I was trying to think of something pithy to write in order to express my dismay at £1M a year being spent on keeping two Pandas on a ten year lease hire deal from China. Edinburgh Zoo will pay the Chinese authorities £600,000 a year for the pandas, on top of that will be a cost of £70,000 a year for bamboo plus all the specialist vet care. Adding insult to injury the whole commercial gamble is part funded by a £2m loan from the Lloyds Banking Group that is partially owned by UK tax payers. Bank at the sign of the prancing panda ?
I ask myself are we adding to efforts to save this spectacular bear from extinction ? Am I just being an old scroat about these cute pie bears in waiter suits ? – According to The Scotsman it appears I may be right to be sceptical as companies are being invited to buy corporate packages featuring private viewings with Scotland’s new pandas, at a cost of more than £12,000 each. Firms will have to buy all the available tickets for the enclosure for an hour to give their staff and guests exclusive access to the bears.
So lets look at this – In ten years almost £10M will be spent on Pandas while Scottish students get free universities and the English families have to pay. Lloyds banking group will not lend money to Reg Smith the small business man in Romford (who might employ a couple of out of work teenagers as a result) but is happy to lend money to Edinburgh Zoo for a Panda and Dom Pérignon package lunch venture.
Just as I was trying to think of something pithy and angry to write I got a brilliant tweet from Ian Collins that said
“Someone just made the point that Scotland now has more Pandas than Tory MP's. Love it”
This was brilliantly upstaged by a chap called Jon Chaplin who replied
“mental image Scottish Tory MP being fedexed to Beijing for study and protection from extinction”
The Rt Hon David Mundell MP is a former BT executive and the lone Tory MP just across the border and I guess may not be too impressed at being leased out for £10M a year so Chinese executives can photo him but times are hard and I think we need to explore all avenues !!
Comments