How much does it cost the country to hold a General Election?

Whatever it is we will all pay for it .

It costs them nothing peolpe pay for it.

It must be a huge amount that comes from taxpayers

From 2010
Polling station costs (£27.2m)
Postal vote costs (£10.6m)
Poll card costs (£6.3m)
Count costs (£6.8m)
£420,000 for television broadcasts and £30,000 for those on radio.

In other words the cost is a drop in the ocean to the incalculable sums squandered on 'Foreign Aid' all over the world year after year.

Squandered on foreign aid?

So if there's a Tsunami or earthquake, or other disaster we (as one of the world's better off countries) shouldn't help?

Sometimes I'm ashamed to be a Brit.
We have no idea what it's like to live in a war zone or suffer like the poor sods foreign aid goes to.

As a matter of interest....

"Charity begins at home" is a proverb which continues "BUT SHOULDN'T END THERE".

STUDYFORM "Sometimes you feel ashamed to be British" why ????? There's not many countries that live up to our standards regards foreign aid. The British population always dig deep for things like sport relief, Red Nose Day etc ! Those that should be ashamed out the dictators/ politicians who line their own pockets instead of investing in the countries there in some cases elected to take care off. I feel the British can hold their heads high regarding helping those in need

Yes we can, but we couldn't if we stopped "squandering incalculable sums on it".

As for the politicians - I couldn't agree more.
As for Sport relief, Red nose day and others.... Those taking part could donate more (and afford it) than they collect from the rest of us and save us the trial of sitting through it.

Agree with the watching part

Apr 19, 2017 -- 7:31AM, Breedingmad wrote:

From 2010 Polling station costs (£27.2m)Postal vote costs (£10.6m)Poll card costs (£6.3m)Count costs (£6.8m) £420,000 for television broadcasts and £30,000 for those on radio.

alternatively, let people vote on an app for free . it's all the same bullsh*t anyway we're all getting f*cked by politicians in one way or another

The term foreign aid is misleading. Yes the money is intended to help other countries get on their feet after natural disasters, poverty or many other problems that exist.

But the sad reality is that its quite often a political tool(excluding of course natural disasters like EQ, tsunamis etc). I can understand why people would think its well intended but the truth is its not. Govt uses foreign aid as a tool(such as aid to Saudi Arabia in form of weapons to fight in Yemen, which is a very extreme example). But im not even talking about that type of aid. I personally know one program which was in the news last year, the recipients were poor women.

Here is how it worked. The ruling party asks it MPs to find deserving women. The party head keeps his cut and distributes the funds among his MPs. The MPs then find deserving candidates, which are basically the families that vote for them for generations. If you ain't a voter, you aint deserving. Each MP keeps his cut of course. At the end, the recipient can finally get whatever left. To get that, she has to go back to the political agents who charge a fee to withdraw the money from the ATM machine, which of course the poor people dont have a clue about. If i remember it correctly, this program from the UK govt was upto the tune of a few hundred millions and the recipient at the receiving end was getting less than 10 pounds a month.

The question is, does the govt know? Of course they do. Do they want to do something about it? Of course not. Because this is how you get your favorite people in govts. Imagine the govt telling you that we are giving 100 million dollars to Libya so the post Gaddafi party can become stronger. You'll ask why the feck do we need a strong party in Libya? So the govt tells you a different story. It says we are giving 200 million to the Libyans so so that they can recover from the civil war. It'll make you a proud Brit for a moment but dont fool yourself thinking that's where the money goes. Its only a political gimmick, not fecking aid.

Im being a bit harsh on a lot of aid that is meant well. Education for example, where a lot of countries benefit from scholarships both from UK and US govts. I'll have to create a conspiracy theory to deny that all aid is political. But fact is a lot of it is. Enough to make you think about it when you see the situation in your own country(health sector in UK for example)

Korrektur: I'll have to create a conspiracy theory to prove that all aid is political.

sparkhill Bham pretty hostile u widnay want to setttle a 49s wromg

You can multiply the direct cost of the election many times to include all indirect costs.

How much foreign aid goes from us, indirectly, to Dewsbury from Saudi Arabia?