MINISTRY OF DEFENCE SPENDS £40,000 TO FIND OUT THE TIME!

Ministry of Defence, Whitehall, London; viewed from the London Eye (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The Ministry of Defence has RUNG UP an astonishing £40,000 bill for using the speaking clock, despite imposing a ‘ban’ on the service. Staff at the supposedly cash-strapped government department have made 130,000 calls to check the time during the past two-and-a-half years. Calls to the service, accessed by dialling  123, cost 30p a time.

Honestly, I don’t get it? Don’t all adults wear watches? Don’t mobile phones and computers display the time for free? How could the £40,000 have been better spent? On paperclips perhaps?

The MoD said part of the bill related to a technical fault that meant a phone repeatedly dialled 123, but no effort was made to negotiate a reduction in the bill. Yeah, and I believe in fairies!