The cost of Prime Minister Tony Blair's overseas travel has more than doubled to £2,023,909 in the year to April, official figures have shown.
He made 22 visits overseas in the year to April 2006, compared with 21 costing £809,152 in the previous year.
This year's bill included two journeys - to Riyadh and to Australia - which each cost nearly £500,000. The figure includes travel and accommodation.
A third of the cost of all ministerial travel (£6.1m) went on the PM's trips.
2012 Olympic bid
Number 10 has already announced that Mr Blair and the Queen are to lease two aircraft for use on official trips, replacing the Royal Flight and privately chartered planes.
Mr Blair's most expensive trip (£482,880) was a flying visit to Riyadh last July for private talks with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, en route to Singapore to lobby International Olympic Committee members on London's successful 2012 bid.
The next most costly was a visit to Australia, New Zealand and Indonesia in March, at a cost of £437,921.
On that occasion the prime minister and his wife Cherie visited the Melbourne Commonwealth Games before going on to talks in Canberra, Auckland and Jakarta.
His EU China and India summits, which also included bilateral talks, racked up £189,000, and the UN Millennium Summit in New York cost the taxpayer £139,000.
Ed: I wonder if Tony thinks this is money well spent? And what sort of trouble would we be in if he actually stayed in the country longer?
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
Rover cost 900m good stuff Tony
THE collapse of MG Rover has cost public and private enterprises nearly £900 million, according to the Commons Public Accounts Committee.
The investigation by MPs has determined that taxpayers picked up a £270 million bill for Rover’s failure. Private companies lost £109 million in unpaid bills and a pension deficit of £500 million is likely be cleared by the industry-funded Pension Protection Fund.
The committee’s report, which is published today, identified “serious gaps” in the Department of Trade and Industry’s planning. The MPs felt that the DTI failed to keep up with rapidly changing events and had not planned for the company’s catastrophic failure.
The Public Accounts Committee said that the collapse of Rover could have been worse if local agencies in the West Midlands had not been planning for Rover’s decline since 2000.
The committee also made veiled criticism of the directors of Phoenix Venture Holdings, which ran the company between 2000 and 2005. During this period the directors received £40 million from Rover.
David Robertson at The Times
The investigation by MPs has determined that taxpayers picked up a £270 million bill for Rover’s failure. Private companies lost £109 million in unpaid bills and a pension deficit of £500 million is likely be cleared by the industry-funded Pension Protection Fund.
The committee’s report, which is published today, identified “serious gaps” in the Department of Trade and Industry’s planning. The MPs felt that the DTI failed to keep up with rapidly changing events and had not planned for the company’s catastrophic failure.
The Public Accounts Committee said that the collapse of Rover could have been worse if local agencies in the West Midlands had not been planning for Rover’s decline since 2000.
The committee also made veiled criticism of the directors of Phoenix Venture Holdings, which ran the company between 2000 and 2005. During this period the directors received £40 million from Rover.
David Robertson at The Times
Friday, July 21, 2006
Religious help for prisoners scrapped cos it is bad for them
A religious help scheme for prisoners has been scrapped in case it offends those of other faiths and homosexuals.
Organisers of the InnerChange course at Dartmoor jail were told their traditional message was discriminatory and did not conform to 'diversity' policy.
The decision to cancel the course, in which volunteers help prisoners prepare for life outside prison, caused outrage.
A spokesman for the independent think tank Civitas said: 'This is absolutely scandalous.
The Government is always saying we need to reform prisoners, and then when someone does something that actually works, it gets stopped.'
The InnerChange programme was modelled on a successful scheme in U.S. jails.
Prisoners who convert to Christianity are expected to live disciplined lives, and are monitored after release to ensure they do not revert to crime.
The programme, which received no state funding, was introduced by a Dartmoor chaplain last year, with the backing of the prison's then-governor Claudia Sturt.
At a recent review, prison officers said it was having a positive effect on previously difficult prisoners.
And one InnerChange volunteer said the scheme had transformed the lives of the 38 men who had taken part.
But a report by a Prison Service psychologist complained that the programme was not based on scientific research because it assumed that 'the root of offending is in individual sin'.
It said InnerChange promoted the unique virtue of heterosexual marriage, which meant it was 'discriminatory' against homosexuality.
The decision to ban the scheme comes less than a year after governors were told to put paganism on an equal footing with the major faiths by allowing altars, incense and the wearing of robes and religious jewellery in prison.
It is understood that no prisoner complained of being offended by the InnerChange programme.
A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain said: 'As this scheme was voluntary, we see no problem at all.
'If it meant prisoners were being helped to reform using Christian values, then that has to be a good thing - for them and for society as a whole.'
Lady Georgie Wates, of the Prison Fellowship, said: 'I am amazed and bitterly disappointed to see a programme which is having such an impact being stopped.'
The director general of the Prison Service, Phil Wheatley, defended the decision to end the course, and insisted it 'did not fail to gain approval only because of matters of diversity'.
A Home Office spokesman said last night: 'Any programme that seeks primarily to change attitudes is required to meet the quality-assurance standards set out by the Prison Service.'
Organisers of the InnerChange course at Dartmoor jail were told their traditional message was discriminatory and did not conform to 'diversity' policy.
The decision to cancel the course, in which volunteers help prisoners prepare for life outside prison, caused outrage.
A spokesman for the independent think tank Civitas said: 'This is absolutely scandalous.
The Government is always saying we need to reform prisoners, and then when someone does something that actually works, it gets stopped.'
The InnerChange programme was modelled on a successful scheme in U.S. jails.
Prisoners who convert to Christianity are expected to live disciplined lives, and are monitored after release to ensure they do not revert to crime.
The programme, which received no state funding, was introduced by a Dartmoor chaplain last year, with the backing of the prison's then-governor Claudia Sturt.
At a recent review, prison officers said it was having a positive effect on previously difficult prisoners.
And one InnerChange volunteer said the scheme had transformed the lives of the 38 men who had taken part.
But a report by a Prison Service psychologist complained that the programme was not based on scientific research because it assumed that 'the root of offending is in individual sin'.
It said InnerChange promoted the unique virtue of heterosexual marriage, which meant it was 'discriminatory' against homosexuality.
The decision to ban the scheme comes less than a year after governors were told to put paganism on an equal footing with the major faiths by allowing altars, incense and the wearing of robes and religious jewellery in prison.
It is understood that no prisoner complained of being offended by the InnerChange programme.
A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain said: 'As this scheme was voluntary, we see no problem at all.
'If it meant prisoners were being helped to reform using Christian values, then that has to be a good thing - for them and for society as a whole.'
Lady Georgie Wates, of the Prison Fellowship, said: 'I am amazed and bitterly disappointed to see a programme which is having such an impact being stopped.'
The director general of the Prison Service, Phil Wheatley, defended the decision to end the course, and insisted it 'did not fail to gain approval only because of matters of diversity'.
A Home Office spokesman said last night: 'Any programme that seeks primarily to change attitudes is required to meet the quality-assurance standards set out by the Prison Service.'
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