The beginning of the end of political correctness - The Telegraph

JayScottGreenspan

StevieJ wrote: »

If he is participating in a cost/benefit excercise across the whole spectrum, great I am all for it, the savings he has made so far are very interesting though.

Yeah, he's done the easy stuff - a few grand saved by merely supoprting gay pride rather than funding it, a few grand saved from the free holidays perk, a few tens of thousands out of his own pocket.

This is the sort of stuff that can be done immediately without too much fuss. Where he'll really face some opposition is in slimming down the non-jobs brigade. There'll probably be a smear campaign...

mewbie_2

So anyway, the money he has saved so far - is there a proper breakdown of it? And how much will that saving actually impact on the council tax payers of Doncaster.

You know the answer - there is no proper breakdown, and it is a drop in the ocean. There will no impact on hard working council tax payers bills at all.

But as a populist egotistical selfish vote grabbing initiative it is worth a whole lot to the Mayor.

morg_monster

bendix wrote: »

Ummmm . don't they have passports or something?

Are they banned from travelling abroad? I know, I know. They're on some sort of terrorism watchlist, right?

Because for the life of me I can't understand why they can't go abroad, learn new languages, experience new cultures and make foreign friends on your money, rather than the taxpayers.

do you think all these hundreds of kids go abroad each year paid in full by the council?!! The town i grew up in was twinned, so we went on trips to France and Germany with school to our twin towns, but us / our parents paid for it, the taxpayer didn't!

Twinning at least gives people the opportunity in the first place to go. And it's much more fun going abroad with 30 classmates than your mum and dad...

Harry_Powell

We went to Germany with school. It was organised via our school and German school and our German teacher. To my knowledge the council had nothing to do with the organisation of it, and looking at google just now the town in twinned with a town in France.

We also had pen-pals arranged via our German teacher. I guess as she taught German she had some contact with Germany, though she was English. In the age of the internet, do we really need the concept of twinning in order for our kids to communicate with people in other countries or for schools to organise exchanges?

drc

morg_monster wrote: »

do you think all these hundreds of kids go abroad each year paid in full by the council?!! The town i grew up in was twinned, so we went on trips to France and Germany with school to our twin towns, but us / our parents paid for it, the taxpayer didn't!

Twinning at least gives people the opportunity in the first place to go. And it's much more fun going abroad with 30 classmates than your mum and dad...

But you can still do all you quoted without being twinned with the town. I went with my school to Paris for a few days and it was nice enough. Not because it was twinned. I don't see why going to a 'twinnned' town on a school trip is a prerequisite to kids having a good time. Why not just go abroad and take your pick of interesting destinations for schoolkids (there are a lot of choices in Europe alone)?

StevieJ

kennyboy66 wrote: »

Interestingly when this guy was asked on Radio Sheffield how much this festival was worth to Doncaster (8000 people attended), he had no idea - and didn't actually care.

The councils contribution was about 10% of the budget for the event.

It appears when this was pointed out (the town makes a profit), he backed down

http://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/free/Mayor-in-Gay-Pride-funding.5362346.jp (source other thread, thanks)

As I said earlier I prefer to see the whole picture first (Bendix).

Out,_Vile_Jelly

bendix wrote: »

Could you explain the public good of spending £80,000 a year to be twinned to several obscure towns on mainland Europe? I'm genuinely curious.

I grew up in a small market town that was twinned with somewhere equally scenic and rustic in France. It meant local schools had a focal point for organising exchange visits through reps on either side, and they always had a French produce stall at our annual folk festival; presumably we sent some morris dancers over to their equivalent. No idea how much it cost, but hardly deserving of Daily Mail LEFTIES TAKE AN ACTUAL DUMP ON THE FACE OF MIDDLE CLASS TAXPAYERS bile I'm sure.

I can kind of see where this Doncaster MP is coming from to a certain extent, but I'm wary of IT'S PC GONE MAD!!! obsucring genuine social problems, and more of the "councils ban Christmas" and "Muslims say hot cross buns are offensive" tabloid fairy stories.

kennyboy66_2

bendix wrote: »

Ummmm . don't they have passports or something?

Are they banned from travelling abroad? I know, I know. They're on some sort of terrorism watchlist, right?

Because for the life of me I can't understand why they can't go abroad, learn new languages, experience new cultures and make foreign friends on your money, rather than the taxpayers.

An example for you.

Portishead is twinned with Den Dungen and VG Schwiech an der Mosel.
Cost to Portishead town council - nil.

Some know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

It would appear you don't even know the cost.

Harry_Powell

kennyboy66 wrote: »

An example for you.

Portishead is twinned with Den Dungen and VG Schwiech an der Mosel.
Cost to Portishead town council - nil.

Some know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

It would appear you don't even know the cost.

"How much does Twinning cost the local council tax payer?

The short answer is 'very little'. Every person who visits a twin-town does so at his own expense - the only exceptions being the few delegates who represent the local authorities at the Conference which is part of the annual Twinning Meeting.

The council allocates a grant to the TWINNING JOINT MANAGEMENT COMMITTTEE, which mainly goes towards school twinning activities in the district.

The Town Council gives the TWINNING ASSOCIATION a grant as it is the Association which carries out nearly all the organisation on behalf of the town. "

Nice to know that the delegates (council flunkies) get a free annual holiday to the twin town. I assume that the more towns you're twinned with, the greater the expense, the larger the grant and the more delegates required....

p.s. I love the way the council blurb uses language such as "very little (cost)" and "the only exceptions being the few delegates who represent the local authorities" to describe the costs, rather than actually using the real monetary figures and providing details on how "little" it costs and how "few" delegates get to go :rolleyes:

StevieJ

kennyboy66 wrote: »

An example for you.

Portishead is twinned with Den Dungen and VG Schwiech an der Mosel.
Cost to Portishead town council - nil.

Some know the cost of everything and the value of nothing.

It would appear you don't even know the cost.

So funny, (again thanks to the other thread), in case anyone didn't read the other thread.
http://andys.org.uk/media/peter_davies_toby_foster_bbc_radio_sheffield_08_06_2009.mp3