What is Digg?74 Comments
- superyounan1, on 12/27/2007, -2/+54We need to take a stand in the western world, American style young-earth-creationism is beginning to spread to the UK, bizarre superstitions and random beliefs in mysticism/psychics/astrology are as alive as ever; science education is the best way to keep that backwardness in check and to keep both technology and society progressing. The time to get angry about it has long passed.
- bkrishnan, on 12/27/2007, -2/+37Looks like the anti-science virus is spreading to the UK from the US.
- antechinus, on 12/27/2007, -1/+23How else are they going to pay for the next generation of surveillance cameras?
- Beveridge89, on 12/27/2007, -0/+15What the hell do the stealth taxes fund if we're having to make cuts in groundbreaking science?
- Antbak, on 12/28/2007, -0/+13If you are a UK resident you can sign the petition at: http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/Physics-Funding/ and help end this madness.
- hakz, on 12/27/2007, -0/+10why are they cutting spending on this? greedy bastard
- inactive, on 12/27/2007, -1/+10Ouch, I didn't realize the cuts were so sweeping.
- Albionshores, on 12/27/2007, -0/+6You really don't want to know. It won't make you happy....
Quangos! Or as Tony liked to call them...Non Democratic Public Bodies (NDPBs)
Truly shocking link!!!
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article62 ...
Look at some of the things money is wasted on. It is just ridiculous and a way of syphoning more money into their personal circle of friends. Do they really need one of these at the expense of science funding or removing the local post office?
http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenM ... - Albionshores, on 12/28/2007, -0/+5£180 billion a year spent on Quangos and NDPBs and they can't find a few million to keep the post offices open or science funding flowing. Priority doesn't seem to lie with serving the people rather keeping policy and money from the people.
- Almightymole, on 12/28/2007, -1/+6I don't want anti-science crap in the UK, am getting annoyed with the dam preachers in my home town center (I personally should "Thank god for Atheism" in their general direction). This is serious ball-crap i tell you, on the theme of price cuts, the physics department at the university is due to full closure in 2010, which pisses me off more, this article has me rather 'annoyed'
- Albionshores, on 12/27/2007, -0/+4the timesonline line link isn't working. It is article 626687 published 3rd September, 2006.
[Pay £180bn: you've been quangoed
Maurice Chittenden and Yuba Bessaoud
WHEN the autumn term starts this week the British Potato Council — annual budget: £6m — will be sending teams into schools to encourage children to sample crisps and eat chips. The BPC even has a dance troupe called the Chippie Dales.
To counter it, the Food Standards Agency — cost: £143m a year — will be campaigning to lower cholesterol and fight obesity which costs the country an estimated £7 billion a year. The organisations have conflicting agendas but both are quangos (quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations) paid for in part by the taxpayer.
When Tony Blair came to power he promised to sweep away the growth of “unaccountable quangos”. But if all non- departmental public bodies are included, he has created another 752. They include the BPC, the Zoos Forum and the Gaelic Development Agency.
An investigation by The Sunday Times has found that quangos spend £180 billion in total, equivalent to £3,600 a year for every adult in Britain. Of this, at least £83 billion is direct government funding.
The cash is not always well spent. The Assets Recovery Agency spends four times more than it recovers from criminals and would be insolvent if it were a private company.
Quangos can prove useful for the government and for those who sit on them.
It means that Whitehall can decant civil servants into such outside bodies and claim that it is cutting red tape. It can also use quangos for concealment: many do not have to provide answers under the Freedom of Information Act. For those who sit on the governing bodies they provide a lucrative source of income. Some quango heads earn more than £100,000 a year for just a few days’ work each month.
There is a merry-go-round of the same people. The unofficial title “queen of the quangos” has passed from Baroness Howe, wife of the former Conservative foreign secretary, to Nicky Gavron, the former Labour deputy mayor of London, to Baroness (Brenda) Dean, the former trade union leader, and back to Penelope, Viscountess Cobham, girlfriend of David Mellor, another former Tory minister. At one stage Gavron was a member of 16 government groups, from town planning to environmental bodies.
Nor is there much sense in the appointments. Janet Bainbridge, who chairs the research and development committee at the BPC, previously chaired the advisory committee on novel foods and processes, which helped to promote yoghurts and low cholesterol spreads.
The BPC, which has 56 employees and has devised almost as many ways to eat a potato, raises most of its money from a compulsory levy on potato growers and seed merchants but also receives £61,308 a year from the government.
It has to compete for attention in schools with the Milk Development Council (MDC), which has seen its staff increase from seven in 2000 to 49 last year, many of them “school milk facilitators” encouraging children to drink more milk.
The BPC has been voted Britain’s most useless quango by a website that monitors public spending. The runners-up include the MDC and the Home Grown Cereals Authority.
“The government only needs to get Mr Bun the Baker and they’d have a winning hand,” said Mike Denham, a former Treasury official who runs the Burning Our Money blog under the guise of Wat Tyler.
Bainbridge, who is paid £100 for every BPC meeting, said: “How can they say we are the most useless? You would have to know what every quango does to appreciate their value. I think our work is quite important. It is about learning the difference between a healthy chip and an unhealthy chip.”
The Cabinet Office said there were 910 quangos last year, employing more than 90,000 people and costing the taxpayer £32 billion a year. But William Norton, a tax lawyer, who has spent the past three months scouring the accounts of every government department, claims that the number of quangos is in fact 2,566, an increase of 41% since Labour came to power.
Under this definition, bodies such as the UK Film Council are quangos. It, too, has had problems with potatoes. It lost £1m investing in the film The Sex Lives of the Potato Men which drew execrable reviews. John Woodward, its chief executive, earns £198,000 a year.
Norton, who worked on the Conservative party’s James review into government spending that identified £35 billion of Whitehall waste before last year’s election, argues that any unelected organisation funded by a department to carry out the work of government should be regarded as a quango.
“It’s a case of where you put the goalposts. The consequence of the way the government publishes its lists is that they disguise the real number of quangos,” Norton said.
Another expert, Dan Lewis, director of the Efficiency in Government Unit, calculates that 111 quangos have been created under Labour.
Dr Eamonn Butler, director of the Adam Smith Institute which once estimated that there were 4,608 bodies to which ministers had powers of appointment, said: “Quangos are not as accountable as politicians are, and yet many have draconian powers over ordinary people.
“Some levy fees on ordinary people and business, while others say they are private companies and as such have avoided being scrutinised by the National Audit Office.”
David Burrowes, a Conservative member of the Commons public administration select committee, said: “The concern is that these quangos are linked to cronyism and other areas of unaccountability.”
THE BIG EARNERS IN QUANGO LAND
Britain’s highest-earning quango chiefs to end of financial year 2004-5
£279,081 Peter Lobban
CEO, Construction Industry Training Board
£198,143 John Woodward
CEO, UK Film Council
£187,200 Mark Haysom
CEO, Learning and Skills Council
£175,000 David Goldstone
CEO, Partnerships for Schools (PfS)
£162,564 Roger Draper
CEO, Sport England
£158,602 Tom Wright
CEO, VisitBritain
£153,513 Michael O’Connor
Director, Millennium Commission
£148,203 David Sherlock
CEO Adult Learning Inspectorate
£146,316 Stephen Dunmore
CEO, New Opportunities Fund
£144,106 Clare Dodgson
CEO, Legal Services Commission
Top five quangos by government investment to end of financial year 2004-5:
Learning and Skills Council £8.5 billion
Teacher Training Agency £514m
Engineering and Physical Research Council £425m
Medical Research Council £409m
North West Development Agency £338m
Source: Public Bodies 2005 report published by the Cabinet Office - NihilFist, on 12/27/2007, -0/+4I just hope it doesn't spread to the rest of Europe. Or worse, to the whole planet.
- cr3ative, on 12/28/2007, -1/+5Daily Mail readers? On the internet?
- NihilFist, on 12/27/2007, -0/+3Am I the only one here who doesn't get this?
- hplasm, on 12/28/2007, -1/+4word of 1996 more like. n00b.
- uniacid, on 12/27/2007, -1/+4this is sad, it baffles me with nations like the US and UK cut back on what really should matter, SCIENCE AND NASA/SPACE AGENCIES
come on people, when are you going to wake up and realize we're not living in a fairy tale. - Audacitor, on 12/27/2007, -2/+5Why would the Bushies pray for science? They want to see knowledge gained through scientific methods destroyed.
- beclamide, on 12/28/2007, -0/+3This is about the UK though. Most European countries are about as secular as you can get so religion has nothing to do with it really. We've just got a crap government that keeps finding new ways to tax us, and new ways to spend less.
- beclamide, on 12/27/2007, -3/+6I'm petitioning for 5 year olds who can only write in "txtspk" to stop using the internet
- tolbs, on 12/28/2007, -0/+3You down with Entropy?
- mrjit, on 12/27/2007, -0/+2Are we supposed to care about some geniuses bowel movements?
- 15charmaxwtf, on 12/28/2007, -0/+2No one can have much faith in it if it has to be supported by taxes. Of course, if everyone wasn't taxed so much people would have more money to spend.
It is sad when important science is at the whim of arbitrary politicians. - SaintStryfe, on 12/27/2007, -2/+4well that's what you get for seeding the US with your best and brightest 250 years ago.
- superyounan1, on 12/28/2007, -0/+2thats what i used to think, but i just wasn't looking hard enough and not being intellectually honest on purpose to avoid having to re-evaluate core beliefs. You don't get to make a comment like that unless you really studied your religion, and really studied what has been scientifically proven, and in almost all cases where people try to be fair and even handed and think clearly and critically about it all, all they end up with arguments in favor of religion that are based on emotional appeals and psychology, as though those by themselves can make something true.
Read the famous books by Dawkins, Hitchens, Aiyan Ali, and Harris, if you avoid them because you're worried about them subverting your faith, then how faithful can you claim to be - iofthestorm, on 12/28/2007, -0/+2Should have called it the Science and Technology Facilities Union, that would get their message across ;)... but anyway it really sucks that western governments are deemphasizing science and technology while Asian countries are taking over technology.
- marc123, on 12/28/2007, -1/+3Good post. I never knew anything about this. Next thing we know he will be banning stem cell research and introducing Creationism into the national curriculum. I say cut military spending first! why do we need to waste billions on expensive and unnecessary upgrades to our nuclear deterrent over this?
- noodhoog, on 12/28/2007, -0/+2Only 5 diggs? c'mon folks. Go sign the petition, and digg Antbak up for providing the link!
- Beveridge89, on 12/28/2007, -0/+2Yeah, I think you were right; I didn't want to know. Thanks for the info anyway.
- superyounan1, on 12/28/2007, -0/+2google can cure your ignorance. ceationism is, its not an atheistic group, its the dressing up of a religious agenda with scientific terminology and it all amounts to specious lunacy that has been discredited by real scientists of all types, including religous scientists, and has made the united states bible belt an international laughing stock. Even the Vatican and the Church of England have official stances against creationism, so before you get all hopped up and defensive, get your facts straight. There was nothing atheistic about my comment, but if you prefer to live in the dark ages and study alchemy with creationism in school, then create your own private schools and teach them there, don't drag the rest of us down with you
- Angostura, on 12/28/2007, -1/+3I get annoyed by U.K universities closing physics and chemistry departments. My proposal to my MP to cure this was that any institution that didn't have the three core science departments, as well as the humanities, would no longer be able to call themselves a university, but would have to use polytechnic instead.
- kotatsu, on 12/28/2007, -0/+2Brown tries to keep his religiously driven conservatism out of the spotlight - unlike is predecessor Blair, but he's just as bad. Brown's own father was a preacher, and indoctrination like that isn't going anywhere.
Still, at least Blair was actually democratically elected, and didn't just seize power as Brown did. - atheinostic, on 12/28/2007, -1/+3MC Hawking is going to be capping some government bitches in the head and dropping some hardcore science on their asses.
- Ramble, on 12/28/2007, -0/+1I doubt someone like you would know why it is important to use correct langauge, but rather you just head for some generic insults.
Bravo sir, bravo. - Ramble, on 12/28/2007, -0/+1Not heard of any of them.
- inactive, on 12/28/2007, -0/+1Seriously, it should. Most atheist will use any propaganda readily available in order to promote their beliefs or lack of belief regardless of it's credibility. It shows true hypocrisy when you turn around and criticize a Christian for pointing out facts. TRUE Christians will not look down on someone who is not a believer. They want them to have the same comfort and serenity they have found themselves by accepting Christ's forgiveness. Atheist typically mock Christians though and attempt to portray them as stupid and uneducated. Obviously, Tufftugg's link refutes that. Believing or not believing is not a reflection of intelligence, but only a matter of faith and belief or lack there of. We all have a choice to make and it's the most important one of your life. Please study carefully what Jesus told us before you make that decision.
- underwit, on 12/27/2007, -2/+3It is necessary to support a science.
This future... - beclamide, on 12/28/2007, -0/+1Thanks for that! I was trying to find where to put my name down.
- Beveridge89, on 12/28/2007, -0/+1To give them some 'credit', this has nothing to do with religion, just government waste and incompetence
- Incomp3tnt, on 12/28/2007, -0/+1Oh god, they're getting smarter...
- mindovermat, on 01/01/2008, -0/+1physics and astronomy has zero practical value, and everyone is automatically a god damn retard from the US that supports ron paul? why sillyjoobs? why!
- inactive, on 12/29/2007, -0/+1Hey bud I don't disagree that creationism wants in scientific proof (I myself am not a creationist). That being said you gotta be really careful in suppressing people's freedom to teach their children what THEY want to (after all they're not your kids). Here lately it's religious freedom of expression that's under fire FAR MORE than your position.
- BobCFC, on 12/31/2007, -0/+1I agree but I think they expect that 20 back lol, with interest
- Frosty122, on 12/28/2007, -0/+1what the hell? I read that as Stephen Hawking joins attack on suicide cults.
- mindovermat, on 01/01/2008, -0/+1i read "Stephen Hawking joins attack on science cults" so close... so close...
- BobCFC, on 12/31/2007, -0/+1Philistine.
Stephen Hawking currently holds the position at Cambridge that was held by Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Babbage & Dirac. Apart from being famous for his book 'A Brief History of Time' he also has a type of radiation named after him, Hawking Radiation, when he calculated that black holes leak information through sub-atomic particles,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Hawking - ewhite2, on 12/28/2007, -0/+0but who's going to develop them?
- underwit, on 12/28/2007, -0/+0Yes you are right
- dracostimpy, on 12/28/2007, -2/+2Hey Steverino:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7p4mioawIA
Go convince some billionaire that what you're doing can make him either rich or famous and you'll have all the money you need. I'd love for you to solve all the quandaries of the universe, but can you please stop expecting ME to pay for it via government handouts? If it comes down to a choice of putting dinner on the table or finding out what's beyond an event horizon, I'm gonna go with the former. - JohnFlux, on 12/28/2007, -1/+1I've always found this to be incredibly selfish because you are living in luxury because of the work in science before you. You do not pay for the benefits that Newton's laws of motion brings you. You do not pay for the benefits that Quantum Mechanics brought you, and so on.
Since you are benefiting from the science done by previous generations, it seems only fair that you pay for the science for future generations. - Ramble, on 12/28/2007, -1/+1As a science student in the UK this sickens me. It's only a few million, yet the government hands out 20 billion straight to a failing bank.
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