Results tagged “politicians” from Birmingham Post - News Blog

I read that County Air Ambulance is going to extend its flying hours. Flight crews currently operate a 14-hour service but that will be extended to 16 hours from 1 May this year.

In addition, the Worcestershire-based aircraft will operate for 14 hours instead of its current 12.

And that's quite an achievement considering it costs £24 a minute to keep one of its red helicopters in the air.

But I'm a little astonished, flabbergasted, in fact, that this vital rescue service - would you believe it - is not funded by central or local government. Neither - bearing in mind what a vital role it plays in saving lives - is it funded by the NHS.

You would think it would be, wouldn't you?

Last week witnessed something of a media outcry accompanying the publication of details regarding a number of prominent MPs expenses. Some clever use of the Freedom of information act by the BBC meant that we, the taxpaying public, were made aware of just what our politicians claim. It made for quite an interesting read. For example one of the headline grabbing facts was that Tony Blair claimed £116 to pay for his Televisions licence fee. He was lucky to have a job where you can do that.

The purpose of the licence fee is to provide income for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) radio and television services - and it seems only fair that Blair should have given the BBC something. Perhaps an apology would be too much to expect, and maybe the campaign for the publication of expenses data was a belated act of payback from the BBC to the former PM given the unresolved issue between the government and the BBC (something to do with the words 'sexed up' and 'dossier' I seem to recall...).