I nearly choked on my morning coffee when I saw this. The Environment Agency—you know, that government body we're all funding through our taxes—just casually dropped TWELVE THOUSAND QUID on work-from-home equipment. In. A. Single. Month.
And get this: that eye-watering sum bought just 13 items. Do the maths—that's nearly a grand per item! What are they buying, gold-plated standing desks? I've furnished entire home offices for less than what they're spending on what's probably a fancy ergonomic chair.
The Audacity of These Desk Dodgers
The timing couldn't be more ironic. Labour's been making all these grand promises about reining in government spending and putting the kibosh on quango excess. Remember those pledges? Yeah, me too.
Five years after Covid hit, and we're still funding bureaucrats to work in their pyjamas. My neighbor works in retail—hasn't had the luxury of "WFH" since 2020. Yet here we are, watching the Environment Agency splash out on home office kit like there's no tomorrow.
And because apparently fancy chairs weren't enough, they also spent over two grand on tea, coffee, and milk in the same month. I'd love to know what kind of premium brews they're sipping while "conserving wildlife" from their living rooms.
Wait... £600 MILLION on Plastic?!
The receipts don't lie. According to recently published disclosures, February saw the Environment Agency drop £12,109.11 on "WFH equipment" from Bennett Workplace Solutions. The documents don't specify exactly what was purchased, but anyone who's priced office furniture lately knows that'll get you some seriously posh gear.
Look, back in 2021, I spent about £400 on a decent office chair when my back started giving me grief from working at the kitchen table. It's still going strong. What on earth are they buying that costs this much?
Politicians Playing the Blame Game (Shocker)
Tory Shadow Environment Secretary Victoria Atkins didn't miss her chance to take a swing: "Labour claim to be getting to grips with government spending, but continue to let their monster quangos run rampant with government credit cards. Once again, Labour say one thing and do another. They're not cutting quangos, they're handing the Environment Agency thousands of pounds to work from home."
William Yarwood from the TaxPayers' Alliance was even blunter: "Taxpayers are sick of stumping up for do-nothing desk dodgers. Five years on from the pandemic, and yet we still can't get many of Britain's bureaucrats back into the office. If Starmer wants to smash the quangocracy the Environment Agency would be a good place to start."
Tell us how you really feel, William.
The £600m Plastic Problem Nobody Talks About
Here's teh kicker—in March, Labour announced they were freezing around 20,000 Government Procurement Cards to "get a grip" on wasteful spending. Why? Because spending on these cards by civil servants had QUADRUPLED in recent years, hitting a jaw-dropping £600 million last year alone.
That's not a typo. Six hundred million quid.
Meanwhile, my local council can't afford to fill potholes that have been there since 2019.
Starmer's Quango-Busting Promises
To be fair (though I'm not feeling particularly charitable right now), Sir Keir Starmer has vowed to rein in quangos and announced he's scrapping NHS England, which he described as "the world's biggest quango."
But actions speak louder than words, don't they? And right now, the action I'm seeing is the Environment Agency treating taxpayer money like they've just won the lottery.
I'd love to be a fly on the wall when these purchases get approved. "Yes, Dave, I think spending a thousand pounds on your home office chair is completely reasonable. The taxpayers won't mind at all!"
God help us all.
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