The Sunday Telegraph reports that local Councils spend £1.5 million sending councillors and officers on foreign junkets. Labour run Greenwich spent £25,000 sending a six strong delegation to Beijing for the Olympics. They flew Business Class. Labour run Glasgow Council sent is Film Commissioner to last year's Cannes Film Festival. Lib Dem run Eastbourne Council sent officers off to an Extreme Sports event in Rotterdam while the Mayor of Calderdale went off to a bagpipe festival in the Czech Republic.
Conservative/Lib Dem run Birmingham Council spent £6,600 sending three staff to a conference in Chicago to promote Birmingham's profile as "a city of haute cuisine."