At National and State level there has been the £26 billion frittered away on an all singing and dancing but inevitably flawed computer system for Government and another £12.7 billion on an all walking and talking computer system for the National Health Service. The much lower but still eye watering sum of £240 million was appropriated for a network of Fire Control Centres but were just not workable on a practical day to day basis. (My mate Dave, a 30 year serving Fireman was right about that from the day that scheme was announced)
We will never forget or forgive the bail outs in 2008/09 by the UK Taxpayer for the banks which , as the justification ,were deemed too big to fail.
In post war history some £125 million was spent on a jet aircraft, the fledgling chicken-like TSR-2 before costs and political meddling caused the project to be cancelled.
At Local Authority level there have been controversial spends on new Council Logo's , branded golf balls and in my area, for a second civic chain of office for the lady-wife of the Mayor of a large village which has just attained status as a small town.
We may not get to know the full story of other allocations, overspends, misappropriations or just the loss of large amounts of pennies down financial black holes where, strangely, no one seems accountable either for a bad decision or ill informed gamble.
You can therefore understand my initial concerns over seeing the headline "Taxpayer owned locomotive returns to service".
I can relax knowing that the railway engine in question, The Flying Scotsman is perhaps the world's most famous .
Built in Doncaster in 1923 this locomotive was the flagship of the famous London and North East Railway (LNER) and its apple green livery became synonymous with great British engineering, technology and the golden days of steam propulsion. Numbered 4472 the engine was displayed at the Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924 prior to entering into full service and setting new records including Kings Cross, London to Edinburgh (392 miles) non-stop in 8 hours 3 minutes in 1928 and being the first steam loco to reach 100mph in 1934 albeit over only 600 yards.
The wartime years were in a black livery which remained until 1947 and the return of the LNER trademark colours. By 1963 and after covering 2 million miles the Flying Scotsman was overhauled and then sold to a private owner. There followed a four year tour of the United States and another new owner, William McAlpine.
In August 1975 I was lucky enough to see it as part of the celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the pioneering Stockton and Darlington Railway as it joined an all day cavalcade of famous and iconic trains covering the Stephenson Rocket through to the new, for 1975, High Speed Train.
Use became more ceremonial in the 1980's with attendance at other events celebrating steam, pulling the Royal Train and a tour of Australia. Commercial considerations became important and the music impresario Pete Waterman became a joint owner until another sale, this time for £1,300,000 in 1996.
Restoration work was carried out by Rolls Royce and in 2004 the Flying Scotsman was bought for the Nation through the National Railway Museum York for £2.31 million. In the hierarchy of such acquisitions in the name of UK Taxpayers I would say, without fear of contradiction, that this represented one of the best deals ever. It was a glorious and triumphant return to public ownership after the periods of custodianship when belonging to private individuals.
In fact, if you count the Nationalisation of the railways way back in 1948 the event of 2004 heralded in the second period of taxpayer ownership.
In the same year regular excursions were run to the east coast resort of Scarborough from York and were a great success. The last run was in 2005 with the current overhaul starting in January 2006.
It has not been an easy task for the National Railway Museum to take responsibility for The Flying Scotsman. There was an initial skills gap to progress an all essential overhaul but in a true and enthusiastic spirit the engine was eventually displayed in the York venue as being ready for service. This was far from the truth as the works had not been to a very good standard and everything had to be dismantled to allow a new, managed project to take place.
This was completed to allow a test run under steam just a couple of weeks ago (February 2016) from Carnforth, the film location of Brief Encounter to Carlisle over the magnificently engineered Ribblehead Viaduct.
The cost to the taxpayer is estimated at around £4.2 million but that, to me, is a small price to pay to safeguard a piece of British history. In the shelter of the York Museum engine shed the Flying Scotsman as a static display attracted 700,000 visitors a year. Now out and about in restored splendour the nation at large will get a chance see it in action as it goes on tour.
I grew up very much at the time of the replacement of the mainline rolling stock with smokey, smelly diesels but I still get that warm and fuzzy feeling at the sight of a steam train. That is difficult to quantify in monetary terms but is not far off priceless.
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