While councils continue to moan about financial black holes, whacking up council tax though still finding enough money to pay their staff six-figure salaries, UK DOGE has been busy helping them find ways to cut wasteful spending. This time it’s Labour-run Coventry City Council, which has woefully predicted a budget gap of £14 million by next year…
UK DOGE’s The Waste Files has found that Coventry City Council has awarded an eye-watering £6,941,259 three-year contract to York-based IT consultants Phoenix Software for “Microsoft Enterprise Licenses” enrolment for the council. Buying Microsoft 365 business for each of the 5,238 staff employed by the council would cost £603,417 a year (or £1,810,252 for three years). That leaves a £5,131,006 gap there…
For £5,131,006 you could:
The taxpayer may have a view on which should be prioritised. UK DOGE recommends costs are cut here…
Tom Baldwin, author of Starmer’s hagiography, spoke to Times Radio:
Tom Baldwin: “I think he’d like to do something. He’s very dutiful and driven by service. That’s why he came into politics. I think that’s characterised his time as prime minister. He hasn’t always sought popularity or been good at being popular. But I think he has some of the necessary qualities that we actually do want in a prime minister. That resilience, that relentlessness, that ability to carry the weight and the job really does weigh very heavily on people and he carries that weight very, very well.”
Jo Coburn: “NATO Secretary-General?”
Tom Baldwin: “I think that’s something that he would be interested in. I think it probably requires Andy Burnham’s government to support him in that and these are some of the questions which Andy Burnham has to resolve quite quickly.”