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back to article Not in the Budget: Spooks beg UK.gov for £111m brown envelope

Blighty's intelligence agencies have held out the begging bowl to Parliament for a handout of £111m before April. In a written ministerial statement today Cabinet Office minister and Paymaster General Francis Maude sought Parliamentary approval for the additional funds. He said the money reflects a number of "in-year …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    £111m doesn't buy much surveillance hardware

    So perhaps it was just a necessary increase for the slush fund to protect Establishment child abusers?

    And I can only assume that since reports continued over recent months that the (laughably titled) security services have continued to intimidate investigative journalists and police officers, we have to assume that these same "security services" are continuing in their primary role of covering up for senior Establishment figures, whilst the scope of the Goddard enquiry deliberately set to cover the broadest possible scope and longest possible time period, in order to boot the whole issue into the political long grass.

    Piss off spooks, and do something useful!

    14 1 Reply
    1. Doctor Syntax Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: £111m doesn't buy much surveillance hardware

      It's just the extra they needed when they realised some people have two fridges to monitor. They'd only budgeted for one each.

      2 1 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: £111m doesn't buy much surveillance hardware

        didn't Snowden also allege that the NSA directly pays GCHQ some very large sum of money, probably for doing the 'full-take' on all US citizens, from Airstrip One. That's sovereign behaviour?

        1 0 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      It's for the reptile fund

      0 0 Reply
  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What exactly is the taxpayer getting for that money? What I'm seeing is considerable time and effort being put into making Brits less secure. The chosen few get to protect their little power-bases at considerable cost to the rest of us.

    It *possibly* could be a worthwhile trade-off if any miscreants were getting nailed; but I'm not seeing any of that either.

    9 1 Reply
  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    > £1.9bn

    Really? Jesus. I had no idea.

    3 1 Reply
    1. Roger Greenwood
      Reply Icon

      That's very nearly an aircraft carrier!

      (We can get the planes next year)

      6 0 Reply
    2. Matt Bryant Silver badge
      Reply Icon
      Facepalm

      Re: skelbint

      "....I had no idea." Nothing new there then.

      Unlike the armed forces, which have been allowed to use contingency funds and emergency purchases (£4.7bn in Iraq alone) to spend a lot, lot more over the last few years, the spooks have to go to Parliament for additional funds to deal with the increased threat posed by IS and chums. In the grand scope of the UK budget £111m is not smal but nowhere as big a deal as many posting here wish to pretend it is. Still, blind haters gotta hate, I suppose.

      1 4 Reply
  4. knarf

    Can't they just steal it

    With all that tech I'm sure they could raid a few redundant accounts from a few dead crims or corrupt despots

    4 0 Reply
    1. boba1l0s2k9
      Reply Icon

      Re: Can't they just steal it

      The short answer is: yes. The slightly longer answer is: be careful what you wish for.

      1 0 Reply
  5. Rich 11

    Budget-smugglers

    I wish my budget worked in a way which allowed for the addition of 'supplementary estimates'.

    4 0 Reply
    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge
      Reply Icon

      Re: Budget-smugglers

      Try having all the communications, visits to mistresses, secret photos of all your board members in a giant database - it does wonders for your budget approval.

      Being allowed to put people who dissagree with you in a football bag and fly them to wherethefsckistan to have electrodes attached also helps get your expenses claims processed.

      9 1 Reply

  6. This post has been deleted by its author

  7. batfastad

    Hmmm

    Itemised invoice please.

    Yours faithfully

    The Electorate

    6 1 Reply
  8. Chris G

    Nice to see some balance

    So good to see the Security Bonanza of 1.9 billion balanced out by investing 40 million in the IoT only another 1860million to go.

    The extra 111 million should help to keep Q branch adding goodies to Aston Martins and death dealing Rolex watches.

    0 1 Reply
  9. earl grey
    Flame

    seriously

    All the current budget

    all the current snooping

    all the current sniffing up everyone's arse

    and they can't stop three girls from getting on a plane?

    how about just stopping their budget right now until someone explains all this

    1 1 Reply
  10. launcap Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Hmm..

    Maybe the Laundry expenses have gone up a bit this year. Too much time spent checking new electronics for summoning grids.

    0 0 Reply

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