The rot spreads

My basilisk eye has been drawn to the obscene amounts of tax money being wasted by local government. Via Anna Raccoon, it seems that they're finally starting to cull troughers:

Finally, the moment we’ve all been waiting for has arrived:

The UK jobs market is expected to face a difficult first quarter of the year as a growing private sector, freed from recession, fails to compensate for shrinking employment in the public sector.

Local government is a massive employer, and it doesn't just revolve around the archetypal Teflon-shouldered "council employee" or the guys who do something useful, like binmen. Nope, it's teachers, social workers and all sorts who get employed by the council. And paid rather too well, it seems:

If anyone doubted that Britain’s senior local government managers are the new Bourbons, let me tell you that Peter Hendy, the head of Transport for London, has recently got himself a personal coat of arms.

The College of Arms, which drew it up, wouldn’t say what.

Sir Peter’s crest of state consists of – perhaps his best-loved contribution to society, the “bendy bus rampant” with “faredodger cluster” (to adopt the language of the heraldry trade). Nor would it disclose his personal motto. (What is the Latin for “we regret the disruption to your service?”)

But it is surely right that the country’s chief bus baron should join the ranks of the aristocracy – on earnings grounds, at least. Last year, Mr Hendy collected a base salary and bonus of £494,884, or £9,500 a week. That was more than twice as much as the then Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Sir Ian Blair. Some may feel this unfair – but how can such trivial matters as protecting Britain from terrorist attack compare with the life-and-death responsibilities of maintaining the Oyster Card?

I'm sorry? The guy running TfL has bought a coat of fucking arms? And he's on half a fucking million of tax-payers' finest a year?

It's hardly surprising that:

Councils have declined in power but more and more of their officers earn gold-plated salaries that they are desperate to keep secret.

Seriously. The plan is that they will tell you anybody who earns more than £150,000 PA but only disclose the number of people who earn more than £50,000 PA. These are fucking council employees, filibustering cocktards who do nothing but abuse government legislation to fucking spy on you and hold meetings to come up with more and more reasons why the motherfuckers can't empty your fucking bins like they used to.

And when the guy who runs your fucking bus service earns enough of your fucking money to piss it out on a coat of arms, at £4,000 plus whatever research charges they make, and he feels like he's entitled to such a frippery, well, it's clear the motherfucker has a sense of entitlement that is completely in keeping with the "public service ethos", isn't it?

Do you live next door to a council employee? Does he seem to be remarkably comfortable? Not having any problems meeting his bills? Don't fret, he's probably just on a massive wedge.

Of your fucking money.