Last week I posted about the governments “Sleazebuster”, Sir Alistair Graham, chairman of the Committee on Standards in Public Life, and his trials and tribulations with regards to trying to set standards under Blair. Graham was asked by a commons select committee why John Prescott had escaped punishment for behaving amongst other things like a rampant stag. One reason put forward was a certain Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, who for some reason didn’t seem to keen to take the Deputy PM to task for abusing the gravy train. This weeks Private Eye however, is happy to reveal why. Whilst Prescott was happy to be a passenger on said train, Bourn was driver, conductor, ticket collector and ultimately the “Fat Controller”. Here’s a small snippet of Bourn’s overseas haunts, paid for by the tax payer whilst he was on official visits;
THE ASTORIA HOTEL, ST PETERSBURG, RUSSIA’S LEADING HOTEL - £400 PER NIGHT, 3 NIGHTS
SAN REGIS, CHAMPS ELYSEES, PARIS - £300 PER NIGHT
GRESHAM PALACE, BUDAPEST - £240 PER NIGHT, 7 NIGHTS
CULLODEN ESTATE AND SPA, BELFAST - £200 PER NIGHT
BALMORAL, EDINBURGH - £300 PER NIGHT
Whilst other senior civil servants are only allowed to claim between £75 and £82 per night, Bourn obviously considerer himself to have superior requirements, such as delusions of grandeur. How then could a man who was milking and abusing his expenses, tell the Deputy PM to stop milking and abusing his expenses? That’s why Graham’s file on Prescott never left Bourn’s desk. Another indictment of Blair’s abuse of the system, his care free attitude to his minions lining their pockets and his total lack of concern for accountability.
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