02/03/00 - Home Secretary wastes our cash: Chris writes to The Birmingham Post

Sir, - The Home Secretary, Jack Straw, has made such a habit of wasting tax -payers' money that it is surprising just how long Tony Blair has allowed him to continue in his current Cabinet job.

The judicial kidnap of General Pinochet has cost the British tax-payer an estimated pounds 5 million to date, with the bill still rising. The cost of continuing a fruitless case against an elderly and infirm head of state of a former war-time friend does not appear to have been a factor of consideration to the Home Secretary.

Last year the Home Secretary bungled the introduction of a new Siemens computer system at the Passport Office which led to queues outside passport offices and to the Home Office purchase of dozens of umbrellas to keep queuing applicants dry and, later, to a hike in the cost of passport applications.

Most recently Essex police have submitted a bill for pounds 3.5 million to the Home Office for dealing with the Stansted hijack. To add to the cost of returning some of the Afghans home, the Home Office - in typically un -commercial style - chartered a large, Kampuchean registered Tri-Star even though the Afghans arrived on a mid -sized Ariana Airlines Boeing 727. Did the Home Office want to ensure that each passenger had at least two seats for the return flight? Did it not occur to them that the Ministry of Defence could have provided a jet already owned by the tax-payer thus doing away with the need to charter a Tri-Star at great public expense?

It is time that Mr Straw was moved from the Home Office before more public money is wasted on the next Home Office farce.

CHRIS D KELLY
Prospective Conservative Candidate,
St. Peters, Wolverhampton.