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On the Buses?
Sep. 25th, 2012 09:46 pmAccording to Nick Clegg, it's "very difficult to explain... at a time when people's housing benefit is being cut that you should protect Alan Sugar's free bus pass".
(Though it makes perfect sense to cut Alan Sugar's income tax bill by thousands, apparently.)
But hang on! Given that I very much doubt Alan Sugar ever takes the bus, how much does his entitlement to free bus travel actually cost the public purse? Er, nothing at all. Free bus travel for the over-60s is a benefit that more or less means-tests itself, since the rich largely don't take advantage of it. But Nick Clegg wants to waste public money paying civil servants to weed out all those millionaires who might be tempted to forego their Rollers and hop on a No. 70?
What a silly man.
(Though it makes perfect sense to cut Alan Sugar's income tax bill by thousands, apparently.)
But hang on! Given that I very much doubt Alan Sugar ever takes the bus, how much does his entitlement to free bus travel actually cost the public purse? Er, nothing at all. Free bus travel for the over-60s is a benefit that more or less means-tests itself, since the rich largely don't take advantage of it. But Nick Clegg wants to waste public money paying civil servants to weed out all those millionaires who might be tempted to forego their Rollers and hop on a No. 70?
What a silly man.