Quango's hand- out to gourmets
Socialist Organiser1983 1983-10-13Read it in the scan (PDF), scan page 3 →
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I0D••0o0Q000C0000B000• NOW for all of you who thought public spending was being cut back by this government...
The English Tourist Board has been given £8.3 million to hand out this year - 60% up on last year.
Excellent you say: More footpaths, better maps, better information about that holiday in the Lake District.
Not a bit of it. The money is to go to developers to help pump prime country mansions, miniDisney Land centres and 'budget priced hotels' A good example of how well this money is to be used comes from the announcement last week of a £95,000 grant to M. Raymond Blanc, the owner of the Quatre Saisons restaurant in Oxford.
Meals - up to £50 a head -have become so renowned that Islington Labour Isungton Labour half of Raymond's customers now come from London. And they get so drunk that they weave all over the road on the way home.
So Raymond is converting a mansion in the Oxfordshire countryside to cater for their every need - bedrooms, a swimming pool and squash courts included. The $800,000 needed is a bit hard on M Blanc and his backers so the Tourist Board has kindly topped up the fund.
It is not a loan you understand. None of that nonsense about interest rates and debt. The £95,000 is a gift.
Once the GLC has been abolished we can expect more such useful spending of public money by the Quangos that will succeed it.