The Bumper Book of Government Waste: Brown's Squandered Billions [Hardcover]

Matthew Elliott PH. PH. (Author), Lee Rotherham (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2007 | Series: Browns Squandered Billions

Welcome to the world of waste. You are about to enter a twilight zone of crazy spending, political correctness, utter incompetence, and fantastic jollies, all funded by the British taxpayer.In this book, the authors have highlighted a myriad of examples of Government waste and useless spending, taken from thousands of examples held on file. The figures have been compiled from independent reports, media coverage and official statistics. Added together, they come to #81 billion of waste.- In 1997, the Government plundered #2 billion per week from its people. In 2004-05, the figure was #4.8 billion.- The Arts Council spent #77,000 sending a team of artists to the North Pole to make a snowman.- Quangos cost over #22 billion per year.- Local government pension schemes are in deficit to the tune of #27 billion. The taxpayer will fund the difference.- 459 books were withdrawn from the EU's Luxembourg library last year. The cost to taxpayers was #2,138 per book.- Ken Livingstone's office now costs #13.9 million to run. His staff includes 58 media and marketing personnel!- Between 2000 and 2005, one in every two new jobs created was in the public sector, many of them administrative.- Nottinghamshire tourism bosses spent #120,000 of taxpayers' money rebranding the county with a big 'N'.- Each European member of Parliament (MEP) costs #2.4 million per year in salary, expenses, perks and administration.- In 2005, 20 out of 24 government departments overspent their budgets. The total overspend was #7.1 billion.These are just a few of the alarming facts and figures revealed in The Bumper Book of Government Waste. If you wasted your family's money on this scale, you would probably be locked up. Whyshould the

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Matthew Elliott is co-founder and Chief Executive of The TaxPayers' Alliance, a pressure group launched in 2004 to represent taxpayers in the corridors of power and to fight for lower taxes. Now with over 10,000 supporters, it is regularly cited in the media as the taxpayers' waste watcher.

Dr Lee Rotherham is also by background a linguist and historian. His Mediaeval Occitan was just one of several languages that proved to be absolutely useless when he acted as an advisor on the Convention that drafted the thoroughly despicable EU Constitution. He has advised three successive Shadow Foreign Secretaries, though the turnover wasn't his fault. A prominent Eurosceptic, hunted across the continent by bands of pro-Brussels politicians carrying lit torches and pitchforks, he has been widely published.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 332 pages
• Publisher: Harriman House (September 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1905641486
• ISBN-13: 978-1905641482
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,772,890 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful account of government follies, August 8, 2008

By 

William Podmore (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Bumper Book of Government Waste: Brown's Squandered Billions (Hardcover)

In this useful book, Matthew Elliott and Lee Rotherham, both leading campaigners against the EU Constitution, give many examples of misapplied government spending. We are paying £28.3 billion in debt interest on money loaned to the government. Britain gives Northern Ireland, part of another country, £9 billion every year.

£2.7 billion has gone on Ministry of Defence budget overruns; its new offices cost £2.3 billion. Its 33 PFI projects are worth £26.964 billion in contracts, yet the capital assets that these contracts cover are worth just £5.452 billion. Under the Department for Work and Pensions' estates PFI contract, Britain's biggest ever property transaction, the taxpayer will give a land consortium £11.5 billion over the next ten years on assets worth only £455 million.

Much of the extra health and education spending goes straight through and out the other side into the pockets of private firms, the NHS's £30 billion failed IT project for example.

Quangos cost us £123 billion a year. The National Audit Office estimates that hiring consultants costs £3 billion a year. For its Olympics advice, accountancy firm KPMG charged the government £1 million then did not even produce the usual unnecessary report.

Our net contribution to the EU budget is £6 billion a year. Administering EU laws and regulations costs £6.3 billion a year. The EU gives its officials a MasterCard for business trips, telling them, "This card is totally free and may also be used for private purposes." The Bank of England gave the European Central Bank £56 million for the eurozone's reserves. £1.2 billion a year goes to the EU's nine puppet Regional Development Agencies, with their 3,000 staff and their CEOs paid £178K each.

The authors are right to expose public sector waste, but it would be nice if they also exposed the fraud and corruption in the private sector. After all, who did the government sign all these wretched PFIs with?