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It would seem everyone and their dog wants to put a petition on the Prime Minister's website these days. I'm sure there'll be a new one raised in response to him saying 'Am I bovvered?' to Catherine Tate (playing her uber-chav Lauren) on Comic Relief last night.
However I've decided to raise one myself (and give up the last ounce of anonymity I had on this blog in the process) and after two weeks of being stuck in the approval bucket it finally got up and running yesterday.
You can view it here. Even if you don't give a toss about public sector pay you should at least agree that M.P.s shouldn't be able to write themselves a blank cheque. It's not like staff retention is an issue, every constituancy in Britain has at least four candidates competing.
I for one am fed up with the government pissing money away on grand project after grand project and then claiming that it's the public workers fault that public expenditure is so high. Ignore all the cock ups listed below and whinge about our pensions instead:
Trident (£76 Billion)
London Olympics (£9 Billion)
NHS Computer System (£12 Billion)
National ID Card (£93 per person)
Road Pricing System (Blank Cheque)
Millenium Dome (£758 Million)
Private Finance Initiative (Unknown)
Forcing all M.P.s to have a pay freeze won't make too big an impact on public sector spending but it might make them see the effects of one of their lousy policies for once. It might even open their eyes to what I like to refer as 'The Real World'.
posted by Phill @ 10:20 am
3 comments
3 Comments:
Take your point on most of those, but Trident ? If events in Tehran this week have shown anything, it's that we can't give up nuclear weapons just as those nutters are acquiring them...
I'm not saying give up nukes. I'm just saying don't commit £76 billion to completely replacing a system that you'll probably never use.
The Americans use the same kit and they're not replacing it so why should we?
As I'm writing this a 300lb WW2 bomb is being disarmed 4oo metres down the road from me.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/6523633.stm
If that can still work having been stuck underground for 60 years then I would think a well maintained nuclear weapons system could last for a few more years yet.
When the warheads themselves reach the end of their operational life then by all means replace them but you don't need to upgrade the submarines or the launch systems. They've only just been refitted 2 miles down the road from me.
Why not spend the money replacing older military equipment that has proved to be unreliable on the battlefield - most notably the piss poor SA80?
Or better yet, don't spend the money at all and save the taxpayers some money for once.
I agree entirely, except I think the figure you quote for the National ID scheme (version 3) of £93 per person is perhaps the cost to in individual at source, the scheme itself will cost more. BTW, I gather the technology is only guarenteed for 2 years, yet passports are meant to last 10...
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