You may have been wondering if your tax money is well spent. You’ll be reassured to know that vast amounts of it (goodness knows how much) have gone in to producing videos like this.

Particular favourite parts for me were the house which was “trashed” by knocking over a single wooden chair, and the fact that headteachers can “manage loo roll” online. That’s a real boon.

On top of this, the wonderful people at the Home Office have launched ads promoting their “Think U Know” website. Yes, that’s radio ads. Reading out the address thinkuknow.co.uk. They’ve now been withdrawn, after it took someone to complain that thinkuknow.co.uk sound exactly like thinkyouknow.co.uk, which is a different website altogether.

Yes, it took a listener to tell the ASA that Think U Know and Think You Know sound the same on radio. Nobody from John Reid to the person doing the recording managed to notice. The ad’s now in the bin.

This government promised to cut waste. Something tells me it’s failing.

Update: As if you weren’t already convinced that the video was a waste of time, I can’t even show it any more!  It’s been withdrawn on the basis that it breached Government copyright. Despite being posted by the Government. Well done.

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“This video has been removed at the request of copyright owner COI Television because its content was used without permission”

» This comment was received at 14:50 on 26 August 06

That only goes to emphasise the point. Now your tax money has been spent on a video you’re not allowed to see. It’s a whole new level of crazy!

» This comment was received at 14:52 on 26 August 06

There’s a further wonderful irony that a video about joined-up government has had to be taken down because of a copyright dispute between different parts of the Cabinet Office.

You really could not make it up.

» This comment was received at 10:59 on 30 August 06

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