Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Conservatives Seek to 'Follow the Money'

At this evening's ConservativeHome Awards I sat next to George Osborne who was full of a new initiative being unveiled today. He will be announcing details of a new website today called Follow the Money, which will enable people to see just how the government is spending their money. At the moment the site is temporary and part of Conservatives.com but it is currently being developed along the lines of Expectmore.gov. The idea is to persuade the Government to start a similar website to enable greater public accountability. I suspect this will have to wait until Mr Osborne is in Number 11.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

The government explaining to the people just exactly how it is spending their money?

I expect this will have to wait till hell has frozen over. This kind of thing is never done by the government; this is what the opposition is for.

Anonymous said...

"I suspect this will have to wait until Mr Osborne is in Number 11."

Bacon Broth on Balls!

(Waiter. . . Pig. . . .Flies)

Vlad the Impala said...

Isn't this role (of tracking government expenditure, ie, waste) admirably filled already by Burning Our Money?

Anonymous said...

I think you mean IF he gets into no 11.

Anonymous said...

If this comes to pass (politicians of all colours are bad at keeping promises...) then I hope it will lead to public support for tax cuts.

Looking at the answers to questions on the website, I find it hard to believe that a party which believes in micromanaging down to the level of the individual doesn't keep central records...

Anonymous said...

Iain

Instead of spending good money trying to "follow the money" all this new site requires is a photo of a drain.

Anonymous said...

Good Government should be completely auditable, like good business.

The problem is that you can't do double entry book keeping where there are just costs.

Government must audit costs and the end points for those costs must then be made public.

The public and opposition can then scrutinise those end points to see if the benefits are giving value for money.

Anonymous said...

When I read the headline I hoped this was going to be about a concerted attempt to nail Blair on the 'loans-for-lordships' scandal.

Isn't this the real 'smoking gun' which could turn out to be Bliar's real 'career killer' ?

Anonymous said...

The cost will be horrifying.