What on earth is the point of the Cabinet meeting in Bradford today? What can they decide in Bradford that they couldn't in London, to say nothing of the extra cost? I was hoping these kind of gratuitous PR gimmicks had ended with the last government. Clearly not.
Cabinet ministers tour the country the whole time. They do not need to do it collectively. It's a waste of their time and of taxpayers' money.
Agreed - but on the other hand Labour now have to put up with political propaganda against them being paid for by the taxpayer.
ReplyDeleteOther On Boot Foot.
And if the govt had stopped it (I still hope they do) then labour would have taken the opportunity to complain.
Is it some sort of family occasion - like a birthday party, wedding, bar mitzvah, whatever?
ReplyDeleteThey (the Coalition) said early on that they would be retaining these ridiculous junkets.
ReplyDeleteYou are right of course, they are a waste of money. Nothing is achieved other than giving local newspapers something different to print.
David Cameron promised a voter during the campaign that he would take the cabinet to Bradford and he's keeping that promise.
ReplyDeleteHe shouldn't have made the promise in the first place of course, but what's done is done and he's deserves credit for keeping his word.
I am generously assuming the arrangements had already been made and paid down by the previous administration. Yeah, right.
ReplyDeleteAllows the Muslim Council/Parliament to attend and see how democracy works.
ReplyDeleteBut agree, total and utter waste of time, energy and money. Particularly have the Tories criticised NuLab for doing the same.
@ Dan Brusca
ReplyDeleteDid he by any chance mention anything about leaving The Cabinet there?
Might be a good move.
As Dan said earlier, this is a direct result of a promise he made to a voter during the campaign. Hats off to him for keeping that promise so soon ... one that he could quite easily have got away with not honouring.
ReplyDeleteWhat he probably didn't know was that this voter wasn't just your ordinary voter. She is from a family of prominent labour activists here in the city. However she has set up a good facebook group to save our dire city centre which is why she was chosen to question Dave. I'm just off to remind her that Dave has been good to his word ;o)
Interesting Rebel Saint.
ReplyDeleteDo you have a link?
@ Rebel Saint
ReplyDeleteSo what is she trying to save Bradford 'from', exactly?
and how does all this fit into 'dave's' green agenda
ReplyDeletewhy produce all that nasty carbon dioxide and kill the poor polar bears just going up to Bradford for the day ?
perhaps they have got chris hulme out planting trees to offset their wicked emmissions ?
Perhaps they will discuss policing - seeing as Tory bloggers are avoiding the subject this morning.
ReplyDeleteI thought it might help to have some analysis of the position after the cuts, so here is a snapshot of the New Tory plan for policing in a cutback society.
1/ Murder. Your best defence against murder is to take out our new "murder insurance" policy - this will not only reward your relatives in the event that you are murdered, but also provide a sensible new premium to the hard-pressed insurance industry, many of whom are valuable donors to the Conservative Party.
2/ Theft. Buy cheap things. They will be stolen. I got that from Andrew Neil on Daily Politics just now.
3/ Calling the police. Close investigation of the 999 service has shown that we an achieve a 5.2% saving overall by sub-contracting it out to Bangalore. Please remember to have your postcode, national insurance number, special password, secret password reminder and caller ID when you are attacked in the street and need to phone for help.
4/ Response times. A handy cut-out-and-keep guide to the new response times of our much-improved low-cost police force....
Street robbery. 3 weeks - PCSO visit only.
Murder. 6 months - off-duty WPC.
Theft from car. Don't bother calling.
House break-in - suspect-on. Pray.
Deception on a bank. Immediate.
Any attack on a corporation. Yesterday.
Arson on a Conservative Club. 3 seconds.
Assault on a Conservative MP. 1-2 microseconds.
Cussing a Tory in a public place. Immediate life imprisonment.
5/ Border controls. Our new border policy is that nobody whatever may enter the country. However, as all border guards have been cut, please do turn up anyway. Hiding under trains, etc, will no longer be required.
6/ Chief Constables salaries - massive and wholly justified increase. Thank goodness.
7/ Home Secretary - Theresa May - personal wealth £1.6m - special protection from the new slimline London Peeler Constabulory (strength 10) - 10 officers round the clock.
If Cabinet ministers tour the country the whole time, presumably they're normally out on their travels anyway. So what's the problem of synchronising their diaries now and again so that they can all end up in the same place at the same time and therefore can have a cabinet meeting there? Surely it's cost neutral and the PR opportunities are greater?
ReplyDeleteNormally I agree with you Iain, but on this occasion I can't see what the problem is.
It isn't just wrong: it is corrupt. This is the theft of public money to do something that Dave illegally promised to do if he won. It is the displacement activity of continued campaigning, even though the election is over, rather than governing.
ReplyDeleteDave and his fellow members of the political class are still miles from understanding the depths of corruption they have sunk to. It's like being in the bathroom with your own poo smell. It's only people who come in after you that notice it. Dave's been in there so long he no longer notices it.
@Bill Quango
ReplyDeleteHere's the BBC news video showing David Cameron getting grilled by a voter. The voter is Emma Heal (nee Fieldhouse) - who administers the "Bradford Metropolitan District Council PULL YOUR FINGER OUT" Facebook group of which I am a member.
Do a few relevant searches for "fieldhouse" "labour" "bradford" "unions" etc to join the dots!
@Unsworth ... Bradford needs saving from the utter dump it has been allowed to become - in particular the huge gaping hole (a literal hole!!)that has existed in the city centre for over 5 years. Her points are valid except that her because of her blind party tribalism she trys to lay the blame at the feet of the wrong people.
@Bill Quango ... another link. Look at the surname of the people who nominated the local (ex)Labour MP! Also interesting is the fact that Emma changed her surname to Heal on the facebook group when I pointed out the amazing number of Fieldhouse's there seemed to be in the local Labour party!!!
ReplyDeleteIs it too shamefully old-fashioned to remark that since London is our capital city and the seat of the United Kingdom' Government, that is where the Government should sit.
ReplyDeleteI know it became fashionable to send first the civil service and then the Cabinet into provincial exile, but I can't see that we have become noticeably better governed as a result.
Iain,
ReplyDeleteMaybe because they wanted to come and see what poor planning had done to Bradford, how the regional development agency has blighted a city rather than redeveloping it, and also the poor transport links Bradford suffers from.
Whats to avoid about policing?
ReplyDeleteMay has announced (despite all Despairing Liberal's ill informed and dreary sarcasm) that all labours stupid police targets have been abolished.
The whipped up furore is just that, a lobbying gimmick.
The only people saying police numbers are coming down are the police chiefs themselves - making wild self serving speculations.
As ever its outcomes which matter, police on the bet and not behind desks.
Sadly Labour have left a 155 billion deficit.
Perhaps 'DL' will tell us where the money should come from to pay for his policemen - the NHS?
PS - I see the meeting was held at Odsal Stadium the ground of the Bradford Bulls RL team and they had a curry for lunch.
ReplyDeleteSo hardly an expensive extravaganza.
Don't Ministers have homes and surgeries in their constituencies as well as homes close to Westminster? If MPs were resident in London I could understand why trips out to see the country might be worthwhile: "ooh look, they drive on the left here as well." Scrap the magical ministerial tour or scrap housing allowances.
ReplyDeleteDespairing Liberal - You must stay awake all night thinking up the sneering comments you post regularly on this blog. In your zeal to belittle all things that don't fit your socialist world view, like all of your kind, you miss the point completely.
ReplyDeleteFor years the British Police Service has needed reforming from top to toe. Much money IS wasted by incompetent senior management. Did you know some forces hire management consultants for hundreds of thousands of pounds?
There are too many senior management posts. A large cull of this group would not be noticed by the public. Thirty years ago the ratio of supervisory officers was one for every eight police constables. Now it's around one for every THREE constables!
The current promotion system needs to change - currently anyone succesfully assing a promotion board HAS to be promoted within twelve months - whether there is a vacancy or not. Consequently many post are created for underemployed senior officers. If you don't believe me, just run along to your local force HQ and check the make up of personnel. The majority of officers inside the building will be of Chief Inspector rank and above.
Then there are the special interest groups that have proliferated in the last fifteen years. I'm talking about the Black Police Association, Lesbian and Gay Police Association, Women's groups and all the others associated with "diversity". All of these groups are staffed by full time police officers who do not patrol the streets. They just spend all there time furthering the interests of their "members". How much are these people costing the taxpayer? Why can't these groups come under the umbrella of the Police Federation? Like the M.O.D., police procurement is costly and innefficient.
The above examples are just the tip of the iceberg.
If you cannot come up with useful and sensible ideas, Despairing Liberal, just carry on contemplating your navel because at present you are part of the problem the left wing presents to this country.
@ Rebel Saint
ReplyDeleteSo Bradford has become a dump (including the large gaping hole).
I guess there must have been human intervention to cause this - or are we dealing with a freak of nature (and no, I'm not referring to Ms Ordinary Voter)?
If humans were involved (rather than the Martians), it seems to me that they ought to be named and shamed - perhaps this doesn't suit Ms OV, though.