Its a nice little earner for those working for the champagne swilling New Labour state.More than two dozen top civil service mandarins enjoyed a £10,000 junket to Brussels - on the day the jobless total hit a ten-year high.
Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell is under fire for engineering the jaunt by moving last week's meeting of Permanent Secretaries from its usual venue in Whitehall to the Belgian capital.
The Cabinet Office said the initiative was designed 'to help protect British jobs during the slump', but critics called it a waste of taxpayers' money.
For last week's special event, 26 Permanent Secretaries and seven officials boarded the Eurostar to Brussels. Others travelled the night before to enjoy an evening in the city.
The following day, after a morning of meetings with Brussels-based officials, they enjoyed a generous lunch hosted by Baroness Ashton, the UK's European Commissioner, before going home.
The Cabinet Office would not reveal details of the cost of the event, except to say that 'by no means all' of the participants travelled in business class on the Eurostar - a return fare is about £230 - and that the UK Government 'had an arrangement' with the four-star Crowne Plaza hotel in Brussels, where rooms are normally £200 a night.
Some members of the party bedded down in rooms provided by the UK delegation to the EU.
How long, O Cyclops, will you abuse our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours?
Labour & their champagne swilling backers all part of a nomenklatura supporting a leader out of touch with reality.
Cabinet Secretary Sir Gus O'Donnell is under fire for engineering the jaunt by moving last week's meeting of Permanent Secretaries from its usual venue in Whitehall to the Belgian capital.
The Cabinet Office said the initiative was designed 'to help protect British jobs during the slump', but critics called it a waste of taxpayers' money.
For last week's special event, 26 Permanent Secretaries and seven officials boarded the Eurostar to Brussels. Others travelled the night before to enjoy an evening in the city.
The following day, after a morning of meetings with Brussels-based officials, they enjoyed a generous lunch hosted by Baroness Ashton, the UK's European Commissioner, before going home.
The Cabinet Office would not reveal details of the cost of the event, except to say that 'by no means all' of the participants travelled in business class on the Eurostar - a return fare is about £230 - and that the UK Government 'had an arrangement' with the four-star Crowne Plaza hotel in Brussels, where rooms are normally £200 a night.
Some members of the party bedded down in rooms provided by the UK delegation to the EU.
How long, O Cyclops, will you abuse our patience? How long is that madness of yours still to mock us? When is there to be an end of that unbridled audacity of yours?
Labour & their champagne swilling backers all part of a nomenklatura supporting a leader out of touch with reality.
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