CAN any readers think of a silly money wasting scheme that will keep the cash flowing out of the pockets of Camden’s taxpayers?
But first, see if you can cap a beauty I came across recently in the columns of The Guardian about a collapsed water privatisation scheme for Africa.
Upbeat about his mission to save Africa, minister for international development Hilary Benn (pictured right, singing in the rain) rushed to a firm of consultants Adam Smith International and gave them a £500,000 cheque to provide advice to the Tanzanian government on how to improve their water supplies.
Naturally, until Hilary Benn arrived on the scene the Tanzanian government didn’t have a clue as to how to provide water for their people.
How did Adam Smith International spend Benn’s gift from the nation’s taxpayers? Half of it – £250,000 – was spent, if you can believe it, on making a video for the unconvinced African government.
But all the taxpayers’ money went down the drain after the World Bank funded scheme for Tanzania collapsed – leaving the Tanzanians and the water company Biwater embroiled in a row over breach of contract.
Since the Thatcher days of the 1980s, local authorities have had a love affair with consultants – money has gushed out to them.
Exact figures are difficult to prise from Camden Council but they are probably in the region of several million.
The council’s finance chief John Mills admitted this week that he was baffled by the consultation mania.
Mills, who runs a multi-million pound mail order firm, told me he had never used a consultant at his Kentish Town firm JML.
He said: “I’m not saying this happens at Camden but at its worst you get consultants romping around all over the place telling things you already know. You get people afraid of their own shadow. They don’t want to make decisions themselves. They like to know they have someone to blame if things go wrong. You can get real value for money with consultants but you have to have a tight brief.”
Something Hilary Benn palpably didn’t possess.
Who advised Camden on how to create the controversial super children’s department that has led to the abolition of the much praised education department?
A Camden firm of consultants, Stanton Marris. Cost: £37,000.
This little piece of expenditure was kept hushed up by the Town Hall. Only my inquiries dug it out.
Probably Camden’s elected councillors didn’t know about the involvement of Stanton Marris either.
I can reveal that the person who did know was the chief executive Moira Gibb who hired the company.
A sales blurb by Stanton Marris boasts: “Our business is about joining the dots.”

Linda fails to raise an eyebrow

EYEBROWS were raised this week by the revelation that the FBI’s second in command Mark Felt was the Watergate scandal Deep Throat. However, I was interested to see another Deep Throat has barely raised a flicker of emotion.
Hampstead cinema The Everyman has won a special certificate to screen the world famous hardcore porn film of the same name next Thursday. Banned in 23 US states it was slammed when its star, Linda Lovelace (pictured) claimed she was forced into performing the sexual acts depicted in the film.
Revd Stephen Tucker of the nearby Hampstead Parish Church said it was not the kind of thing he’d like to comment on, while the Crossroad’s Women’s centre in Kentish Town was also non-plussed by the screening and declined to comment.
Cinema manager Daniel Broch said the show was a chance to make history.
“We will be the first UK cinema to screen this film which was a cultural phenomenon.
“We have had no complaints about the screening. Ruffling feathers has been part of its historical context though so I will not be surprised if we do.”

Jonathan’s student humour

EVERYTHING was illuminating when bestselling author Jonathan Safran Foer (pictured) fielded questions at the London Jewish Cultural Centre, in Kidderpore Avenue, Hampstead, last night (Wednesday).
The audience of 300 laughed every time he opened his mouth as he read briefly from his latest time, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, which deals with the not altogether funny subject of the World Trade Centre attacks in 2001.
But for all the high-minded insight, the loudest laugh of all was saved for Foer’s revelation that he hadn’t entirely outgrown his student days.
He confided: “Sometimes I switch off. I just talk about farts.” As the man from the bank adverts used to say, it’s not all work, work, work.

Glenda rocks!

GLENDA Jackson cut an almost lonely figure when I caught her smoking a cheeky cigarette in a corner at Camden Town’s Underworld nightclub on Thursday night.
Glenda (pictured right) who was at the club for a gig to launch Sort Out Stress, a campaign to improve young men’s mental health, admitted: “It’s a weakness.”
She confided: “The last time I was at a rock concert was Tina Turner at Earls Court and she was great; I still listen to her at home.
“Before that it was The Rolling Stones (pictured below) at Wembley.
“I got to go backstage and meet the band but it wasn’t really my scene.”
So Glenda, who once, famously, declared a wish to “do a musical movie – like Evita, but with good music”, has no plans for a third career?
Sadly, our esteemed MP had only this to say: “I sang on stage but I never wanted to be a rock star.”