Knowing how tight Gordon Brown keeps his purse strings, and condemnation over his inadequate funding for our troops, I wonder how he will feel when he learns that Defra officials stayed at one of East Anglia’s most lavish hotels when investigating the recent bird flu outbreak.
The Ickworth Hotel near Bury St Edmunds is a very special hotel for anniversaries and honeymoons, it is for those who want the best, for those who can afford the best. Defra has refused to say how many staff stayed there, and the total bill to the taxpayer.
Defra’s extravagance has angered local people who ask if they gave any thought to beleagured poultry farmers fearing for their survival, and question why their staff did not use local farm bed and breakfasts for a fraction of the price, and located closer to the bird flu site. Wouldn’t that have made sense and showed how supportive they were towards the local community?
Local MP Richard Spring does not mince his words, he describes it as “a grotesque extravagance” and “spending by Government bureaucracy on a totally inappropriate and offensive scale.â€?
This is a time when Government should be sensitive to local people, and not be seen to enjoy lavish jaunts at the expense of the taxpayer.
[…] Detail story Ellee and posted with Elliott Back […]
It is completely thoughtless and stupid as well as it looks so bad, and it was bound to be exposed..
The Govt goes from bad to worse. The only good news is that it will be out in 2010.
Living in N Ireland, politics is something that I lost interest in long ago. I even stopped voting for a while. However since Gordon Brown became Prime Minister I feel the country is in “free fall.” He may be a good Mathematician, but a Leader, I fear not.
Well, I think this matter is inconsequential. As long as they didn’t infringe any policies, whats the big deal. These people are away from their families in an unknown place. Why cant they stay in a nice place.
We have to remember that the government and individuals that work for the government are not the same thing. Why should I a member of Defra have to stay in a poor Hotel because the government messed up on bird flu?
You’re posting some brilliant stuff lately, Ellee [not that you don’t always]. I have DEFRA in the sights for Sunday.
All enjoying local turkey dinners, I’m sure!
Politicians are such swine, and they consistently ‘don’t get it’ in their repulsive sense of entitlement.
Quite right, Ellee. What a waste of taxpayers’ money.
I was always given luxurious accommodation in Dundee when I was an external examiner at the University there – but not quite as luxurious as that! I always felt that a simple B+B would have been quite sufficient, but they wouldn’t hear of it!
government spending makes me ill sometimes. We now have a labor government here and they are traditionally big spenders in all the wrong areas…. A bit like Animal Farm