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25-07-2021, 12:51 AM
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Taxpayers to bear Covid cost for decades to come, say MPs

Taxpayers will bear the costs of Covid "for decades" - and an inquiry will not come soon enough to learn lessons from the pandemic, MPs have said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57958178

In two new reports, the Public Accounts Committee* said No 10's response to the crisis has exposed UK taxpayers to "significant financial risks".

The MPs also attacked government spending on unusable protective kit.

In the cross-party reports published on Sunday, the PAC said the the estimated cost of the government's measures has hit £372bn in May.

UK government debt is now over £2.2 trillion, or about 99.7% of GDP - a rate not seen since the early 1960s. In June alone, debt interest cost £8.7bn.

PAC chairwoman Dame Meg Hillier said: "With eye-watering sums of money spent on Covid measures so far, the government needs to be clear, now, how this will be managed going forward, and over what period of time."

The MPs also said they are "concerned that despite spending over £10bn on supplies, the [personal protective equipment] stockpile is not fit for purpose".

Out of 32 billion items of PPE ordered by the Department of Health and Social Care, the committee said 11 billion had been distributed, while 12.6 billion are stored in the UK as central stock. But some 8.4 billion items on order from other countries have still not arrived in the UK.

The stockpile, MPs added, is costing about £6.7m a week to store, with potential waste levels "unacceptably high".
According to the report, there were 10,000 shipping containers of PPE still to be unpacked as of May this year - but that it had already been determined that 2.1 billion PPE items were unusable in medical settings.

The MPs said this equated to more than £2bn of taxpayers' money - and was over five times the estimate of PPE found to be unfit for purpose given to MPs by DHSC in January.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pledged there will be an independent public inquiry into government's handling of the pandemic - with an expected start date of Spring 2022.

The PAC said it was "clear that government cannot wait for the review before learning important lessons" and must instead present a Covid recovery plan in the autumn spending review.
Shambles and waste - what a way to fight a pandemic .....

*Current membership
Dame Meg Hillier MP (Labour (Co-op), Hackney South and Shoreditch) (Chair)
Mr Gareth Bacon MP (Conservative, Orpington)
Kemi Badenoch MP (Conservative, Saffron Walden)
Shaun Bailey MP (Conservative, West Bromwich West)
Dan Carden MP (Labour, Liverpool, Walton)
Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown MP (Conservative, The Cotswolds)
Mr Mark Francois MP (Conservative, Rayleigh and Wickford)
Barry Gardiner MP (Labour, Brent North)
Peter Grant MP (Scottish National Party, Glenrothes)
Antony Higginbotham MP (Conservative, Burnley)
Mr Richard Holden MP (Conservative, North West Durham)
Craig Mackinlay MP (Conservative, Thanet)
Sarah Olney MP (Liberal Democrat, Richmond Park)
Kate Osamor MP (Labour (Co-op), Edmonton)
Nick Smith MP (Labour, Blaenau Gwent)
James Wild MP (Conservative, North West Norfolk)
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25-07-2021, 08:13 AM
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Re: Taxpayers to bear Covid cost for decades to come, say MPs

Good grief, if I hear "Lessons must be learned" from them one more time....!! There was plenty of chance to "learn" from other countries, follow their example, do the right thing, but ohh no....and now the taxpayers have to pay for it.
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25-07-2021, 09:43 AM
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Re: Taxpayers to bear Covid cost for decades to come, say MPs

Originally Posted by Pixie Knuckles ->
Good grief, if I hear "Lessons must be learned" from them one more time....!! There was plenty of chance to "learn" from other countries, follow their example, do the right thing, but ohh no....and now the taxpayers have to pay for it.
Another lesson they have been expecting us to learn from them is "do as I say, not do as I do"!

We the taxpayers pay for everything as it is. However, it would be good to have some say in how
our money is spent, other than the farce called 'general elections'. They promise us this, that and everything else so as to get elected, then very often do exactly the opposite!
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25-07-2021, 10:21 AM
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Re: Taxpayers to bear Covid cost for decades to come, say MPs

Taxpayers will bear the costs of Covid "for decades" - and an inquiry will not come soon enough to learn lessons from the pandemic, MPs have said.
Nothing like stating the obvious is there...
I think most of us could work that out for ourselves....
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25-07-2021, 10:23 AM
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Re: Taxpayers to bear Covid cost for decades to come, say MPs

Who else was ever going to pay the bill but the taxpayer. I doubt anyone would enter into politics if they thought they were going to pay in their own hard cash for their mistakes and shortcomings. Maybe we should be more discriminating of who we put into power.
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25-07-2021, 10:40 AM
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Re: Taxpayers to bear Covid cost for decades to come, say MPs

It took us 61 years to pay back our WW11 war debt. The last instalment in 2006. £21 billion, how much in today's money?
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25-07-2021, 11:19 AM
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Re: Taxpayers to bear Covid cost for decades to come, say MPs

Originally Posted by Omah ->
Taxpayers will bear the costs of Covid "for decades" - and an inquiry will not come soon enough to learn lessons from the pandemic, MPs have said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-57958178



Shambles and waste - what a way to fight a pandemic .....

*Current membership
Your point being?

The government was faced with an unprecedented disaster with no time to learn and people dropping like flies.

All in all they did good.
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25-07-2021, 11:22 AM
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Re: Taxpayers to bear Covid cost for decades to come, say MPs

Todger, I read ages that all world leaders met once a year to get an efficient strategy in order to act against a possible threat such as this pandemic. What did they do then? Party?
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25-07-2021, 11:24 AM
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Re: Taxpayers to bear Covid cost for decades to come, say MPs

Originally Posted by scot37 ->
It took us 61 years to pay back our WW11 war debt. The last instalment in 2006. £21 billion, how much in today's money?

Hi Scot

£62,929,256,284.01 in 2020
Inflation averaged 3.3% a year.
Here's the link to a handy little app

https://www.bankofengland.co.uk/mone...ion-calculator
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25-07-2021, 11:26 AM
10

Re: Taxpayers to bear Covid cost for decades to come, say MPs

Originally Posted by Pixie Knuckles ->
Todger, I read ages that all world leaders met once a year to get an efficient strategy in order to act against a possible threat such as this pandemic. What did they do then? Party?

I very much doubt if the terrible extent of nature of covid could have been imagined much less planned for.
 
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