George Osborne spends £10m of taxpayers cash on swanky new 'Big Brother' revamp of Whitehall offices - Mirror Online as a public sector worker the same as Mr Osborne and his cronies why have i got to work in run down squeezed surroundings yet his cocking lot get this……..
Great piece of journalism. It gives you no idea of how the £10m breaks down - just shows you a photo of some packing crate tables and dodgy sofas, implying that the money has been spent on that. There is never a good time to spend £10m on your offices. People will always be poor and someone would always complain. I wonder if the Victorians got this when they made their offices out of stone with added carvings and gargoyles? Not defending Osbourne (as if I would - the essence of smarmy) but this is just propaganda. Imagine if they tried to build the Palace of Westminster now - it would cost billions and there would be an uproar. Which is why most architecture now is faceless economic dross.
Chancellor spent £10.2m 'modernising' Whitehall HQ: Osborne splashed taxpayers' money on space-age furniture from Big Brother house chair makers | Mail Online
The government has lots of buildings - offices, stores, barracks, airfields, schools, depots, hospitals - and they often need fixing up, like all buildings do. Leaky roofs, plumbing and wiring, decorating, and furniture. If the government of the day fails to get them fixed, some dumb journalist (who can't think of anything sensible to write) can criticise the dilapidated state. If the government of the day does fix something, even buying a few thousand pounds worth of chairs, the dumb journo can criticise the expenditure. This is really, really feeble stuff.
Ah theres that tone again………. First of all this has happened and was raised in the house of commons as a question even though Osborne and his cronies didn't want to answer it…. No its not!!!………..not if you too are a public sector employee that has to work in lots of the other public owned buildings that are left to rot down to their bare minimum or lack of investment in other proper buildings where you end up in a culture of temporary wooden huts that then become permanent before eventually rotting after staying around longer than their permission allows….. its just a continuation of one rule for them and another for the rest of us meanwhile saying that we are all in it together…….
If you are interested in reports of government incompetence, dishonesty, malfeasance and corruption, there are plenty of really serious stories out there. Just try reading Private Eye, for a start. But that kind of investigative journalism requires hard work, persistence, bravery and cleverness. The pieces cited in this thread are textbook examples of the opposite kind of journalism - space-filling, trivial, tendentious rubbish. But if you insist that is the kind of journalism you prefer to read, by all means carry on. Good luck with that.
Shadow Cabinet Office minister Michael Dugher, who first raised the issue during parliamentary questions, told the Sunday Mirror: 'Rather than tackle the cost-of-living crisis Treasury ministers are living it up in luxury. 'Ministers have been shopping at exclusive interior designers to kit out their offices while families are gathered around the kitchen table worrying about paying bills.'
At risk of stating the bleedin' obvious, who cares? Getting some repairs done to a building and replacing some furniture is a rubbish story. It's a piece of utter trivia, of nil interest and nil importance. George Osborne has the task of running the UK economy and the government's finances, immensely difficult jobs involving £billions and £trillions, and affecting everybody. He is struggling, and will be out of the job in 18 months. I could criticise George Osborne for many things, and often do, but what furniture somebody ten grades below him has chosen for an office is not one of them. These newspapers choose to fill their space with this irrelevant rubbish; and people on this forum seem to imagine it has some meaning. Enough!
Around 10 million pounds worth of trivia…that means a cooking lot to me and 10 million pounds that could of been used to better effect in these austere times,………You criticise the report describing it as "trivial, tendentious rubbish" are you saying it didn't happen? simple question………..
Obviously not you but Osbourne has ripped the finances out of a lot of the Public servces the rest of us rely on. The Police and Fire services are using buildings that are well past there sell by date. There is nothing wrong in the government refurbishing there offices but to spend money on designer furniture when there are some excellent value for money alternatives apparently sticks in some peoples throats
I'd suggest quote a few care, those especially who are having to educate children in portakabins, those who work in police stations being closed along with their deployment sites, people having to furnish their homes with second hand goods. why cant they just go to Ikea?
that would be where Kingston Police station has been renovating their buildings (rightly - they're shite) and parking in disabled bays and bus stands. One rule for them, another for the rest of us. Not criticising the Police specifically Andy, but what you're saying can be equally applied to most if not all of us in one way or another.
Parking in a disabled bay……v……10 millions pounds extravagance…….i get where you are going with that one jerry….. Pete remember ….you do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you fail to say something that you later rely on…..
it's the same thing Andy. If everyone here can get a ticket for parking in a disabled bay (which generally aren't used, but that's another story), but the local plod don't, even tho they've been doing it for two years now... The perception is that there's one rule for us and one rule for <insert your public servant here>...
Its miles away …….first of all your not the disabled bay monitor so presumably you do do other things therefor you can't say that there is always a car parked there …..presumably you saw it once…… versus an obscene spending of 10 million pounds plus on a new interior decor what was wrong with the old I'm sure the place wasn't going to fall down……..now 10 million quid what difference does that make? well just for my orible lot that is half the savings that this government have insisted on for the next year….thats on top of the previous 25 million……..so ill pass your thoughts on to the ones who are got rid of, because there aint anything left to cut back bar staff and run down buildings most of which are not owned by the Police... ( apart from the senior management team and the PCC entourage) and we both know that aint going to happen...
