'Gerrymandering'?

According to this report in the Daily Telegraph, 13 colleges, each in marginal Labour constituencies, have been 'rescued' from the list of 140 building projects placed 'on hold'. These 13 colleges will cost £714million, of which £544million is to come from the public purse.

Interestingly, a spokesman for the Learning & Skills Council said:

"This was an open objective process carried out by the Learning and Skills Council, not Government. The LSC worked with the whole further education sector to achieve a set of objective criteria that were put into a prioritisation process."

In the Annual Report and Accounts for 208/2009 page 62, point 14 states:

"The majority of the LSC’s funding is grant-in-aid from government. In 2008–09, this amounted to £11,894.9 million (2007–08: £11,167.9 million)."

Put into plain English that means the LSC discussed with other NGOs how these colleges could be 'rescued' in order that their 'masters' were satisfied and as a result 'fixed' the agenda; after all how could they not help someone who gives them £11,894.9million?

But hey, why should we be surprised? After all, we are talking about politicians here!