A very long day! As I write it is 0028 on 7 July. We are still in the Commons waiting for the vote on the Budget (known as the Finance Bill). Labour MPs are spinning out the Bill and speaking at great length, in an effort to keep us up all as long as possible. This doesn't achieve much as they will lose the vote, and is more about political posturing than the merits of the Budget.
Nevertheless, waiting for the vote gives me the chance to think about a few items of controversial spending.
Recently, the Queen has come under scrutiny for expenditure on the Royal Household. I agree with the freeze on her Budget, since every Government Department is making significant cuts in order to reduce the huge deficit.
However, it is worth noting that the Queen only costs each taxpayer 62 pence a year and Her Majesty's Budget has gone down by 12.2% in real terms in recent years. This seems to be to be great value for money, especially given the billions of pounds the Queen brings in through tourism and work in supporting British business. I think most reasonable people would agree that it is 62 pence well spent.
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Rob - very much agree with what you say. I would rather direct ten times that amount of my taxes to paying towards the Queen's costs, (great value in both constitutional and tourism terms to this country), than the trivial, inconsequential and often downright damaging things Labour used our taxes for.
ReplyDeleteGood points, Rob! The queen also has a vital constitutional role protecting our, albeit, eroded democracy, she and some of her family have extensive ambassadorial duties, overseas in particular, and the queen performs a crucial role entertaining and accommodating visiting statesmen and women.
ReplyDeleteWell done for the following question too:
ReplyDelete"To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what estimate she has made of the expenditure of her Department and its predecessor on (a) organisation of and (b) attendance at conferences in each year since 1997."
Shame on the Labour government's DEFRA for failing to record this data, this shows that Labour's record keeping and control of expenditure of public funds was abysmal.
I recall this dept, which claims to be reducing our carbon emissions, outrageously sending David Miliband, the then Minister, on a carbon squandering trip to Japan on the luxury jet he was accustomed to use, in order to speak to a hundred Japanese BLOGGERS!