?
ReplyDeleteWhat's that?
A cowboy outfit?
Run a book on where he goes, after he gets the BOOT.
ReplyDeleteWould HMP Wormwood Scrubs be too much to hope?
Another Prescott jaunt. Off to the Dome truffle hunting.
ReplyDeleteCrickey £300k eh, that's almost a penny per taxpayer. Could have changed my life darn it - I was saving up for one of your books!
ReplyDeleteInteresting that £200k of this money went on 'Consultancy Fees'
ReplyDeleteWas there ever a better way to disguise the spending of money with no tangible real cost evaluation possible? A very neat way to black hole taxpayers money.
So he got away with all that spread-about last year and, from his vigorous willingness to do it again this year, he expected to get an even bigger thrill (or payback) in 2006 than he did in 2005 . Let's have a little list, for last year and for this; who benefits? how much? what did they pay? And who had the sense to put a comp ensation clause for non-delivery in their Prescott contracts this year (certainly not the chipolata consumers) . £300,000 just in cancellation costs ? It gives a measure to what went on a year ago. Still, it's his job to spread NuLab largesse to Hatfield and the North. Or it was. We're into Opus Dei now: Rome and the South, with spiky leg bracelets.
ReplyDeletedobbin said...
ReplyDeleteSo he got away with all that spread-about last year and, from his vigorous willingness to do it again this year, he expected to get an even bigger thrill (or payback) in 2006 than he did in 2005 . Let's have a little list, for last year and for this; who benefits? how much? what did they pay? And who had the sense to put a comp ensation clause for non-delivery in their Prescott contracts this year (certainly not the chipolata consumers) . £300,000 just in cancellation costs ? It gives a measure to what went on a year ago. Still, it's his job to spread NuLab largesse to Hatfield and the North. Or it was. We're into Opus Dei now: Rome and the South, with spiky leg bracelets.
12:21 PM
Don't forget the orgies and of course the blades on the limo wheels. She'll be glad e ator.
In defence of Prescott: I attended the 2005 event and it was highly worthwhile. Prescott deservedly gets flak on certain issues but there has been some significant improvements in Govt policy on a) sustainability and b) cities since 1997. The 05 event was useful in examining what progress had been made and what needs to be done in future; the involvement of international figures such as Mayor Daley of Chicago was also helpful to consider how best to benchmark against what the most successful international cities are doing.
ReplyDeleteThe changeover to DCLG and Kelly has meant inevitably that there will be a period of review of departmental priorities and as such this event was postponed - not Prescott's fault.
Inamicus said:
ReplyDelete“the involvement of international figures such as Mayor Daley of Chicago was also helpful
Mayor Daley, eh? So that’s why he was invited...all makes sense now:
“Daley's fifth term has been marred by scandal swirling around the Hired Truck Program and revelations that firms run by white men have masqueraded as minority- or female-owned, cashing in on millions of dollars of city contracts meant for blacks, Hispanics and women.
The growing voter disenchantment with Daley coincides with broad concerns about wrongdoing in his administration, the poll indicated.
More than half of respondents said they disapproved of the job he is doing to prevent favoritism and fraud in awarding city contracts. The mayor has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but 57 percent said Daley should be held personally responsible for the contracting irregularities.
Two-thirds of those surveyed said they had followed reports of the contracting scandals either somewhat or very closely and nearly four out of five said that cheating is a matter of concern to them.
At Saturday's event, Daley said he should not be held responsible for the scandals.
"I can't be personally [responsible], I just can't," he said. "I work every day very hard, you know that. I'm out here every day working on issues."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0505220368may22,1,7557066.story?coll=chi-news-hed
CHICAGO - He sent members of New York’s Gambino crime family to the federal pen and he jailed terrorists who planned to strike America with a wave of bombings.
Now Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the federal prosecutor who heads Washington’s CIA leak investigation, is also taking on City Hall.
The 45-year-old New Yorker who is chief federal prosecutor in Chicago is digging deep into Mayor Richard M. Daley’s political empire…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8852202/
prescott was by and large a failure at everything he set his hand to... but kelly is shaping up to be much worse and seems to be clueless
ReplyDeleteat least prescott had some kind of vision for regeneration, even if flawed. Kelly is just providing no strategic leadership at all and the cancellation of this event has left the sector bewildered and is seen as a setback. It is an event of value, although there certainly was some fat to be trimmed
Heard an (outwardly enthusiastic new labour) LA chief exec recently state (in private) that everything was effectively on hold until they could get blair out. No one is even trying to deal with kelly, who due to an awareness of her lack of competence just seems to be trying to avoid actually doing anything
this is increasingly the vibe we're getting at a local level across govt depts.
In defence of Prescott: I attended the 2005 event and it was highly worthwhile. Prescott deservedly gets flak on certain issues but there has been some significant improvements in Govt policy on a) sustainability and b) cities since 1997. The 05 event was useful in examining what progress had been made and what needs to be done in future; the involvement of international figures such as Mayor Daley of Chicago was also helpful to consider how best to benchmark against what the most successful international cities are doing.
ReplyDeleteThe changeover to DCLG and Kelly has meant inevitably that there will be a period of review of departmental priorities and as such this event was postponed - not Prescott's fault.
12:38 PM
-------------------------------
Direction; Person gets knuckles rapped on head.
Q. Hello? Is anyone in there?
Person; No reply.
Direction; Repeat harder knuckle rapping.
Person; No reply
To audience; The light's on but there's nobody home.
Pure pantomime, thank you!
Surely there has to be a Hat Tip for the picture, unless it's all your own work Iain?
ReplyDeleteInamicus 'In defence of Prescott'. You cannot be serious. 'Worthwhile'? Exactly what benefits/profitable action has flowed from this blatant exercise in self-aggrandisement. This seminar of bullshit is Prescott puffery just as the whole ODPM edifice is there to keep John happy because Blair needs this twat covering his back. Corruption sanctioned by a cowardly Blair.
ReplyDeleteOf course if this monumental event attracting world statespersons is now not to occur in Britain, it will be another free date in the Depitty Dawg Diary and presumably yet another excuse for the Airmiles cheque book to come out to send the Dome Loan Arranger around the world on even more joints (sorry jaunts, I came over all Chameleonic)
ReplyDeleteOn a scale of difficulty of 1-10, planning a conference in a conference centre ranks slightly below organising a piss-up in a brewery. It's the sort of job a competent diary secretary should be doing at around 30 grand a year.
ReplyDeleteI agree with pcf - 12:58 - instead of allowing them to spend six times that amount on outsiders, why not just sack the civil servants responsible and give the consultants full time jobs?
On the brighter side, at least we have been spared the expense of a hotel room for the Minister of State for Health Services, who (rumour has it) performed magnificently at the last bash.
griswold said...
ReplyDeleteInamicus 'In defence of Prescott'. You cannot be serious. 'Worthwhile'? Exactly what benefits/profitable action has flowed from this blatant exercise in self-aggrandisement. This seminar of bullshit is Prescott puffery just as the whole ODPM edifice is there to keep John happy because Blair needs this twat covering his back. Corruption sanctioned by a cowardly Blair.
2:40 PM
Ouch! Nasty, true, but nasty.
Oi, Dale, come off it! Most of that £300k was a Sunk Cost; you can't blame Ruthy for that. If you want to get the likes of me to vote for the likes of you, you'll have to do better.
ReplyDeleteMost of that £300k was a Sunk Cost
ReplyDeleteI take it that was a type: you meant "Dead Loss"... or possibly, "Sunk without Tracey"...
What'd'ya bet Deputy Dawg liked these money-wasters 'cause he could re-live happy days when he had a job he could just about cope with -- as bar steward?
Most of that £300k was a Sunk Cost
ReplyDeleteI take it that was a type: you meant "Dead Loss"... or possibly, "Sunk without Tracey"...
What'd'ya bet Deputy Dawg liked these money-wasters 'cause he could re-live happy days when he had a job he could just about cope with -- as bar steward?
There's more; a huge "Sustainable Communities" website project was ordered by Prescott, value, £71m and a major review of ODPM websites, value, £92m. During the fiasco of Prescott's "will-he-be-won't-he-be" deputy PM any more, the contractors working on these projects were first told it was all off, then asked to re-bid then told it was happening but under new management, then told it was off, then finally told it was on but being reviewed. Prescott himself was directly involved by the way in thinking with the consultants about the web projects, contrary to his pretense that he knows nothing about the internet, the consultants involved tell me they found him quite knowledgable, and he frequently exchanges personal emails for example. When Prescott got the heave-ho eventually, the ODPM carried on with the projects but without impetus; senior consultants were told "nobody here believes in the initiative - we were just doing as we were told". Despite this, the colossal waste of taxpayers money is proceeding as planned.
ReplyDeleteI will share more with you as it becomes available.
"The Government IT Specialist"
Re above: It's fairly obvious I'm not some sort of Labour apologist - I run www.labour-watch.blogspot.com after all - but I do think that some of the right-wing loons on this site would do well to be more selective in their criticism, rather than indulge the lazy and misguided thinking that anything and everything a Labour government does automatically has to be corrupt, incompetent, or just plain wrong.
ReplyDeleteParanoidman's comments are broadly accurate and I commend them to you.
Collapse comments
ReplyDeleteTheo Spark said...
"God i'm good!!"
Yes you are and you finally received credit for this brilliant pic.
I was terrified reading earlier about 'Dr' John Reid increasing JP powers... luckily it transpired he was talking about Justices of the Peace...
ReplyDeleteInamicus said...
ReplyDeleteRe above: It's fairly obvious I'm not some sort of Labour apologist - I run www.labour-watch.blogspot.com after all - but I do think that some of the right-wing loons on this site would do well to be more selective in their criticism, rather than indulge the lazy and misguided thinking that anything and everything a Labour government does automatically has to be corrupt, incompetent, or just plain wrong.
Paranoidman's comments are broadly accurate and I commend them to you.
7:09 PM
Kindly supply us with a list of things that Nu Lab has improved upon in order that we can correct our thinking. No, not a list of things they've changed, actually improved. Any fool can change something, but change without improvement is pointless. I would have asked for a list of their achievements with new legislation, but noone can provide that.
I along with many others voted Labour for the first time in 1997 because we were sick to death of the disgusting Tories. This shower of s*** are no better, in my opinion they are worse. I don't believe that the Tories will make a credible government, but surely we can't go on with our country being destroyed like this!
I look forward to your list.
"indulge the lazy and misguided thinking that anything and everything a Labour government does automatically has to be corrupt, incompetent, or just plain wrong. "
ReplyDeleteQuite right, they are probably quite proficient at both cleaning their teeth and tying their shoelaces!
Anonymous said...
ReplyDelete"indulge the lazy and misguided thinking that anything and everything a Labour government does automatically has to be corrupt, incompetent, or just plain wrong. "
Quite right, they are probably quite proficient at both cleaning their teeth and tying their shoelaces!
9:11 AM
Don't put any serious money on that :-)
anonymous 9.11
ReplyDeleteTie shoelaces, clean their teeth? They can't even wipe their own backsides. Ace at interfering with our lives and telling us how we should do it!
Come on Inamicus we're all waiting.
ReplyDeleteRelax inamicus
ReplyDeleteDon't take us too seriously. The joy of this and Guido's blog is that you can be serious one minute and sound off (gratuitously) the next. If you can be funny, then it's a bonus.
For serious-only stuff try ConservativeHome or Political betting. But do stay with us.