This is a UK-specific post so if you’re not in the UK, you may wish to skip.

One of the conclusions from the UK’s COVID Inquiry hit me this week. That we (the UK) spent about £10 billion in panic-buying PPE which was subsequently discovered not to be fit for purpose. Sometimes not fit for any purpose. As in, useless.

I took myself back to that time. Everyone was competing with everyone else, globally, and it was inevitable that there would be some degree of price-gouging. And certainly, value-for-money was the last thing on people’s minds at the time.

£10 billion seems a lot, all the same. But in saying that, I’m aware that in the economies of entire nations, very large numbers can equate to tiny fractions of a country’s economy. So I went looking for other numbers, for comparison.

Lo and behold, benefits cuts. Do you remember the furore? Almost exactly a year ago? When Starmer wanted to cut PIP benefits, only to face such a backlash from his own MPs that he had to back down? A pretty unprecedented move, for a guy with a majority in the hundreds. Do you remember how much he was trying to save?

I looked it up. He was trying to save around £5 billion. And that was between 2025 and the end of the decade. So, a billion a year? Ish.

Now, I realise that one of my numbers was one-off (we hope), while the other is a recurring cost, but they gave me food for thought. Certainly when the Labour Party wanted to cut the welfare bill, they were wanting to save a fraction of what we spaffed up the wall during COVID.

It’s funny how we can find money for some things, but not for others, isn’t it?