Lib Dems play games with Government mileage figures

This morning, the Lib Dems have said that there is massive waste by the Government for ministerial car usage after it was revealed in a written answer that the Government car fleet (not just ministerial cars but the entire fleet) did 2.8 million miles last year.

Now far be it from me to defend the Government but the Lib Dems are playing games here with the figures. I know because yesterday I did some calculations when I read the mileage figure. I was hoping to make some "this is outrageous" post about it myself.

However, when I did the calculation it was clear that it wasn't that bad at all really. If we assume, at best that a car doing urban driving does 25 miles to the gallon, and there are 4.5 litres to the gallon. The actual cost of fuel for driving those miles, even if one rounds up to £1 per litre that equates to a fuel cost of only £450,000 per year across the entire Government.

If that was just one Department it might be an issue, but across the entire Government it's not that bad if you ask me. Yes, I did just defend the Government before anyone might be confused. Never let it be said that I'm always biased against the Government.