An election will waste another £100m

The extravagance of Mr Brown is further exposed in the annual Bumper Book of Government Waste published this week by the Taxpayers’ Alliance.

It estimates that of the £587 billion spent by the state last year, £101 billion was wasted, enough to cut the tax burden of every household by over £4,000 a year.

It includes in this the £65 million fine from the EU for the farm payments fiasco, £36 million for road building overruns, £380 million for written-off tax credit overpayments, £1.4 billion on unnecessary consultants, £1.6 billion on failed IT schemes, £5 billion increase in public administration since 1997. The list goes on and on.

The European Central Bank found that if public spending were as efficient as that of the US, or Japan, the Government could spend 16 per cent less, while still producing the same level of public services.

The Government will no doubt dispute many of the TPA’s calculations; but even if they are only a quarter true, this is dissipation on an epic scale.

Now Mr Brown proposes to spend £100 million of your money and mine on an election that is not needed. How generous of us.