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Ministers attacked for spending £6,000 on G20 logo for London
Nicholas Cecil10 Mar 2009
MINISTERS came under fire today for spending £6,000 on a logo for the London G20 summit to tackle the economic crisis.
The expenditure was dismissed as "excessive" and "absurd" as families across Britain tighten their belts in the recession. The Government was urged to rein in the costs of the gathering of world leaders on 2 April, with the bill is expected to spiral to tens of millions of pounds. Already, taxpayers will have to foot a £6 million bill for event production firm Feltech/MRG to help to stage the summit, being held under the motto "stability, growth, jobs".
Security, including a ring of steel around the ExCel conference centre in east London, will also cost millions. Police and security services will have to guard against a terrorist attack, as well as possible protests by environmentalists and other campaign groups such as Plane Stupid which is due to try to set up a camp in the City.
Tens of thousands of pounds are also expected to be spent on hospitality, and a boat will ferry TV crews across the Royal Docks. Nearly £200,000 is being spent on a project co-ordinator and two events delivery co-ordinators, hired from PA Consulting - the firm stripped of a Home Office contract last year after it lost a memory stick containing the details of thousands of criminals.
More than £50,000 has also been allocated to pay for two moderating editors for the London summit webpage and Start Creative, an external design agency, has also been given a contract worth £40,550 excluding VAT.
Shadow treasury minister Greg Hands, who obtained the figures in reply to parliamentary questions, said: "The Government should be setting an example. Six thousand pounds for a logo for a summit seems excessive.
"This is a summit dealing with our dire global situation but it seems the costs are out of control."
Mark Wallace, campaigns director for low-tax group the TaxPayers' Alliance, added: "Spending thousands of pounds on frills such as logos while the world enters recession is absurd."
The G20 summit, of leaders of the world's advanced and emerging economies and representatives of international financial institutions, aims to stimulate global economic growth.
US president Barack Obama is expected to fly in at Stansted airport after the chaos caused by his predecessor George Bush's entourage at Heathrow during his world tour last June.
Reader views (4)
McBean and cohorts just don't get it do they. Stop wasting the taxpayers money!
- David, Fleet UK, 11/03/2009 09:42
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I thought it was a picture of the Great Leader with the motto:
"When I saved the world"
- Dave, London England, 11/03/2009 09:30
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There are dozens of graphic designers in this country who could design one for 200 quid, always supposing we were not working for a bunch of fairies who keep changing their minds every five minutes
- Albert Hall, hove england, 10/03/2009 16:52
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All for a good show and organise the media for good reports of Dear Leader and what a good job he is doing/has done and to give maximum publicity if his 'pearls of wisdom'.
Problem, he has been rumbled by his European couterparts and other World leaders.
A little grey man seeking the technicolour limelight of the World stage.
All glitz and glamour for the shadow man.
To hell with the expense, after all it is not his money he is spraying around.
- Hugh, Middx, 10/03/2009 16:52
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