I struggle to understand how a department such as this can cost 65million in its first year. But I know nothing of these things. I assume the bulk of that is wages?
Well, staff costs, yes - so wages plus pension plus NI ⌠then you need premises, IT, a travel budget âŚ
It seems theyâd got about 200 people on the books by the end of 2016/7 and numbers were rising https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/630475/DExEU_ARA_v4.0_print_version.pdf
VB
Not forgetting consultants, or âstrategic partnersâ as we now call them. The civil service no longer uses consultants in any great numbers
It was a Windscale to Sellafeild esque name change of epic proportions.
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It was suggested today that the big stumbling block maybe that the government will also need to trigger Art 127 to take us out of the EEA (and therefore the single market) before March and that isnât a vote they could win in the commons (never mind the Lords). Itâll be interesting to see if thatâs correct.
I havenât read the whole 70-page accounts (surprise, surprise) but that was my first thought too. However it says in the fine print that while they have used consultants these have actually cost nothing ! They have been supplied on a âpro bonoâ basis for free. Well whoâd have thought the big corporates would have been so generous and public-spirited. Ha, ha (whereâs the irony emoticon when you need it ?).
VB
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"Iâm surprised that doesnât have more signatures given it was started in March!"
Deadline 12 March 2018âŚall petitions run for 6 months.
And yet on their web page they disclosed some 2 mil paid for âlegal servicesâ, which is legal consultancy in any other guise. Without access to a breakdown of their individual staff costs I am still confident in betting my house that a lot of them will be employed via âstrategic partneringâ arrangements, it is widespread practice these day and avoids the term âconsultantâ.
dogs are very much thisâŚ
I thought that said âFisting Carneyâ
And fans of a certain outspoken Irish tax exile ⌠and letâs not get started on the amateur bonos âŚ
VB
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Weird-I was actually trying to link to âBoris is a Bullshitterâ!
The link seems to change when it postsâŚ
"Boris Johnson was chastised yesterday for the misuse of data. He claimed, again, that ÂŁ350 million a week could be saved by the UK as a result of leaving the EU. The head of the UK Statistics Authority has described this as a âclear misuse of official statisticsâ. I agree, but what he should actually have said is that Johnson was bullshitting.
In a newly published academic article entitled Post-truth Politics, Bullshit and Bad Ideas: âDeficit Fetishismâ in the UK Jonathan Hopkin and Ben Rosamond expand on the academic concept of bullshit that has existed since 2004, saying:
âA lie is a form of utterance that pays heed to the truth. To speak a lie is to knowingly pronounce a falsehood. To bullshit, on the other hand, is to practise a type of speech act that is not triangulated in relation to the truth and which proceeds without effective concern for the veracity of the claim in question.â
They could have written this with Johnson in mind. He doesnât lie. Like almost all those involved in the Brexit campaign, he bullshits. And please do not take exception to the language: this is now the academically accepted description for what is going on."
This isnât the fucking wigwam.
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Oi! Keep the filthy invective out of here please!
Or dead people with the name Sonny 
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Itâs a quote from the link that wouldnât fucking work properlyâŚ
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Good. For once I want TM to make a Swiss Style speech
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