Britain’s embattled statistics authority spent £400,000 in taxpayer cash on branded notepads. It’s the hottest merch in town…
Shadow Chancellor for the Duchy of Lancaster Alex Burghart asked what branded items the ONS had spent money on, chief executive Darren Tierney responded:
“In line with the guidance permitting merchandise for essential government delivery, the ONS has produced branded items to encourage citizen participation in our social surveys. This incentivisation is a well-established and effective approach, enabling the ONS to produce critical statistics that inform the country.
As part of this approach, since April 2025, the ONS has spent £400k on ONS note pads. The use of incentives is cost effective when compared with alternative approaches for achieving increases in response.”
The Starmer government tried to ban branded merch and away days last year. Always a loophole…
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.”