Francis Maude has come up with a genius money-saving wheeze. The only tiny downside is that it won’t kick in for another 10 years.
As the Telegraph reveals in Saturday morning’s splash, the Cabinet Office minister hopes to scrap the census - Britain’s official population count - in an attempt to save its £480m cost.
However, he admitted that next year’s census would still have to go ahead. He vowed instead to cancel the next official headcount - which will not occur until 2021.
To get to that point the Tories (or coalition) have to win the 2015 election and then the 2020 election. And still be in a cost-cutting mood. That’s a whole pyramid of ifs.
Now who does that remind you of?
Cunt.
8 comments:
"However, he admitted that next year’s census would still have to go ahead. "
What would have to happen for it NOT to go ahead?
JuliaM - precisely, the call themselves the government, why not just scrap it now, or is it yet another hidden EU requirement?
OOOP's - "They" call themselves....
@JuliaM: My guess is that the census forms for next year have already been printed. Wouldn't surprise me if Labour ordered it just before calling the election, thus making it very difficult for the coalition to cancel it afterwards. This is more than likely another example of Labour's scorched earth policy. Were the LibCons to stop it, they'd be accused of wasting public money, inevitably.
So if these are the circumstances, what to do? I don't want to see the census go ahead either, but if the forms have already been printed, what to do with them?
"...but if the forms have already been printed, what to do with them?"
If only they'd printed rthem on soft paper, they could have 'recycled them' in the toilets.
On second thoughts, do they deserve soft paper anyway?
Right, a couple of nails banged in the wall, and a few civil servants to tear them into squares, and you're done! :)
Even if they have already been printed, surely it's cheaper to just throw them away rather than incur all the costs of distribution, collection, audit and processing..?
Actually microdave has got it right, it's an EU requirement to 'regularly count' the population.
The govt ise required to have an alternative to the census in place to count heads before it can be scrapped. This new info is supposedly going to be taken from a combination of other existing databases; both public and private sector.
"Now who does that remind you of?"
Like at every Budget, the Chancellor announces increased taxes that are "£x per year"
But the savings(!) he announces are worth £10x - because the bugger extrapolates them over 10 years. And he thinks we're too thick to notice.
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