Haven't got anything against them as individuals, but perhaps in the 21st century Britain shouldn't have an hereditary head of state paid for out of the taxes of people considerably poorer than the privileged family they support. over 1 year ago via web

Recently, my local hospital has announced plans to build a polyclinic on its grounds, with the government allocating around £1.5 million. Less than a month on from the annoucement, at least £300,000 has been spent on design consultants, who buggered it up and have gone back to the drawing board. Surely, through proper consultation with the relevant staff, an obscene amount like this wouldn't have to spent. Also, I don't understand how anyone can be paid 300,000 for what was a weeks work of drafting a building plan.
The NHS haemorrhages money on pointless ideas such as this one and is still stuck in a quagmire of bureaucracy. Recently I saw a graduate advertisement for fast track training to be an NHS manager (what can be a very highly paid position). The requirements were a 2:2 in any degree or diplomas in a number of fields - such as social care or speech therapy. Surely for someone who will be in a responsible public service position managing a business, they should either be a very good manager or have had management experience and have experience in a related healthcare field. There are already too many managers in the NHS and too many of them who don't know what they are doing. over 2 years ago via web

I'm really concerned about how Barnet Council has wasted £2million on unsuitable and extravagant laptops. It's unbelievable with prices falling on IT equipment every month the Council bought them in bulk and left them to devalue in an expensive bonded warehouse.

The biggest concern that I have with this unwieldy purchase is that they seem to have gone about it in a 1950s bureaucratic way. Just as every soldier was given the same brown demob suit after WWII, every single employee of Barnet Council has been bought the same laptop. Whether they are a social worker running around all day long, who may need a small and light PC or a planning officers who would benefit from a larger screen to read maps and plan, the big bosses at the Town Hall have told them they are having the same machine.

So what laptop was purchased? A frugal simple model, just good enough for the purpose? No. They have purchased an neglected and under-supported technology that has had little success in the private sector. Instead of buying regular laptops, the Council has shelled out over £1000 per unit on 'touch screen' technology tablet laptops.

Very few, if any, Council officers have any use for this expensive technology. Even the Councillors don't have this.

We don't know how or why the Council has spent taxpayers money so extravagantly as they won't tell the public. Despite repeated requests, and at huge expense, they have used legal loopholes to prevent even telling the public how it came to choose this model.

Something is very wrong with all of this. over 2 years ago via web

42inch plasma screen on a ward (Mayflower) at Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, to be used instead of a normal white board!? White board still in use and screen disconnected, not being used at all.
Why? over 2 years ago via web

bad repairs.. bad communication.. over 2 years ago via web

Over ten years of it and now we all have to pay over 2 years ago via web

It's when you're sitting watching an expensive TV ad that you start wondering, hey, maybe Oxfam have ceased to be a charity and become a mega-corporation... over 2 years ago via web