In this year’s Pride month, the U.K. public sector splurged over £500k on LGBT-related activities, with the Greater London Authority the top spender. The Telegraph has more.
Taxpayers footed a bill of more than £500,000 during Pride month across the public sector which included a drag story time event, rainbow flags and T-shirts.
Spending on LGBT-themed events, merchandise and sponsorship in June totalled £554,000 across police forces, NHS trusts, councils and fire services, figures show.
Research conducted by the TaxPayers’ Alliance think tank found the Greater London Authority was the highest spender, with City Hall spending £126,700 on grant funding, T-shirts and flags.
Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, addressed this year’s Pride in London event where he gave an impassioned speech about his backing for the transgender community.
“I’ll say this loud and clear, from Trafalgar Square, trans rights are human rights,” Mr. Khan said in a video posted to his social media channels.
He added: “As long as I’m Mayor, I’ll always be an ally of the LGBTQI+ community and campaign for their rights.”
The Pride parade held in Central London was disrupted by activists from Just Stop Oil, the climate campaign group, who picketed the event for taking money from ‘high-polluting’ sponsors.
Greater London Authority was followed by Surrey Council, where £93,065 was allocated to sponsoring and attending a Pride event, and Lancaster Council, which spent £20,188 on rainbow lanyards and grants to LGBT organisations.
While much of the spending across the public sector went on sponsoring Pride marches, Stirling Council spent £129 on merchandise including glitter tattoos and face paints.
The University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trusts incurred £322 on badges displaying staff pronouns and a rainbow selfie frame, while Cambridgeshire Council spent £1,487 on a banner and Harborough Council £3,275 on flags, flagpoles and fittings.
City of Wolverhampton Council specified that it spent £620 on “3km of rainbow bunting”.
Worth reading in full.
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I’m surprised it was so little. Were the flags and whatnot hung up and taken down by volunteers free of charge? Was there no formal risk management effort expended? There may not be a line item for it but I’ll bet the lost opportunity costs were far higher than half a million quid.
100%. I would bet it was several orders of magnitude greater than £500k across the entire public sector.
And added to the ‘P’ tax payer bill is all the money spent in schools ( mine included) on numerous flags small and impressive huge hanging ones! Party food teachers time, wigs hats and so on. The flags remained hanging like the third reich headquarters outside until the last day of term, July!!!! Not just June, Why we know! We all staff and students and visitors had to walk past them to enter or leave the building as the colours caught our every gaze, setting the scene for educational setting!!
As students left on their last day at school EVER they were clapped as they paraded past these flags and proud parents took videos and photos, just to add to the visual brainwashing as these pics will adorn family albums with cult rainbows in the background of smiling young faces as they leave their school, to brainwash the next family generations into the ‘new world not for old souls’ that now presides.
When Labour get in their ideologue canvass has been helpfully primed by the cowardly government so if you don’t wear the flag by then you will be marked out? Cancel gulags for me then.
I think the taxpayer should not be funding anything that is not core to a specific public service .
The list includes brainwashing events like this, BLM,Climate Alarmists , all charities that get any cash from any public organisation .
Also the whole Arts and Culture bandwagon .I really do not think we should be funding experimental , Lesbian Art Exhibitions from Upper Volta or similar .
Lets not forget overseas aid while we are at it beyond short term disaster relief.
Just off to complete my application for support for a 2month Christian, St George and the Hetrosexual Festival .I am sure old Khan has a pot of money put aside for such causes.
I will not be holding my breathe though ..
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Sadiq Khan you are a clown, use the funding to but some Ronald McDonald big red boots so we can hear you flop around London, I really find it amazing,. that anyone could’ve been a bigger clown than Boris, but you are winning that crown by a mile,.resign now please, so we don’t have to listen to any more of your stupidity!!