Open on oeuvres...

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Library closed? Local youth club shut down? No money for bin collections because of "austerity"? After the last recession we found out that many councils had hundreds of millions of savings stashed away. Now, just to confirm something else we presumed but didn't know: Wasting Monet? (TaxPayer's Alliance) "Local authorities own a significant amount of artwork. Museums, galleries and libraries are part of the public sector and often under the remit of their local authority. Some authorities’ pieces of art are of significant value." [PDF]



Local authorities in the UK own at about two million pieces of art, which is worth nearly £1.9 billion.



Middlesbrough council had the most with more than 250,000 items. They didn't reveal how much it was worth. Of those that did, Manchester city council had the highest value, just over £369 million. Bassetlaw council had the most recent purchases: 201 and Wiltshire council had the least on display: zero percent from 2099 items (one of eight councils with nothing on display).

Open on oeuvres...

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Library closed? Local youth club shut down? No money for bin collections because of "austerity"? After the last recession we found out that many councils had hundreds of millions of savings stashed away. Now, just to confirm something else we presumed but didn't know: Wasting Monet? (TaxPayer's Alliance) "Local authorities own a significant amount of artwork. Museums, galleries and libraries are part of the public sector and often under the remit of their local authority. Some authorities’ pieces of art are of significant value." [PDF]

Local authorities in the UK own at about two million pieces of art, which is worth nearly £1.9 billion.

Middlesbrough council had the most with more than 250,000 items. They didn't reveal how much it was worth. Of those that did, Manchester city council had the highest value, just over £369 million. Bassetlaw council had the most recent purchases: 201 and Wiltshire council had the least on display: zero percent from 2099 items (one of eight councils with nothing on display).

Olid oligophrenic opposition...

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The Audit Commission has revealed that the cash reserves of English councils are up by 15.5 percent: [DM] from over 14 billion quid in 2011 to 16.4 billion this year. What's worse,

"A third of councils' annual spending now put straight into the bank"!!! 

WTF!! Proving that our media can never get the same figures, the DT has it just short of 13 billion quid (up 35% since 2007); Eric Pickles has said "It is unacceptable that some councils are stashing away billions [...] whilst at the same time threatening to cut front-line services". He is right, especially when only yesterday, the leaders of Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield councils were shrieking that deeper cuts will spark civil unrest [Observer]; these lying, corrupt, incompetent fuck-wits are intentionally stoking the flames, a self-fulfilling prophecy, and they know it, harping on with 'alarming predictions of social unrest' and a worsening of the north-south economic divide (a would guess 30 seconds on Google would produce any number of wasteful schemes and high or unnecessary expenses that these ideologically driven twats are spending). Cunt-features Blunkett was on about it too: "It is worse than under Margaret Thatcher. As living standards fall and services are slashed, revolutionary fervour may return". At least Tim pissed on Blunkett's fireworks but unfortunately a wider audience won't get the benefit of this exposure of blatant lies. We have seen this before, lefty local government trolls happy to see violence, damage, injury and probably death just to get one over on those 'evil Tories' (in fact we have an achingly fair and politically central government).

Olid oligophrenic opposition...

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The Audit Commission has revealed that the cash reserves of English councils are up by 15.5 percent: [DM] from over 14 billion quid in 2011 to 16.4 billion this year. What's worse,

"A third of councils' annual spending now put straight into the bank"!!! 

WTF!! Proving that our media can never get the same figures, the DT has it just short of 13 billion quid (up 35% since 2007); Eric Pickles has said "It is unacceptable that some councils are stashing away billions [...] whilst at the same time threatening to cut front-line services". He is right, especially when only yesterday, the leaders of Liverpool, Newcastle and Sheffield councils were shrieking that deeper cuts will spark civil unrest [Observer]; these lying, corrupt, incompetent fuck-wits are intentionally stoking the flames, a self-fulfilling prophecy, and they know it, harping on with 'alarming predictions of social unrest' and a worsening of the north-south economic divide (a would guess 30 seconds on Google would produce any number of wasteful schemes and high or unnecessary expenses that these ideologically driven twats are spending). Cunt-features Blunkett was on about it too: "It is worse than under Margaret Thatcher. As living standards fall and services are slashed, revolutionary fervour may return". At least Tim pissed on Blunkett's fireworks but unfortunately a wider audience won't get the benefit of this exposure of blatant lies. We have seen this before, lefty local government trolls happy to see violence, damage, injury and probably death just to get one over on those 'evil Tories' (in fact we have an achingly fair and politically central government).

Overt outrage III...

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Where Everybody Matters...Oh dear (serious). Anyway, I'm sure it's not a connection to the following but the council in Rotherham is 92% Labour. A few bits of news from the last few months first: "Rotherham sex abuse: More girls at risk" [BBC], "Rotherham: the authorities systematically failed to prevent the abuse of dozens of teenage girls" [SW], "Vulnerable white girl, known to have been abused from the age of 12, was offered Urdu and Punjabi lessons by Rotherham Council to 'educate her'", and "Police turned a blind eye to allegations of sexual abuse of white girls by gangs of largely Pakistani men for more than a decade" [DM], 'Rotherham council hide and change key facts about men suspected of grooming girl for sex who they later murdered' [Times £] . We all know it has happened in many other British (and European...and everywhere we find this culture?) cities. Now, we read, a couple from near Rotherham who had foster children had them taken away after it was discovered they were...wait for it...supporters of UKIP!

"They took on the three children — a baby girl, a boy and an older girl, who were all from an ethnic minority and a troubled family background — in September in an emergency placement.
They believe that the youngsters thrived in their care. The couple were described as 'exemplary' foster parents: the baby put on weight and the older girl even began calling them 'mum and dad'"

Nigel Farage, UKIP's leader, called it "a bloody outrage", he's right. And the conspiracy theorist in me draws your attention to he fact that next week there is a by-election in Rotherham (Denis MacShane's seat).



Updates Sunday: 1. Interesting article from Andrew Gilligan in the Telegraph re the voting issues, labour's candidate and numbers in Rotherham [Link]. 2. Rotherham Politics: needs reading, and D Jones' comment on that blog-post.

Overt outrage III...

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Where Everybody Matters...Oh dear (serious). Anyway, I'm sure it's not a connection to the following but the council in Rotherham is 92% Labour. A few bits of news from the last few months first: "Rotherham sex abuse: More girls at risk" [BBC], "Rotherham: the authorities systematically failed to prevent the abuse of dozens of teenage girls" [SW], "Vulnerable white girl, known to have been abused from the age of 12, was offered Urdu and Punjabi lessons by Rotherham Council to 'educate her'", and "Police turned a blind eye to allegations of sexual abuse of white girls by gangs of largely Pakistani men for more than a decade" [DM], 'Rotherham council hide and change key facts about men suspected of grooming girl for sex who they later murdered' [Times £] . We all know it has happened in many other British (and European...and everywhere we find this culture?) cities. Now, we read, a couple from near Rotherham who had foster children had them taken away after it was discovered they were...wait for it...supporters of UKIP!

"They took on the three children — a baby girl, a boy and an older girl, who were all from an ethnic minority and a troubled family background — in September in an emergency placement. They believe that the youngsters thrived in their care. The couple were described as 'exemplary' foster parents: the baby put on weight and the older girl even began calling them 'mum and dad'"

Nigel Farage, UKIP's leader, called it "a bloody outrage", he's right. And the conspiracy theorist in me draws your attention to he fact that next week there is a by-election in Rotherham (Denis MacShane's seat).

Updates Sunday: 1. Interesting article from Andrew Gilligan in the Telegraph re the voting issues, labour's candidate and numbers in Rotherham [Link]. 2. Rotherham Politics: needs reading, and D Jones' comment on that blog-post.