PISSING OUR MONEY AWAY

Whenever it’s time for the country to cut costs, the politicians always want to convince us that they can make huge savings by ‘cutting waste and inefficiencies’ rather than own up to taking the knife to popular public services. These savings are promised at every general election, yet we never see the actual savings get made. This is mostly because all governments are absolutely useless at actually running things with any kind of efficiency.

This is hardly surprising as the people who run government have never actually run a business or had any experience that would qualify them to do anything, but climb greasy poles and say anything that might get them elected.

In our little town there is a move afoot to replace a twenty-year old swimming facility (one that is quite modern and pleasant to use) that is located right in the heart of town with one on a green-field site at the outskirts. Nobody I know wants this new pool, and many certainly don’t agree with the inconvenient location. The council is pressing ahead. Why? Because, if they don’t spend the several millions that central government has allocated for this by the end of the financial year, they’ll lose the money. Futhermore, the equivalent amount will be lost from next year’s allocation. Looking into this, I discover that this silliness applies to just about everything; every council, quango, educational facility and health provider in the country. If they want to preserve their budget for next year, they must spend the lot (whether the spending is needed or not) or lose out in the long term.

Our little swimming pool project is a few million pounds of stupid spending in one little town. Add to this all the other stupid spending that must also be going on locally for the same reason, and it must be tens of millions being pissed away on silly ideas.

If we then multiply that by every town in the country, billions and billions are being pissed away by the most inane system for handing out government cash that could possibly be devised.

If the politicians truly want to save some dosh, this could be stopped. All they have to do is break the link between this year’s spending and next year’s allocation. Let the locals spend what they need without fear of losing out in the future.

This, of course, is pure common sense that any business person would comprehend. Alas, it’d probably be far too radical and idea for the politicians to grasp.