Let the buyer beware

Gad’s Hill School, Rochester, Kent is boasting of its academic achievements, claiming to be “The TOP Performing Independent School in England.” This recent photograph of a signboard at the school is misleading. The trouble is Gad’s Hill School has sunk to the bottom of the class.
In the GCSE results for 2011 Gad’s Hill rated 408 out of 420 independent schools – see: Daily Telegraph.
The exaggerated claims so irked another local school that they allegedly complained to the Advertising Standards Authority – see: Daily Telegraph.
The headmaster of Gad’s Hill School, David Craggs, receives a £200,000 annual remuneration package made up of £160k salary + £23k pension + £3,872 governors expenses + 85% reduction in school fees worth i.r.o. £15k. For this he supervises 390 pupils and a total of 68 staff. That is £200,000 for managing a medium-sized, underperforming school.
The Prime Minister receives a salary of £142,500.
Photograph by A. Mole.

Canada: Meet your new lying, cheating, double-dealing NDP

After Jack Layton and the prostitute we now have a successful Dipper (NDP) candidate with falsified nomination papers, prior to her departure for Las Vegas during the campaign. The Globe and Mail has the story. By the way we are assured she is going to learn French to represent her Québec constituency. You couldn't make this stuff up.

Update: Liberal legal challenge here.

Update: Fraudulent CV here.

Layton cover-up cuts no ice in Blighty

For the full sleazy story in the Daily Mail go here. Back story here.
Some reaction here in Canada is how could the British press be so beastly - in my experience the Brit presspack can spot a liar at a 1000 yards. Risible denials don't wash in Fleet Street. It is not the offence that gets 'em, it is the cover up, stupid.
Ask yourself why Layton won't be suing the Daily Mail?

Lewes-Uckfield line in limbo

This article about a disused Sussex railway is by Dick Tyler of Railwatch magazine:

There is disbelief locally at the long-awaited report which has ruled that there is an “insufficient business case” for the reinstatement of the Lewes-Uckfield rail line in East Sussex. The line is in the most crowded part of the country, would give relief to an overcrowded Brighton line, and passengers are returning in droves to the environmentally friendly railways because of the rise in motoring costs.
The negative Network Rail report commissioned by the Central Rail Corridor Board was published on 23 July.
But former transport minister Tom Harris said before the board convened: ‘I would really like to see this go ahead, I think you have a very good case.” He added: “I want this project to succeed.”
Although there are no major obstacles to the reopening and the reinstated line would make a profit, Norman Baker MP, one of the board members, revealed the “business case” flaw. Network Rail is obliged to use current cost benefit analysis models which are loaded against rail. A review of the process is under way and hopefully there will soon be a new approach to analysis.
Currently the Treasury says time saved for the motorist is a benefit and has a monetary value while time saved for train and bus passengers, cyclists and pedestrians is unimportant. It does not know the monetary value of landscapes, global warming, accessibility, social inclusion and quality of life.

Comment: People who live in Lewes know only too well the traffic chaos at rush hours and the buses needlessly traversing the town one-way system, at all hours of the day, for the lack of a roundabout. They also know that the town increasingly depends on good rail connections to London and elsewhere. East Sussex has been starved of investment by governments of all stripes. The policy is tax the peasants and give nothing in return.
Under the present NuLabour lot revived railways are sprouting up in Wales and Scotland, as payoffs to their voters, while the rest can go to hell. RLT.

Folie de grandeur

I first called for the cancellation of the Olympics back in May. (See: Olympics). Now the story has reached the mainstream press. As the cost soars past £10 billion taxpayers surely know now, if they had failed to spot it, that they are being taken for a ride.
From The Times:
This month Tessa Jowell, the Minister for the Games, admitted that the Government would not have bid for them if it had seen what was coming. “Had we known what we know now, would we have bid for the Olympics? Almost certainly not.”
After the £1 billion Greenwich Dome flop you would have thought they would have seen it coming. Not these sleazebags.
Update: Suppressed report warned government of Olympic folly.

Olympics £1 billion black hole

The boondoggle goes on.

Dome £1 billion, Olympics £10 billion

If at first you make a large cock-up why not go for broke next time out? Suitcases full of cash stuffed with your money are being handed out with abandon. Somebody is getting very rich out of four weeks of drug-fuelled sport. One thing you can be sure of it isn't going to be the taxpayer or the poor mugs who buy the lottery tickets.

Not an Equitable Life under Brown

UK pension scandal goes on.

Snouts in trough

The placemen, sinecurists and tax-eaters have been at it again. Oink, Oink!
Update: more.

Brown in denial

The Telegraph reports it "is a "dirty tricks" operation being orchestrated by his enemies within Labour..."
With friends like these.

An Inspector Calls

While Blair meets Knacker at Number Ten, Brown is now a person of interest it seems. Whiter than white, purer than pure.

£10 Billion for four weeks of "sport"

Ken Livingstone ducks as the Olympic boondoggle spins out of control. Makes the Dome look like a bargain. The Guardian has the story.

Costs soar for London Olympics

The boondoggle spins out of control. The Dome Mark II will impoverish all taxpayers. The Times has the story.

Deputy PM in trouser trouble

Now we know why John Prescott needed two Jags. More in The Times.

Knacker fishes, minnow caught

Expedition searches for big fish. Pissed headmaster caught in reporter's net, answers to the bill. The Times has the story.

Rip-off Blair

Blair 'liable for tax bill over use of Royal Flight' - The Times has the story.

Blair used royal jet for family holidays

Snout in trough, the Prime Minister makes the most of it while it lasts. Piglets too. Oink, Oink!
See also Private Taxis, "the system is being abused" and "A total of £3.06m was spent on government flights between 2002 and 2004."

Olympic budget out of control

"Fears will grow that the UK taxpayer, National Lottery players or even London council tax payers will foot the bill."
PunchBuggy Passim: Go here, here and here.

Blighty blows billions in Banana Republic binge

Where your taxes are wasted in public sector procurement. Just order a computer system and call in the consultants - a hurdy-gurdy and the ju-ju men - and listen for a sucking sound as untold wealth goes down the plughole.
There are winners of course, spot them in the House of Lords or in tax exile, away from the whole ghastly mess.

More spin: blame it on the Tories

Labour news management changes tack.