Saturday - May 16, 2009

MONEY TO BURN. EASY COME, EASY TO GET MORE. JUST TAX PEOPLE. TAX AND SPEND.

Taxpayers money HAS to be spent somewhere. Right?

This bit of nonsense really deserves more then just a moonbat award. Especially at a time when people are losing jobs, banks are in trouble and being bailed out with public monies, MPs are in serious hot water and some have already resigned in a huge scandal here that could bring down the govt.
Perhaps not since the teapot dome scandal in the USA has anything like what’s happening here been exposed.

I don’t know why Teapot scandal came to mind. Must be I’m in England and it just came naturally.
Anyway, this item with all that’s going on around it is just another example of how carelessly authorities spend taxpayer money.
If this council needed information on the subject, why didn’t they simply go to the police dept?  It all beggars belief I swear it does.

See what you think.
Oh, and I haven’t even gone into foot massages for unruly pupils at school.  That one deserves a thousand bats all by itself.

Council paid drug dealers and addicts hundreds of pounds of taxpayers’ money ‘to find out about their trade’

By Ryan Kisiel
Last updated at 1:21 AM on 16th May 2009

Drug dealers and addicts were paid hundreds of pounds of taxpayers’ money to take part in a question and answer session.

The money was used to interview heroin, crack cocaine and cannabis dealers to gain ‘intelligence’ on the ‘complex’ drugs problem.

After the interviews, Labour-run Lambeth Council in South London even extended a ‘special thanks’ to the dealers for their patience.
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Yesterday, critics described the initiative as grotesque and a disgraceful waste of public money that would allow addicts to feed their habit.

Council officers located sellers and users through drug addiction services and the prison service.

They then offered several dealers a fee, thought to be around £50, to answer questions for about an hour. All the interviews remained confidential.

Questions included the quality of drugs that they sold, how much they earned and what they thought of their local area.

In the official report published after the interviews, the council thanked the dealers for their participation. It said: ‘We would like to extend a special thanks to all the sellers we interviewed for the candour and patience with which they described their activities to us.’

The report concluded that some dealers earn up to £5,000 a week and carry weapons or have ‘easy access’ to them.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne said: ‘This does not look as if Lambeth has been spending public money very wisely.

‘It’s clearly important to understand the drug problem, but we should also not make it worse.’

Conservative MP Patrick Mercer said: ‘The idea of paying criminals is grotesque.  ‘If the council want intelligence-led work then funding their police force properly or a needle exchange programme to take drugs off the street would be money much better spent.’

Mark Wallace, a spokesman for the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: ‘It’s absolutely disgraceful that hard-earned taxpayers’ money has been paid out to drug dealers.

‘This money has gone straight into the coffers of organised crime.

‘This would not seem such a “complex problem” if Lambeth would stop pussy-footing around crime and start enforcing the law by helping to bring drug dealers to justice rather than paying them.’
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It is not the first time that Lambeth Council has been criticised for wasting taxpayers’ money.

In November last year, the council revealed it was spending £90,000 to send reflexologists into its schools to massage the feet of unruly pupils.

Medical experts say there is little evidence such treatment can improve the behaviour of young tearaways.

Responding to criticism of the drugs initiative, a Lambeth Council spokesman said: ‘This was a complex issue and we needed detailed intelligence to tackle it, which is why we interviewed dealers as part of our research.

‘In line with good research practice, a small payment was offered so that people would take part.

‘As a direct result of this research we’ve been in a better position to tackle the drugs market and 15 per cent fewer residents now perceive drug crime to be a problem.’

STORY AND PHOTOS HERE

Posted by peiper     on 05/16/2009 at 02:16 PM   
Filed Under: • Daily Life • Economics • UK •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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