A failing #Brexit has so far cost us the equivalent of the total of every payment we've made, ever, to the EU, since we joined.
Some economic comparisons: (2)
A failed Track&Trace / Test&Trace has cost us the equivalent of four aircraft carriers.
Some economic comparisons: (3)
An already-failing #Moonshot#Vaccine scheme will cost more than our entire annual Education Budget and is based on technology that has yet to be invented.
Some economic comparisons:
For the money paid out for #Covid19#PPE that was unsuitable for use, out of date or just never arrived, we could have set up a nationwide network of 75 #Homelessness Shelters and funded them for ten years.
Some economic comparisons: (5)
For the cash paid out to #Serco (for which they delivered nothing of value) we could have set up a nationwide system of 25 alcohol and substance abuse treatment centres, instantly reducing crime and violence, and funded them for 8 years.
I'm sure there are more that come to mind. It seems many can't grasp the meaning of the large numbers unless you explicitly spell out what else it could have been used for.
Remember this when they say 'we can't afford' this, or that.
Note : The calculations regarding the cost of #Homelessness Shelters and Substance Abuse / Dependency Programs comes from my personal experience of being involved in both as a volunteer.
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THIS DAY in 1945, as Paris was liberated from the Nazis, with street fighting still ongoing between Germans and Resistance, Alex Allegrier-Carton of the famous Lucas-Carton restaurant went down to his basement with a team of workers ...
Through the war, because his place was a favourite of the German officers (they'd read about it in guidebooks) he encouraged the Paris Resistance to meet in an upstairs room - the last place the Gestapo would ever think to check, and they never did ...
On this day he had a task to perform.
He pointed to an old wall, telling the workmen to knock it down.
Behind it was the greatest wine cellar in Paris, bricked up in 1940 using antique stones, disguised from the Germans throughout the entire war.
At some point in this campaign, an increasingly desperate Tory Party might drop the Zinoviev Bomb.
Let me give you some context.
The 1924 General Election:
Just 4 days before voting, the Daily Mail ran a story about a letter - the now infamous 'Zinoviev' Letter - from the Soviet Communist Party to the British Labour Party, suggesting (among other things) ... a UK and Empire-wide Bolshevik Revolution.
Just came across this lovely little history story:
Back in 1962, EMI were working on various computerised systems for various purposes. Due to funding issues, the entire department was to be closed down.
EMI were losing cash and in real trouble.
Then their music division discovered a band in Liverpool that looked quite promising ...
The cash generated by the global success of the Beatles propped up other struggling divisions within EMI, including the division run Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield, allowing him to continue his research ...
Because we’re looking at the problem from the wrong end.
The small boats are not a crisis, only in that they add to the real problems:
- The rapidly growing shortage of hotels for asylum seekers;
- The interminably long delay for those people to have their applications processed.
Solve THOSE two problems … in an efficient, humane and legal manner … and the actual boats become a minor distraction, easily handled through a better process.
In addition, you solve the shortage of hotels … by solving the delays to processing of asylum applications.