Have we got our priorities wrong
Discussion
So we, the tax payer, can afford to pay over £360 million for repairs to Buckingham Palace, where the richest person in the country lives.
But Broadford Primary School on the Isle of Skye, has buckets to catch the rain dripping through the roof and one whole side of one classroom is only protected from the outside weather by a sheet of plastic.
I could go on:
Read a report today of a fraudster who conned people out of £18m has so far been given £1.4m in legal aid. Yet the police are having to cut costs. The hospitals are having to cut costs.....
Skyedriver said:
So we, the tax payer, can afford to pay over £360 million for repairs to Buckingham Palace, where the richest person in the country lives.
But Broadford Primary School on the Isle of Skye, has buckets to catch the rain dripping through the roof and one whole side of one classroom is only protected from the outside weather by a sheet of plastic.
I could go on:
Read a report today of a fraudster who conned people out of £18m has so far been given £1.4m in legal aid. Yet the police are having to cut costs. The hospitals are having to cut costs.....
We (the people) haven't. But when you have idiotic politicians who don't live in the read world and liberal elite who want to stand up for the poor misunderstood scum around. It's never going to work out how it should.But Broadford Primary School on the Isle of Skye, has buckets to catch the rain dripping through the roof and one whole side of one classroom is only protected from the outside weather by a sheet of plastic.
I could go on:
Read a report today of a fraudster who conned people out of £18m has so far been given £1.4m in legal aid. Yet the police are having to cut costs. The hospitals are having to cut costs.....
My 2p
It's impossible for layers of government to micro-manage every decision in the country, based on what a group of car-forum residents would decide.
Rules have to be set, then followed. If the rules are adminsiered incorrectly, action can be taken (via courts). If people don't like the rules, again action can be taken (via ballot).
There's rules about holding a fair trial with access to legal representation, and at what point legal aid is available. They are being followed.
There are rules about how funding is given to schools. They're being followed (perhaps badly).
There are rules about how much profit the Queen retains from HM estates - in this case, she's got permission to retain a bit more.
To try and rank every decision against every other decision simultaneously would rapidly descend into chaos.
Deal with a local issue locally (like the school, that looks like it's part way through building work).
I can guarantee trying to "reset" priorities on a national scale will be carnage.
2 examples:
- school funding (England at least) is being re-set to a national formula. Suddenly, loads of schools who were generously funded will be losing it. Outcome = carnage for local politicans.
- COuncil tax bands: values still based on, what 1991? Any attempt to re-value would be carnage for national politicans. The French are still using dates in the 70s.
Result - political movements tend to be small nudges, rather than huge steps (Brexit potentially being the odd one out)
Ian
It's impossible for layers of government to micro-manage every decision in the country, based on what a group of car-forum residents would decide.
Rules have to be set, then followed. If the rules are adminsiered incorrectly, action can be taken (via courts). If people don't like the rules, again action can be taken (via ballot).
There's rules about holding a fair trial with access to legal representation, and at what point legal aid is available. They are being followed.
There are rules about how funding is given to schools. They're being followed (perhaps badly).
There are rules about how much profit the Queen retains from HM estates - in this case, she's got permission to retain a bit more.
To try and rank every decision against every other decision simultaneously would rapidly descend into chaos.
Deal with a local issue locally (like the school, that looks like it's part way through building work).
I can guarantee trying to "reset" priorities on a national scale will be carnage.
2 examples:
- school funding (England at least) is being re-set to a national formula. Suddenly, loads of schools who were generously funded will be losing it. Outcome = carnage for local politicans.
- COuncil tax bands: values still based on, what 1991? Any attempt to re-value would be carnage for national politicans. The French are still using dates in the 70s.
Result - political movements tend to be small nudges, rather than huge steps (Brexit potentially being the odd one out)
Ian
Cold said:
If I had to choose I'd rather my £50 went towards a ticket for a tour of Buckingham Palace rather than a visit to an old school on some windswept Scottish island.
+1By the way OP you could always get that Sturgeon woman to stick her hand in her pocket and give the school a couple of quid, lets face it they are rich up there because they have North Sea oil
Edited by fatboy18 on Sunday 20th November 23:36
To me the highland council clearly have their priorities wrong as they decided to spend millions on a new Gaelic medium school in Portree, which wasn't needed whilst other schools,like Broadford, are left to rot.
There is generally a huge amount of wasting money goes on in local and national government just because they are not very efficient at doing things.
There is generally a huge amount of wasting money goes on in local and national government just because they are not very efficient at doing things.
Ian Geary said:
My 2p
It's impossible for layers of government to micro-manage every decision in the country, based on what a group of car-forum residents would decide.
Rules have to be set, then followed. If the rules are adminsiered incorrectly, action can be taken (via courts). If people don't like the rules, again action can be taken (via ballot).
There's rules about holding a fair trial with access to legal representation, and at what point legal aid is available. They are being followed.
There are rules about how funding is given to schools. They're being followed (perhaps badly).
There are rules about how much profit the Queen retains from HM estates - in this case, she's got permission to retain a bit more.
To try and rank every decision against every other decision simultaneously would rapidly descend into chaos.
Deal with a local issue locally (like the school, that looks like it's part way through building work).
I can guarantee trying to "reset" priorities on a national scale will be carnage.
2 examples:
- school funding (England at least) is being re-set to a national formula. Suddenly, loads of schools who were generously funded will be losing it. Outcome = carnage for local politicans.
- COuncil tax bands: values still based on, what 1991? Any attempt to re-value would be carnage for national politicans. The French are still using dates in the 70s.
Result - political movements tend to be small nudges, rather than huge steps (Brexit potentially being the odd one out)
Ian
A small point about council tax. The tax you pay is not based on the value in 1991 as such. The value then put it into a charging band. The cost for each band rises year on year so council tax is not being eroded by time. Its not that different to road tax bandings.It's impossible for layers of government to micro-manage every decision in the country, based on what a group of car-forum residents would decide.
Rules have to be set, then followed. If the rules are adminsiered incorrectly, action can be taken (via courts). If people don't like the rules, again action can be taken (via ballot).
There's rules about holding a fair trial with access to legal representation, and at what point legal aid is available. They are being followed.
There are rules about how funding is given to schools. They're being followed (perhaps badly).
There are rules about how much profit the Queen retains from HM estates - in this case, she's got permission to retain a bit more.
To try and rank every decision against every other decision simultaneously would rapidly descend into chaos.
Deal with a local issue locally (like the school, that looks like it's part way through building work).
I can guarantee trying to "reset" priorities on a national scale will be carnage.
2 examples:
- school funding (England at least) is being re-set to a national formula. Suddenly, loads of schools who were generously funded will be losing it. Outcome = carnage for local politicans.
- COuncil tax bands: values still based on, what 1991? Any attempt to re-value would be carnage for national politicans. The French are still using dates in the 70s.
Result - political movements tend to be small nudges, rather than huge steps (Brexit potentially being the odd one out)
Ian
I seem to pay way more tax these days then I ever did, and recieve less in return.
fatboy18 said:
1
By the way OP you could always get that Sturgeon woman to stick her hand in her pocket and give the school a couple of quid, lets face it they are rich up there because they have North Sea oil
There are valid reasons to criticise Sturgeon's government, but I hardly think she makes individual decisions about school maintenance. OP, speak to your local councillor.By the way OP you could always get that Sturgeon woman to stick her hand in her pocket and give the school a couple of quid, lets face it they are rich up there because they have North Sea oil
Edited by fatboy18 on Sunday 20th November 23:36
Difficult to disagree on the Buck Pal matter although I am sure there is some algorithm that would show net benefit to the country of our Sovereign.
In respect of the school matter. Isle of Skye is in Scotland, yes? If I recall rightly, this is a matter for Scotland. Perhaps they could set aside some of the money they use to fund university places for their undergrads. Scottish people do not pay Uni fees. Quite why this is I have no idea but why do Scotland do it and we don't? I am all for free uni places (I was actually given a grant of £3600 per annum when I went to Uni in the 80's!) but it doesn't seem equitable does it.
By the way, the Queen is not the richest person in the country, by a very long way.
In respect of the school matter. Isle of Skye is in Scotland, yes? If I recall rightly, this is a matter for Scotland. Perhaps they could set aside some of the money they use to fund university places for their undergrads. Scottish people do not pay Uni fees. Quite why this is I have no idea but why do Scotland do it and we don't? I am all for free uni places (I was actually given a grant of £3600 per annum when I went to Uni in the 80's!) but it doesn't seem equitable does it.
By the way, the Queen is not the richest person in the country, by a very long way.
Skyedriver said:
So we, the tax payer, can afford to pay over £360 million for repairs to Buckingham Palace, where the richest person in the country lives.
But Broadford Primary School on the Isle of Skye, has buckets to catch the rain dripping through the roof and one whole side of one classroom is only protected from the outside weather by a sheet of plastic.
I could go on:
Read a report today of a fraudster who conned people out of £18m has so far been given £1.4m in legal aid. Yet the police are having to cut costs. The hospitals are having to cut costs.....
To be honest, those aren't expensive fixes and the first thing that springs to mind is financial mismanagement at the school or authority. I bet if you looked at the accounts you'd soon realise that those responsible for their budgeting have chosen to let the children suffer in order to fund something they believe to be more important. The question is whether it is?But Broadford Primary School on the Isle of Skye, has buckets to catch the rain dripping through the roof and one whole side of one classroom is only protected from the outside weather by a sheet of plastic.
I could go on:
Read a report today of a fraudster who conned people out of £18m has so far been given £1.4m in legal aid. Yet the police are having to cut costs. The hospitals are having to cut costs.....
Skye is pretty wealthy (especially Broadford) when contrasted to similar communities on the mainland. Someone in Broadford has chosen to not repair the school or to maintain it. The locals should have a look at who that was and why before anything else.
The problem with your thinking that it isn't fair that some old freeloading bird gets her council house refurbed at our expense is that it doesn't fix the actual problem which is clearly financial mismanagement at a local level. The taxpayer can't be expected to reward failure by just pouring in more money tonne mismanaged, the locals need to fix their problem first or at least establish why the school is so low down the pecking order for funding or why the school has not prioritised the fixing of leaks.
I saw a "meme" shared/liked by one of my friends on Facebook about this.
The topic was something like
"2 million people in the UK need houses. But we're funding £369m to redo the Palace"
Being a left-leaning page, it locked down the comments so that only people who "liked" the page could comment and I wasn't going to do that, and the words may have been that it was a bit different.
However, a small amount of maths led me the conclusion that instead of funding the palace refurb over 10 years, we could give each of those people £184.50 to resolve the housing crisis they are in.
Even if my recollection is that it is 200,000 people and not 2 million, that would give them each £1,845 to spend.
The topic was something like
"2 million people in the UK need houses. But we're funding £369m to redo the Palace"
Being a left-leaning page, it locked down the comments so that only people who "liked" the page could comment and I wasn't going to do that, and the words may have been that it was a bit different.
However, a small amount of maths led me the conclusion that instead of funding the palace refurb over 10 years, we could give each of those people £184.50 to resolve the housing crisis they are in.
Even if my recollection is that it is 200,000 people and not 2 million, that would give them each £1,845 to spend.
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