Tucked away in the Scotsman today is the headline '£7,000 to 'train' Millband'. Taxpayers have paid £6,700 for the Foreign Secretary to be coached 'on the presentation of foreign policy issues'.
Mr Millband, who writes a regular blog on the Foreign Office website, also received £85 worth of IT training courtesy of the taxpayer.
It's a pathetic testimony to the abilities of labour party politicians when one of them has to be given this amount of training in presentation skills to do their job. What makes presenting foreign policy issues any different to presenting an advertisement for a new fruit juice? Nothing, the process is the same.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for progressive training in the workplace and I'm aware it is essential to many businesses, but presentation skills are usually learned long before someone becomes our representative in foreign policy throughout the world. It may be that the labour party doesn't 'do' presentation skills and uses outside agencies, paid for with other people's hard earned cash, who knows.
A pensioner on the basic state pension currently receives £4,716.40 a year (£90.70 a week) and a couple receive £7,542.60 a year (£145.05 a week). A couple have to live for a year on just slightly more than it cost to educate this man in a basic business skill. Puts it in perspective a little doesn't it.
Note: Of course there's always pension credit for anyone on the basic pension, that is if they can bear the humiliation of the application process.
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17 comments:
"A pensioner on a small state pension receives slightly less than £6,700 a year."
That's it? That's the best the UK can do for pensioners after umpteen years of Labour?
Time for change.
subrosa,
Good morning, cyber-nat, is that before or after tax?
Why can't Milliband go to night-classes?
£4953 is the basic state pension scunnert (£95.25 a week). I'll put that on the post because I thought it was more. Just received the update of mine yesterday.
Good morning brownlie, that's before tax brownlie but of course it's under the personal allowance threshold.
I've put in the correct figures now as scunnert prodded me into checking what the basic is. Shameful and by far the worst in Europe.
Ah but Subrosa your blog is top class and well scripted, just how much £££ have you recived for your training ? lol, but the diffrence is your worth every penny.
Awe Spook thank you, you're feeling benevolent this morning I see.
It makes me so bluddy angry the way these people spend our money. I've just updated the blog with the current basic state pension figures which make me even more angry.
I agree Subrosa, they fling money, our money at such stupid noncense as if money grew on trees.
Spook you're up awfy early, you feeling OK or is it a run morning? Wet here so I won't bother with my race round the block today :)
The state pension is less per annum than many of Brown's advisers get in a DAY! As for Millipede, "if it looks, smells and tastes like a banana............"
subrosa we have both been mentioned here:-
http://scottishroundup.co.uk/
That's true of course Oldrightie, but I suspect it's true for the Scottish government in some cases too.
I just wanted to highlight the disgraceful basic pension we receive in this country as anyone who isn't a pensioner won't really know it.
Conan, I didn't know that, thanks. Having problems opening the page right now but I'll get there shortly.
Fame at last eh? It's a good site and we need it to promote Scottish sites as the larger English ones aren't interested in Scottish politics.
you're old enough for a pension? are you sure?
Well the Department for Work and Pensions says so. I'm wearing well though something to do with anti-ageing cream at £90 a wee pot.
£90 feckin squid! It has been prven time and time again it's a technobabblesque con! bla bla bla with "anti riponutrinos.....", something probably in lard.
So £90 quid a pot. They must have spent more researching that than an AIDS vaccine! Seriously though wit a con!
Get round the butchers, and get some lard.
oh and talking of cons, the story above is just a new labour new ruse like the software fiasco, you know the one where they get paid for their own software and then feed it back into party coffers.
I bet if you dig enough it is either a liebour activist getting something from the trough or it will go directly too JSH
Word ver: Match - game and set.
Relax Juan, the £90 cream was a joke. Do you honestly think any woman in her right mind would pay that kind of money just for a face cream? I did say in her right mind remember :)
Juan you're on the same wavelength as me. I look around to see if anyone was reporting the name of the company who did this 'training' and not a dickie or even a cheep. That got me thinking it was a bit of a scam perhaps.
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