Here at Freakytrigger we are always scouring the papers for pointless phrases which are rounded up in dispiritingly small minded articles. And now to join our perennial favourites “Political Correctness Gone Mad” and “Just A Bit Of Fun” : I suggest a new bedfellow. Let me introduce “Waste OF Taxpayer’s Money” Watch. A phrase nearly always found near Arts Council grants and Modern Art. And what a great story to start with.
Turner Prize Nominee (I think the words “Turner Prize” and “Waste Of Taxpayer’s Money” may well be inextricably linked in the mind of many newspapers) Tomoko Takahashi spends £5,000 of money to drink 48 bottles of beer and fall off a beam. The Telegraph rightly questions aspects of this, though neglects to ask these key questions
a) What beer did she drink?
b) What offie did she go to that charged her over £100 per bottle?
But what about the waste of taxpayers money quote: here comes David Davies from the Welsh Assembly:
“If anyone is daft enough to want to see a young woman getting plastered and tottering around in high heels, they can do it in just about every city centre most nights of the week. The show is probably the biggest waste of money in the world. The worrying thing is people are deciding to hand out taxpayers’ money like this when they are sober.”