Bureaucrats gone wild
The week's news at a glance.
Newcastle, U.K.
A British government manager was fired this week after being accused of fostering an atmosphere of debauchery in the office. Some staff members at the Rural Payments Agency in Newcastle reportedly had sex in the bathrooms, jumped naked from filing cabinets, and took drugs at work. Disgusted co-workers finally complained after somebody started leaving cups of vomit around the office, apparently as a practical joke. The agency is responsible for delivering European subsidies to British farmers, and is notoriously slow. “When farmers read about this sort of high jinx going on at the RPA, they’re going to be livid,” said National Farmers Union president Peter Kendall. “They’ll think, No wonder my money hasn’t been got out.”
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