Money for nothing

The Home Office is right up there with the best at wasting our money. Its Secretary of State has even described it as "not fit for purpose". But that was before tough, no nonsense John Reid got his hands on it and sorted the whole shambles out. Wrong. Despite knowing many years ago that we would be in this situation if nothing was done, our prisons are full. So what does Reid do? He is wasting £5 million a month in payments for emergency accommodation in police cells. Since our prisons became jammed packed last October, tough John has blown £23m on renting out prison cells. A note for the government's forecasters who are about as accurate as Mystic Meg, the overall cost is double the estimated figure given to MPs last year.

The Home Office is also paying Serco £5000 a night to be on standby for two-week periods in case prisoners have to be held at the Crown Court in London. That's right, he is paying £5k a night for what is most likely to be an empty cell. 5k of our money on absolutely nothing. The cost of using extra cells to ease overcrowding is thought to be in excess of £450 per cell per day — similar to nightly rates for suites at the Savoy and the Ritz. A complete and utter failure of government policy and a vast and avoidable waste of public money. The problem for the government is, they are running out of candidates to take over the Home Office as no one seems to last there long...