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| "Of course I can bloody count, what do you think these are for?" |
What a balls up!
The frightening
thing is, this woman is the Labour Party’s choice for Shadow Home Secretary!
So, according to today's radio proclamation, ‘if we elect
them, they’re going to recruit 10,000 extra police to patrol our streets and they're going to
fund this by reversing Conservative cuts to capital gains tax (CGT).
In the now
infamous Radio interview, she announced, “If we recruit the 10,000
police men and woman over a four year period we believe it will be about
£300,000,” the shadow home secretary said.
But when LBC’s Nick Ferrari questioned the figure. “£300,000
for 10,000 police officers? What are you paying them?” he asked.
Abbott corrected herself. “No. I mean... Sorry.... They will
cost.... It will cost.... About £80million. We get to that figure because we
anticipate recruiting 2500 police officers year at least, over a period of
four years,” she explained. “We’re looking at what average police wages are
generally, but also specifically police wages in London.”
By lunchtime, good old Jeremy had ridden into to help her
with her maths.
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| Labours professor of hard sums |
But even he got it all wrong! He told Sky News that their policy would actually cost £300 million and denied that Diane Abbott had caused any embarrassment to the Labour Party's latest policy!
The fact is, if
you recruit 2500 additional officers each year the cost goes up exponentially.
It's basic mathematics! - In year 1 at an average wage of £30,000 per
recruit, the cost will be £75 million for 2500 recruits.
Year 2 the wage bill will be £150 million, as
you now have 5000 officers!
In year 3 it will
be £225 million and in year 4, £300 million, creating a total wage bill of £750 million.
A bit more than the £80 million announced by the bungling dyscalculia
affected Abbott or the £300 million spouted by the equally challenged Costello!
Then of course
there’s the added expense of training these 10,000, extra officers, which neither politician
thought to mention; - nor the other costs associated with this initiative, like their pension contributions, their uniforms, their radios, cameras, and numerous bits of essential equipment. (Not to mention the ubiquitous 4x4 BMW apiece) - which, all in all,
will well exceed £1 billion in additional funding over and above the added
funding needed to keep police forces at current levels.
I can't wait till the next fully costed policy announcement. Perhaps this time from Stan & Ollie?
Yep' Another fine mess they're getting us into!
