Government spends £800 million of your money on advertising!

The government has spent more than £800m on advertising in the past five years, according to new figures released by the Cabinet Office yesterday.

The figures show that spending is now running at quadruple the rate of the previous Tory government- and rose by a further £16m in the last year.

Last year the total advertising budget of the government reached £172m — the highest figure in five years. The biggest increase was in local government where the Department for Communities and Local Government spent an additional 87 per cent — the bill almost doubling from £6m to £12m between 2006 and last year.

The biggest spender last year was the Department for Health which increased its advertising bill from £38m to £47m.

The shadow minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, said: "These figures show a staggering rise in the government's self-promotion budget. As this Labour government becomes increasingly unpopular, it spends more and more of hard-earned taxpayers' money on advertising.

"The public will be shocked that, with families across the country struggling to cope with the rising cost of living and higher taxes, Gordon Brown can still find millions of pounds extra to spend on adverts."

Source:  http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/apr/29/1