You would have thought London Tory MEP Charles Tannock may have better things to do, other than slag off Cathy Ashton that is. While we are in the midst of Commissioner- Designate hearings, not to mention the prospect of a general election in the not too distant future, Charles concerns himself with a coat of arms for London.
Why, you may well ask? What for? Why now?
If the political party of which I was a member was looking to dramatically cut state education, housing provision and many other public services enjoyed by the vast majority of people in Britain, I wouldn’t at the same time talk about gratuitously spending our money (yours and mine and Charles’s for that matter) on silly baubles. The fact that Charles does gives you some idea of Tory priorities.
Well done Mary, keep bashing the Tories, they deserve it.
Seeking a new coat of arms for London is not the only example of Dr. Tannock’s time wasting. I refer to his pitiful web site. In the site he has included no fewer than 260 photographs of himself spread over 26 pages. Most of the pictures feature him with some notable figure (mostly Conservatives) all designed no doubt, to create the impression that he knows all the important people. Even you do escape his photo album Mary, on page 3 you appear in a line up of London MEPs with Dr. Tannock doing his Tory best to look important. He is at the front of the line up but he is overshadowed by Baroness Ludford’s strikingly pink suit. There is even a photograph of him being photographed!
If I am correct in assuming that the web site is publicly funded it is a disgrace, especially as it receives so little attention. The web site shows that it has received 119,993 hits since August 19th 2001. Maths is not one of my strengths but I think that this means the site only gets about 44 hits per day. A clear waste of time and taxpayers money.
Sadly, he is not the only politician to waste public money on unwanted photographs. The elected Mayor of Newham, Sir Robin Wales seems to think that all the residents of Newham want endless photographs of him. The fortnightly magazine, the Newham Mag always contains photos of the Mayor. A particularly severe spate of mayoral photos arrived last March. The magazine had a whole ten photos of Sir Robin and when my Council Tax statement arrived a few days later it came with three more Mayoral photos. Thirteen photos of the Mayor in one week. The annual cost to Council Taxpayers in Newham for this magazine is £750,000, not including delivery costs.
Surely these vain men, Dr. Tannock and Mayor Wales should stop wasting their time and our money.