Monday 5 December 2011

EU & 'Empire' building

Helen, Your Freedom and Ours, has another coruscating post, this time linking to 'Der Spiegel' and the second reading of Lord Pearson's Bill in the House of Lords, from which post:

"..... Lord Stevens of Ludgate said [scroll down to Column 1248]:
I do not propose to spend much time on discussing where all the EU money goes, suffice it to say that a prime example of what appears to me as a layman to be gross duplication and waste is the new foreign service. Its budget is 20 times the cost of the UK's Foreign Office and includes among other items £33 million for 150 bomb-proof limousines for all EU ambassadors. The number of staff employed by its quangos and committees alone has tripled during the past five years, amounting to a total cost of more than £2 billion in 2011. It has just opened a new £25 million office in London, and our Foreign Secretary has claimed that the UK Government have brought the EU budget under control. Perhaps the noble Lord, Lord Sassoon, could confirm in his reply that the UK has no liability for any losses incurred by the ECB, another potential burden on this country."
With Lord Stevens' reference to 'our Foreign Secretary', he must of course mean that over-paid jobsworth, William Hague. Just saying........ 

2 comments:

DerekP said...

"...£33 million for 150 bomb-proof limousines for all EU ambassadors."

Expensive, but considerate - so when a bomb goes off inside one of these cars serfs won't be splattered with fresh meat.

TomTom said...

Didn't he mention the 500,000 Euro kindergarten in Portugal built in a corn field with no roads or services so it cannot be accessed or used ?

Die Welt liked that one....

Kindergarten