The stories about Jack McConnell and Kirsty Wark were pretty yawn provoking, until we read about the website contract awarded to one of Ms Wark's companies, by the Scottish Executive that cost 80,000 pounds. That is, it cost us, the taxpayer £80,000!
Lot of money for a wee website, I hear you say. Yes indeed it is. It didn't take us long to find the website. With a budget of £80,00 you can afford to pay for your Yahoo listing. Here it is, if you want a quick shufty, http://www.readtogether.co.uk/.
It's a nice wee website, and it is well written in good code. It is the sort of website that we might easily have charged a four figure sum for. But 80,000 pounds, get real!
Isn't it reassuring that the Scottish Executive cares so much about literacy that they are prepared to throw our money at the problem.
I wonder how much of our money they threw into the Scottish Parliament website, and how much was spent in producing the "See you Jimmy" version of it.* ("The Scottish Pairlament is here for tae represent aw Scotland's folk. ") and especially our mates!
Maybe they would like to throw some our way the next time, or maybe they just might like to open up their tendering process to companies that aren't owned by one of their mates.
* I know the "see you Jimmy" reference is not accurate. In Glasgow we speak properly. But I was actually quoting from an English website, which described it like this.
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