A slight miscalculation?

15 June 2007  

From the NSS Newsline:

Last year our Honorary Associate [of the NSS] Graham Allen MP kindly asked a parliamentary question about how much the taxpayer had to fork out to pay for chaplains in the [UK] Armed Forces. He was told it was £295,000.

Now Derek Twigg MP, the under-secretary for defence, has written to Mr Allen to clarify that figure. His letter reads: “It has been brought to my attention that an answer I gave to your Parliamentary Question on 14 December 2006, (Official Report, column 1253W) about the numbers of full-time chaplaincy staff and their costs is incorrect. The answer given incorrectly states that the cost of the 313 full-time chaplaincy staff based on capitation rates as £295,000. I apologise for this error and can confirm, that the correct figure should have been £29,500,000.”

Sheesh. I’ve heard of missing a decimal point, but two?

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Comments

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5 Responses to “A slight miscalculation?”

  1. TW on June 15th, 2007 7:29 pm

    Blimey. Not only bad maths but nearly 30 million for god botherers… wow.

    Given the average infantry soldier is on around £12k pa, it seems a strange way to spend the money…

  2. nullifidian on June 15th, 2007 7:33 pm

    You’re not kidding… I guess the churches are too hard-up to subsidise their own proselytisers.

    £29.5m/313 = just shy of £95k per god botherer. Yeah, I can see that being a huge burden on the coffers.

  3. XanderG on June 16th, 2007 9:04 am

    That’s incredible! Why is so much money wasted in this country, on things that aren’t needed?

    Reminds me of the family who bought a house with some land, and it turns out there was some ancient agreement that the owners of the land would repair the local church. It would cost these people a couple of thousand pounds, but why should they have to pay, when the Church of England has several billion pounds at its disposal?

  4. Michael on June 16th, 2007 9:10 am

    WHAT? £29m????? That’s just crazy. I mean, WHAT? I wonder, if we added it all up, what are total God tax would be?

  5. nullifidian on June 16th, 2007 9:20 am

    Oh yes, one mustn’t forget that this is most likely tax-exempt.

    I remember the story about the “lay rectors” who were forced to pay for repairs to the local church.

There's probably no god.  Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.