Pope’s state visit – expenses scandal redux
The Prime Minister has deployed a team of civil servants to help co-ordinate preparations with the Roman Catholic church, as well as appointing Lord Patten as his “personal representative” for the trip.
He is now prepared to see the Government’s costs for the event, previously estimated at £15million, increase by as much as £4million in order to make sure it runs smoothly.
Despite cost-cutting across Whitehall, Number 10 feels it cannot scrimp on arrangements for the first-ever papal state visit to this country, including a meeting between the Queen and Benedict XVI, which will be watched intently around the world.
“There is a huge reputational issue at stake: we cannot appear to be treating a guest with discourtesy,” said one source working on the plans.
It is, in my view, frankly obscene that so much money is being spent on the visit of this man at a time when essential servicesfor vulnerable people are in danger of being lost due the government cutbacks.
It seems that the super rich of this world are immune from things that effect the majority of us. The bankers take risks so they can increase their profits. When their bet fails, then we all pay their gambling debts for them. People like David Cameron, Nick Clegg and the Pope haven’t got the faintest idea what life is like for real people, people who are thinking “which bill can I leave unpaid this week, so I can buy my children some food?”.
This man from Rome presides over an organisation that depends on keeping the poor of the world in poverty so that his church can maintain its power. I do not want one penny of the tax that I pay, being spent on his unwelcome visit!