It is worth remembering that, thanks to the constitutional mess made by Tony Blair of London’s local government, a large chunk of what we pay in Tax to our Boroughs is ‘precepted’ (i.e.syphoned off) to pay for the antics of Ken and his cohort in City Hall. A Kingston band D taxpayer will contribute £309.82 to Ken’s coffers next year. As a band F payer I shall be stumping up £447.52 and quite few of my constituents in Surbiton Hill will pay an eyewatering £619.64!
What’s he doing with it? Ken has turned what was supposed by Blair to be a modest co-ordinating outfit into a mighty empire. City Hall, built to house the whole thing, quickly became overcrowded as Ken hired more and more staff to push his power grabbing agenda. Part of this is the creation of his own foreign policy, typified by the above picture of Ken with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and backed up by the creation of what amounts to embassies abroad, all at our expense. This was something Blair and Co. never envisaged and which the craven media have kept rather quiet about, with the honourable exception of Channel 4’s ‘Dispatches’ a few weeks ago.
Another feature of Ken’s management of OUR money has been his distribution, through persons like Lee Jasper, of largesse to organisations which then disappear or at the very least leave no proper audit trail on how the money has been spent to achieve the socially laudable aims for which it was supposedly granted. It’s all documented in the ‘Dispatches’ programme and elsewhere.
For pity’s sake, London, WAKE UP!
