Money Down the Drain

(Hilariously, this image comes from the Envirowise government website where they ask for acknowledgment. I am of course happy to do so.)

I get most of my news from blogs these days. I read far more than are on our official blog roll. That’s mainly for beer or rather local related blogs. Much of the stuff I read is not suitable for those of a nervous disposition. Occasionally, something comes up that is so horrifying it bears repeating here.

….and today’s example is the official estimate of government waste, that is, the government’s own estimate.

It’s (wait for it)

15%

Fifteen; one five percent.

I was so shocked I had to sit down for a moment.

To put this into context, that’s what we were paying in VAT last year. It’s simply wasted.

Burning our money is all over this.

On top of this, today is the official announcement of the end of the recession. During the Christmas season the UK economy grew 0.1% although a lot of forecasters were expecting 0.4% This is very close to the margin of error and several quarters growth have been revised down after the first announcements. In all probability there was no real growth last quarter and the cold start to this quarter, combined with the fact that it’s not Christmas will probably send the numbers properly negative again.

You can see from the official graph that the drop from the 2006 peak to the present day is 9% avoiding the technical definition of a depression by a mere 1%

We could still get there if we work on it.

+++UPDATE+++

One implication is that the election could start as early as next week.