Labour’s newly appointed ‘Value for Money’ tsar will be paid the equivalent of a £247,000 annual salary, despite a track record of overseeing projects beset by delays and spiralling costs. The Telegraph has the story.
David Goldstone, announced in the Budget as Chairman of the Office for Value for Money, will be paid £950 a day for an average commitment of one day a week, the Treasury said on Thursday.
The compensation amounts to £49,400 over the course of a year – equivalent to a full-time salary of £247,000 and significantly more than Sir Keir Starmer’s £166,786 salary.
He has been appointed to the role on a 12-month basis.
Mr. Goldstone previously oversaw delivery of the London Olympics, where costs spiralled to £9.35 billion.
That was almost four times the initial £2.45 billion estimate, based on figures cited by the Labour Government in the run-up to the 2012 Games.
Following the Olympics Mr. Goldstone moved on to run the London Legacy Development Corporation, where projects including the London Stadium and East Bank cultural district have also reported cost overruns.
He was also Chief Operating Officer at the Ministry of Defence between 2017 and 2020. The Commons public accounts committee said the following year that the MoD had been guilty of “repeatedly wasting taxpayers’ money”, while a Labour report identified £4 billion of waste.
More recently, he was criticised by the Public Accounts Committee after taking a £168,000 bonus on top of a £311,000 salary for overseeing non-existent renovation work on the Palace of Westminster.
Worth reading in full.
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Thanks. A sensible perspective.
I agree with this and that is why I have sometimes asked something like, “Where do your family roots originate from?” Would be interested if Amber would also find that annoying.
Yes. There are two sets of rules: one for Blacks the other, everyone else.
Totally agree. Hope she responds. I absolutely agree with her that it’s a Trojan Horse.
If we accept (which I don’t necessarily) that what Susan Hussey did was insensitive or ‘irritating’ or inappropriate or even ‘racist’ – very mildly racist at worst – the main point, in my opinion (similar to the opinion expressed in this article), is that what was done to Susan Hussey in retaliation was far far worse than what Susan Hussey may have done wrong. It was cruel. If Susan Hussey did anything wrong, it was relatively slight, and it should have been dealt with privately, in a gentle and sensitive educational way, not a public humiliation.
We need to have more tolerance, and should not expect an 83-year-old (grieving) woman to be perfect (nor anyone) especially in regard to an issue which was very different throughout the lives of her generation who may not have kept up with the latest guidance as to what may or may not be appropriate.
The Woke religion does not appear to have any version of “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”. One misstep and you’re cancelled and/or humiliated. Walk on eggshells. Don’t risk humour or curiosity. Beware of being friendly towards strangers, especially any in the special Woke categories. Maybe better to avoid any social interaction whatsoever with anyone who could be offended, in case of a misstep, and that way you won’t get into any trouble such as being branded a ‘racist’ and possibly cancelled and/or publicly humiliated. Don’t risk it. Stick to your own, the people you know aren’t looking to be offended. This is how wokeness and cancel culture are shaping our society.
I can’t see why asking where you are from is considered racist at all unless you’re one of the permanently offended.
Perhaps we should be asking ‘Marlene’ about her views on Blackface, as she’s quite clearly mis-appropriating colour to make a statement.
I have to say I find this sensitive in the extreme. So if I’m white and living in, let’s say, Somalia, should I be offended by the question? What about if I’m second generation? Third? Or would I still be a white person living in a predominantly black society and expect some curiosity? This raises many questions 1) at what point does multiculturalism grow so much that white is no longer classed as native British? 2) Are we already there, hence the offence? 3) If so, should we refrain from asking questions about a person’s roots? 4) If so, why? Why do some find curiosity about their roots so offensive? 5) Do we expect the same offence to be taken by white migrants? 6) Is it offensive to ask someone who you observe struggling with their English about their roots? 7) Where do we draw the line, or is it NEVER acceptable to be curious?
I think what we’re saying here is that observing and being curious about any difference (Vs the people deemed to be indigenous) is offensive. Why? Isn’t human curiousity part of the basic building blocks of, well, being human? Should we have to tiptoe around everything that may or may not be offensive? Isn’t that a large part of how we’ve got into this sorry state. Maybe others need to be less sensitive? One more thing: why is it that many of the people that get offended by this question are the same people who are most appalled by everything that is British?
1) at what point does multiculturalism grow so much that white is no longer classed as native British?
Try Birmingham or Leicester
In my business travels I went to South Africa, white South Africans – ancestors there for centuries, would tell me that when abroad and people asked what their nationality was, when they answered African they were told, you can’t be you are white. And sometimes people would be quite argumentative.
I struggle to see that if Lady Hussey had asked “what is your heritage?” offence could have been taken. Surely if you’re dressed in some form of national costume you’re inviting such an enquiry. Further, if you’re wearing national costume you’re also proud of that heritage and would have been pleased to tell your story when invited to do so.
Not if you’re a racist, professional offense-taker
I’ve lived in Northern Ireland more than half my life but, having retained my English accent, still regularly get asked “Where are you from?”. Should I scream “racism” every time this happens or just behave like an adult.
I may have been one of the people who asked you! I live in Belfast, having grown up near Derry, and I’m inclined to ask anyone who doesn’t have a Belfast accent, “Where are you from?” That includes people from Tyrone, Fermanagh, Derry, North Antrim and South Down, as well as people from England, Canada, USA, Pakistan, India, etc, partly because I’m fascinated by accents, and partly because it’s a way of developing conversation: You may have some kind of links to the place you think the person may be originally from, and they therefore have links to that place too. Does that sound like ‘racism’?
If you’re interested in someone, you’re curious about them. I’m curious about people’s accents. Someone born and brought up in London, for example, may have a London accent but different from a typical London accent if their parents don’t have London accents, they may have traces of some other accent, which I would find interesting. Does that sound like racism?
I did once offend a woman with a foreign accent, not by asking “Where are you from?’, but by not asking “Where are you from?”, because instead I guessed where she was from, I guessed she was German, and she was very offended, because she was Polish! It was funny though, and she forgave me!
I used to try to guess origin from accent but was incapable of distinguishing Yorks from Lancs and kept winding up with a mini wars of the roses on my hands…
I’m from Liverpool and am often asked if I have Irish ancestry (which I don’t). It’s my opinion that Lady Hussey was set up. Yes, her line of questioning was a bit thick-eared, but nothing that a gentle word between 2 adults shouldn’t have been able to settle.
‘Surely it only takes a bit of perspective to understand that some people may find something offensive (or irritating at best) and others may not?’
Don’t call me Shirley.
So we are to be in a constant state of pre-emptive self-censorship .
Perhaps we should stop speaking or writing altogether and remain mute – and know our place beneath the lordship of the Offendetrons.
Is there some kind of portable RADAR equipment one can use, an app for the phone maybe, that can alert one to the tender disposition of the wilting weeds and delicate flowers, of whom so many everywhere, we might engage in conversation and who might be terminally offended by some banal conversational piece?
People who ‘find something offensive’ usually can find offence in a handful of dirt – it is their problem, not ours, and it’s up to them to deal with it or get lost.
I’m offended that all of these people have been granted British citizenship in the first place, going back to Citizens of the UK and Colonies in 1948.
I’m especially offended that these people come to our country and expect to become our permanent dependents. A UCL study showed that between 1995 and 2011 the fiscal cost of migrants in the UK was at least £115 billion and possibly as much as £160 billion. How much do you think it’s been since the 40s up to now? Half a trillion? A trillion?
But regardless of whether these people ever manage to recover this insurmountable debt, I’m most offended that a stake in my nation, my birthright, has been granted to people that haven’t provided anything in kind for it. According to the latest census, more than a 25% stake in our nation has been given away.
As far as I’m concerned, unless you’re born into an English family or have married into one and are doing everything you can to raise an English family and live up to the privilege that’s been granted to you, this isn’t your country.
If you think that’s too harsh, maybe take a look at our neighbour to the South. In France, they are close to a civil war because the people they’ve imported hate them and want to take over. They are quite clear that they want France to be their country. It’s happened in many countries across the world. Do we want England to be the next Lebanon?
But instead we’re fussing over whether these people are offended when they’re asked where they’re from and taking the line I have above will probably get me sent to a Diversity Camp or excluded from polite society. This country is all but finished.
Add to that, they expect reparations to be paid the the country they or their parents chose to leave.
An absolutely sound post.
It seems mvery many people with other than white skin and non-English sounding names are more than happy to tell us they come from developping countries or they are descended from slaves (usually without proof), so why are they suffenly upset to be asked about their origins.
I am asked if I was norn in the town where I live, or in London or whatever, but I was not and I a happy to tell them I was from Cambridgeshire. Depending on the circumstances I moight get teased as if I had a broad Norfolk accent. Do I mind, of course not.
I was once thought to be Dutch when travelling in continental Europe. A problem to me? No!
I have been surprised that the woman (does she so identify, I have no way of knowing) has not been criticised for cultural appropriation by adopting a name other than the one she started life with and one from a part of the world her known ancestors did not come from.
I learned to speak German in Heilbronn & have a Heilbronn accent when I speak German. I was accused of being a stupid German woman when I didn’t understand what had been said in rapid German spoken with a North German accent. When I told the chap I was English & asked him to repeat what he’d said slower he was mortified! I took it as a huge compliment. Nothing worse to my ear than speaking a language with a strong English accent!
Cultural appropriation, like racism in general, is of course something only white people can be guilty of, just as only men can be sexist, etc.
If somebody asks where are you from, I take this to mean my place of birth or where I grew up. Usually this follows from hearing my regional accent. I’ve never considered before that it might be perceived as racist to ask.
As a kid with a ‘funny’ surname, I was often asked where I was from (and, occasionally, told to go back ‘there’, much to my bewilderment). Having acquired a bog standard surname but with a relatively distinct regional accent, and subsequently living and working in various parts of the country, as an adult I’ve been asked many times where I am from. It can even get down to the microscopic level – which village/street are you from. Depending who I’m with I’ll even initiate the conversation with ‘as you can tell by my accent, I’m not from around here…’ And, having one of those names which could be described as androgynous, when online with people who don’t know me I’m almost always assumed to be the gender I’m not (and yes, I only recognise 2 biological genders). After several decades of this my surmise is that, as humans, we are designed to spot difference and seek confirmation of it (do I eat it or does it eat me?). BUT, and it’s a very big but, the value judgements we subsequently apply to that awareness of difference and our acceptance/tolerance of it have a multitude of influences (class, creed, gender, age, race, culture, politics, media, etc. etc.) some good, some bad – and therein lies the problem. Who decides? Who do we allow to decide on our behalf? The fact that ‘difference’ is being so massively hyped up and weaponised beyond all reasoning these days begs the question as to what the ulterior motives behind it all are, and who ultimately benefits. Clearly not the archetypal ‘man on the Clapham omnibus’.
I think the important thing here is to take something into account the diversity trainers want to eradicate: The attitude of the speaker. In English smalltalk, the question Where are you from? is one of the polite standard phrases, just like How are you? I find it personally annoying because – me being German – to me, it comes across as some stranger cross-questioning me about stuff which really isn’t his business. But I can tell the difference between someone trying to make polite smalltalk and the unholy triology of (increasingly aggressive) of Where are you from? I mean, where are you really from? Do you work? some English people reserve for foreigners, especially foreigners suspected to be eastern Europeans (ie, born somewhere east of the eastern border of France).
If the supposedly English woman offended by this in the given context can’t, then maybe, she’s not really as English as she likes to claim and could use some cultural training herself.
Er, what? Why wouldn’t it make sense to you? Do you have some difficulty with English comprehension? I’m from the UK, and if asked where I’m from I’d usually say I’m from London. How does that not make sense?
The UK allows people from every corner of the globe to come here. We pass laws so that they cannot be discriminated against. We provide interpreters to all who cannot speak English at 16 pounds an hour. We are reluctant to tackle crimes committed by people of certain cultures for fear of being classed as racist. — Race Card politics has been laying down roots for decades now. We are now at the stage where even an Orchestra playing Beethoven is attacked for playing the music of “dead white people”.——Having swept through the education system, wokery and diversity now threatens government and corporations. Notice how you will rarely see a TV advert with 4 white people in it. Corporations run away with their tails between their legs in fear of the word racism, so they overcompensate by having way more black people in their ads than is representative of the population. They do all this under the banner of “Diversity”.. But “Diversity” really only means one thing. ——Less white people.—-Choosing whether to hire or promote people based on their race (or gender) only allows employers to create the appearance of diversity. There is no guarantee of diversity of skill or thought if they do this. They do it simply for appearances sake, because they do not want attacked for being racist. Race and gender metrics have become the dominant way of showing an organisations “diversity”, but only because they are easy to implement and easy to show. But justice does not come from buying a cheeseburger from a virtue signalling seller of burgers.
I would be mortified if I caused someone to lose their job because they had asked me where I was from? I do hope there is such a thing as Karma. And shame on the Royal Family for such cowardice.
Chances are that the king actually believes in this tripe despite one can hardly claim that he isn’t an old white man.
Having been in the rarefied atmosphere of the royal family for so many years Lady Hussey had obviously developed a sense of entitlement and deference to rank, leading to a total lack of emotional intelligence or even common sense. So when she was in a position as one of the ‘higher ups’ her first and biggest mistake was to touch the woman’s hair to look at her name badge. Such patronising behaviour deserved to be called out.
However, the offendable guest, dressed in a national costume that had nothing to do with her country of origin, was looking to create some nuisance that she could broadcast over social media to give credence to her self esteem.
Which of these faults is the greater?
I don’t agree with this article at all.
I lived abroad and was asked where I came from constantly. I’m now a Scot living in England and the question comes up all the time. It’s not even remotely offensive. People are usually proud of their heritage. Just look at all
the so called Irish / Italian / etc Americans. That god awful woman was looking for trouble and made sure she found it and then broadcast it to the woke world.
And where is the author from? Just asking. 🤣🤣🤣