Alex Salmond has been accused of lavishing public money on his Council of Economic Advisers after new figures showed the group has so far cost taxpayers more than £100,000 in flights, hotels, meals and meetings.Video-conferencing?
More than £7000 was spent hiring a five-star castle on the edge of Edinburgh for the group's most recent gathering, despite government venues being available free of charge in the city,including the First Minister's residence Bute House. Figures released to The Herald under Freedom of Information legislation show the total cost for the six meetings to date stands at £100,875.
Almost £60,000 went on flights, £9500 on chauffeur-driven cars and coaches, £9000 on hotels, and £13,000 on food and drink.
Never mind the five-star castle, that thirteen grand on food works out almost a thousand per head!
4 comments:
Yes, why should Scotland have such expertise, after all it is only a two bit player to the greater glory of HM Britain.......
Have a look in the mirror mate, your cringe is showing, children are pointing and laughing and the old ladies in the hair salon are stating to whisper.
Er..right.
Any further thoughts on, say for example, why video-conferencing wasn't used in this case?
Yes ofcourse, there's no reason for people to meet face to face, why are we as UK Tax Payers wasting millions on flying Gordon brown to all these meetings?
Why when we can have a virtual PM?
oh dear.
Ah right, the trusty "Brown does it so why can't Alex?" defence.
First point, Alex would have us believe that the minority administration is showing the way for their UK counterparts in Westminster in terms of good governance...which does include things as cost-control.
Secondly, when...no, on second thoughts, having seen the events of last week, make that a very conditional "if", if Alex ever becomes an international statesman, then I'm sure he'll also qualify too to be invited to international statesmen gatherings like the UK PM- at that stage then he too will be (just slightly more) justified to waste taxpayers money on things like flying advisors, renting castles etc.
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