Labour Government Pushing Through Spending Against Civil Servants Advice

ILW

ninky wrote: »

it might look less like cleggeron spin if they actually gave examples of when these letters had been asked for. it seem pretty normal to me that stuff gets put in writing when it's to do with large spending.

whether it is reckless or not is surely a matter of political opinion. and after all the government had a mandate from the electorate to make those decisions.

Ninky
In your opinion, did the former labour government ever get ANYTHING wrong?

ash28

All interesting stuff, but,

Maude, who has been given the task of reducing Whitehall waste, insisted that ministers were not scaremongering to paint their predecessors in a negative light. He said there was widespread concern that Labour had become particularly spendthrift in the run-up to the election campaign.
“We put the last government on notice that contracts should not be signed without specific ministerial direction,” he said. “We are now seeking to find out what has been committed in the last few months.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article7127819.ece

If the Tories were saying before the election that any contracts should not be signed with out ministerial direction, why is it now such a surprise that it was sought??

Another interesting bit in The Times article is the £13bn Defence spend on aircraft tankers - that was signed off in March 2008 - no where near the election.

http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/tna/+/http://www.mod.uk:80/DefenceInternet/DefenceNews/EquipmentAndLogistics/13BillionDealForNewTankerAircraftSigned.htm

I thought the schools spending was part of a programme that had been running for quite a few years. Is it Building Schools for the Future?? We are currently having a new 6th form college built under the scheme.

Could there be a little bit of Tory spin going on here?

kennyboy66_2

ash28 wrote: »

Could there be a little bit of Tory spin going on here?

Surely not.

As you rightly point out the building schools programme has been running for 5 years and was a 10-15 year plan with a total cost of around £50 billion.

Of course Cameron claimed that the Tories would match spending in Education and Health.

ash28

kennyboy66 wrote: »

Surely not.

My thoughts exactly.

The-mouth-of-the-south

if true this is really awful. Labour may have done some good things while in power but the thing that will stick in my mind about there 13 years in power is how wreckless they where the the public purse.

kennyboy66_2

The-mouth-of-the-south wrote: »

if true this is really awful. Labour may have done some good things while in power but the thing that will stick in my mind about there 13 years in power is how wreckless they where the the public purse.

The problem with this is that the real examples will likely to be contracts for new hospitals (although the planned one in Liverpool now on hold), schools, arms and roads. Hardly examples of wreckless spending.

Labour should put up Alistair Darling to rebut some of this nonsense and also make the case that tax receipts are running substantially higher than expected and the economy is at least growing as a result of decisions the Tories continually opposed.

A._Badger

Heavens above the tribal Labourites must be desperate!

The story has been confirmed by no less than Jonathan Baum, General Secretary of the First Division Association. In other words, the Civil Servants' trade union. Hardly a mouthpiece of Tory propaganda, or an apparatchik of the Murdoch empire.

kennyboy66_2

A._Badger wrote: »

Heavens above the tribal Labourites must be desperate!

The story has been confirmed by no less than Jonathan Baum, General Secretary of the First Division Association. In other words, the Civil Servants' trade union. Hardly a mouthpiece of Tory propaganda, or an apparatchik of the Murdoch empire.

Civil servants covering their !!!!!!.

Has this ever happened before ?

StevieJ

A._Badger wrote: »

Heavens above the tribal Labourites must be desperate!

The story has been confirmed by no less than Jonathan Baum, General Secretary of the First Division Association. In other words, the Civil Servants' trade union. Hardly a mouthpiece of Tory propaganda, or an apparatchik of the Murdoch empire.

I thought Kenny voted for the current govt, I know I certainly did

The-mouth-of-the-south

kennyboy66 wrote: »

The problem with this is that the real examples will likely to be contracts for new hospitals (although the planned one in Liverpool now on hold), schools, arms and roads. Hardly examples of wreckless spending.

Labour should put up Alistair Darling to rebut some of this nonsense and also make the case that tax receipts are running substantially higher than expected and the economy is at least growing as a result of decisions the Tories continually opposed.

Like I said Labour did some very good things while in office but they still had some wreckless spending practices and I think thats what they will go down in histroy for the most during there time in power.