Is your household's contribution being wisely spent?

I was reading an article on the BBC website called Tax: do you give more than you get? It's linked into a new series with BBC political editor Nick Robinson, Your Money and How They Spend It. Episode one is on BBC Two at 21:00 Wednesday 23 November.

It was an interesting article not least because it contained a calculator that showed our family have an estimated net contribution of over £5,000 a year to the country. This will of course go up a lot when the government kindly rob us of our child benefit because their IT systems can't cope with a married couple living together.In some sort of subconscious way I feel more entitled to have an opinion on what happens with tax payers money now I know this.

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I know it's daft, and in this recession we're no more hard off than any one else, and a lot better off than some, but knowing that money is being wasted left right and centre (thanks mostly to following Roxley from the Taxpayers Alliance on twitter), a large part of me thinks, if you're going to waste money in such a brazen way, let me keep the bloody stuff in the first place you bunch of half-witted morons. And breathe...

On a similar note, it made me think especially hard of our local council, St Albans City and District Council, wasting an horrific £17,000 planting saplings down the road my work is on, at a time where they are making many people redundant. Apparently, on a road with 4 pubs and a history of vandalism late at night, this planting will make a "gateway to the city centre" from the train station. Of course what it will actually do is create a number of stumps and a contractor rubbing his hands together as he gets to replace them at additional cost.

Public accountability? You must be joking.