A funny thing happened this weekend. The strange and mysteriously funded, and very much self-styled "Tax Payer's" Alliance has started to shout about how Brexit is a waste of taxpayer's money. Strange, huh?

A threadette... 1/
It all started when somehow a tweet from the TPA came across my timeline claiming that an outrageous £7.5m had been paid in employee benefits to Civil Servants since 2014.

2/
Having worked a lot in the Civil Service over the years (although never having been one) this seemed odd. So I did my usual sarky RT thing.

https://twitter.com/sophiedennis/status/1274466723555655683

3/
It turned out quite quickly that with a calculator, a basic understanding of maths and knowing that THERE ARE QUITE A LOT OF CIVIL SERVANTS, this £7.5M turns into a few quid per person per year over 6 years.

Which is a classic case of using a big aggregated number to distort.
4/
It then turned out that these "Benefits" aren't mentioned at all on the Civil Service recruitment site. Which if you're trying to position yourself as an attractive employer isn't really that surprising. "Come to us and get £3/year of additional benefits!"
5/
It then turned out that the £7.5m that the TPA were referencing was made up of paying employees for leave that they hadn't taken, and cycle to work schemes (which as far as I can tell are just deferred loans, and expected from all large employers these days) HT @sophiedennis
6/
And it then turned out that almost all of the rolled-over leave from from the Department for International Trade in the run up to leaving the EU

https://twitter.com/SebTallents/status/1274636045133459456
7/
So there you have it. The TPA shouting about what an outrageous waste of money Brexit is.

Let's hope they turn their ire next onto Chris Grayling.

8/8
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