The Bumper Book of Government Waste 2008

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The TaxPayers' Alliance www.taxpayersalliance.com

Jacket text for The Bumper Book of Government Waste 2008

It's back and, depressingly, the figure is even bigger than last time.

Welcome again to the world of waste. In this new edition of The Bumper Book, Matthew Elliott and Lee Rotherham have unearthed a staggering £101 billion of government misspending - all paid for by you, the taxpayer.

It's such an enormous figure it is difficult to get one's head around it. What could be done with £101 billion? Well, you could for example, paper the entire East Midlands and London with £5 notes, and still have a few billion left over to build one hell of a crane from which to admire your handiwork. Or even convert the £101 billion into one penny coins, pile them on top of each other, and reach the moon and back five times.

But perhaps more usefully, the government could cut the tax burden of every household by over £4,000 a year.

Mind blowing isn't it?

Here are just a few examples of where all of that money has gone:

- £280,000 on a conference addressed by Blair and Brown on value for money in the public services.

- £400 million on 'cost control' for the Olympic Games.

- £3 million by tax inspectors at HM Revenue and Customs on flights, including £2.1 million on flights to Scotland.

- Over £16 million on the creation and upkeep of VIP lounges in Heathrow and Gatwick despite the fact they are not government-owned.

- £100,000 on assessing whether £400,000 reportedly spent on modern art for seven hospitals was money well spent.

But then it's hardly a surprise that they don't have a tight grip on our finances when you see an official statistic from the government, claiming that an impressive 102% of all 3 year olds are in nursery school. With this level of numeracy, no wonder we're in trouble!

If you're a British taxpayer, you need to read this book - even though it will hurt.

Chapter headings for The Bumper Book of Government Waste 2008

1. An Introduction to Government Waste
A Big Hello to the Treasury
The White Elephants' Graveyard
The World's First Tax Cut
The Price of Government
£101 Billion of Waste

2. Departmental Waste
Department for Education and Skills (DfES)
Department of Health (DH)
Department for Transport
Home Office
Dept. for Communities and Local Government
Department for Constitutional Affairs (DCA)
Northern Ireland Office (NIO)
Department for Work and Pensions (DWP)
Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)
Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)
Dept. for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
Department for International Development (DFID)
Privy Council Office (PCO)
Ministry of Defence (MOD)
HM Treasury
Department for Trade and Industry (DTI)
Cabinet Office
The Gershon Savings

3. Other Areas of Waste
Auntie Beeb
Superstar Wallets
London 2012
Public Art Grants
The Government Art Collection
Devolved Government
The Kost of Ken
The Quangocrats
A Culture of Consultancy
Non-Jobs
Flights of Fancy
The Cost of Living
Buy British
Ministerial Gifts

4. The Burdens for Our Children
Public Sector vs. Private Sector
The PFI and PPP Scandal
Information Technology
The Pensions Crisis
Hot Air?
The National Debt
Health and Safety
Legal Aid
Par for the Course

5. Going European
On Mountains and Deserts
El Mundo Audito
Whistleblowers

6. Taxes Past and Future
The Flat Tax
The Taxpayers' Axioms
The Tax on Death
Gold in the Balance

About the TaxPayers' Alliance

Appendix 1: Better Government
Appendix 2: Ending EU Fraud

About Matthew Elliott, Lee Rotherham

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 15,000 supporters, it generates more media coverage than any other independent political organisation in the UK. 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.

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