Hillingdon Tories Block £150 million Investment For Local Schools

[mattx]

Bit of an update:

 

Row escalates after school investment is postponed - Uxbridge Gazette

[cactus]

Thanks. Looks like it'll be a waiting game then. If the Tories are true to their word it'll happen but later than currently planned and hopefully with a huge reduction in those obscene consultancy fees of £370,000 a quarter.

[mattx]

Thanks. Looks like it'll be a waiting game then. If the Tories are true to their word it'll happen but later than currently planned and hopefully with a huge reduction in those obscene consultancy fees of £370,000 a quarter.

 

The fees are obscene I agree, [ sort of along the lines of how much some of the top Cllrs earn ] - however, it will cost more in the long run to halt it now, and then re-start it again. Oh well, it's nothing new from the council.

[broc]

wait until you find out how little of the BSF ICT money gets spent on equipment to go in the classrooms

[cactus]

Looking at the figures of how much has been spent so far on BSF and how much has been delivered (or not) it may make sense to re-evaluate how the scheme is implemented.

 

I agree that modernisation needs to happen but the way it is happening is clearly not working and the money that's left will run out way before the scheme is complete unless costs are driven down.

 

I don't care who does it (Labour of Conservatives) but whoever is in charge will need to make a shrinking budget go further.

[Batman]

no party is going to lay out it's cards fully until after this

 

I think that sums up completely the problem with politics.

 

We want people who will be good at running the country... but to get to run the country you have to win a popularity contest; I don't think there are many people with the skills to do both. Although maybe someone who just did an exceptionally good job would automatically be popular? Who knows.

[srochford]

Although maybe someone who just did an exceptionally good job would automatically be popular? Who knows.

 

The trouble is that what you think is an exceptionally good job may not be the same as what I think.

 

Many people will have their views of what's good coloured by what they read in the press. Often, the owners of those papers have a different view of "good" from many average people. For example, the Sun and Times are owned by a billionaire who doesn't live in the UK. The Daily Mail, the Metro papers and many local papers are owned by Viscount Rothermere, a near billionaire "non-dom". The Daily Telegraph is owned by the Barclay brothers - again, non-dom.

 

This can then distort people's views of the political system - I suspect Rothermere et al would like the lowest possible taxes and that's pretty much all they care about so they can slag off anything which any government does, knowing that they don't need the schools, hospitals, roads etc that the taxes may be paying for.

 

If you read in your paper every day about the dreadful state of the country and how it's caused by the current government then you probably start to believe it - even if it's probably not completely true.

[mattx]

Going back on topic, the Hillingdon Tories have cut back Hillingdon's ability to bid for funding via BS21 and they think they can justify cutting back work on the bid because they think that funding for the project is likely to be scaled back.

If this is the case then ministers and civil servants will target resources only the projects which they feel are going to be the most effective.

So to cut back the funding on Hillingdon's bid will mean the borough is less likely to succeed.

Same old Hillingdon Tories, unable to do their sums - idiots.