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The Learning Zone: to tempt good honours graduates into teaching (starting salary £15,537) we could have paid 2,320 of them and extra £5000 a year for 5 years to teach our children.
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Money Zone: £54 million could go towards restoring tax relief on private medical insurance, or, a 1p cut in the small companies corporate tax.
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Body Zone: just 95p per person is spent on drugs to fight cancer in the UK. £54 million would pay for 1000 courses of the rationed breast cancer drug, Taxol, or could boost the lamentable &163;47,000 annual budget devoted towards research into prostate cancer which kills one UK man every hour.
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Work Zone: Tony Blair's decision to sign up to the EC's Minimum Wage has cost industry £2.7 billion and threatened a million jobs. £54 million could be used to cut the rate of employers national insurance contributions, nearly compensating for the £60 million extra cost of this one piece of new legislation; the 48 hour maximum working week.
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Play Zone: in 10 years 5,500 playing fields have been sold off by councils around Britain. Just £18,000 would save a typical 3 acre rural playing field site.
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Journey Zone: public transport, especially railways, are a disgrace in the UK. £54 million could build 2 new rail stations (£5 million each), refurbish one major existing station like Brighton(£25 million), and rebuild 38 miles of neglected track (£0.5 million per mile).
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Shared Ground Zone: this celebration of communities ignores how so many are falling apart. £54 million would equip rural police forces with what their Cheif Constables need to do their jobs effectively.
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Living Island Zone: with our costal towns in decline caused by cheap holiday flights and the dec imation of our fishing industry by the European Common Fisheries Policy, £54 million would help our fishermen compete with the Spaniards buy increasing grants or buying 100 state-of-the-art boarts.
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Home Planet Zone: with £54 million we could re-green a million acres of waste land in India, provide clean water for 10 million African villagers, plant 25 million fruit trees in Burkina Faso and reclothe 100,000 Etheopian street children.
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Talk Zone: the World Service, BBC World and British Council could continue to promote English, democracy and free speech for 2 years with £54 million.
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Faith Zone: The whole point of the Millennium was horribly lost at the dome. Churches and Cathedrals are an enduring symbol of our christian heritage in England. £54 million would have enabled the Government to cut VAT on repairs to listed buildings.
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Rest Zone: London's Royal Parks and the eight great open spaces such as Hyde Park and Richmond need repairs to roads, paths, walls and buildings. £54 million would do all that and create 10 miles of new paths, repair ten monuments, and have £10 million left for new projects.
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Mind Zone: Brilliant young people are shying away from science because university jobs for those with doctorates have starting salaries of only £16,000 and PHd research grants are only £5,501. £54 million would allow 2,500 more young scientist to earn another £10,000 a year and double research grants for nearly 6,000 of the brightest students.
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Self Portrait of Britain Zone: Many of Britains 50,000 war memorials are badly neglected. This zone was designed to paint a proud picture of Britain. Would not the £54 million have been better spent on those same memorials which remind us of all of those Britains who gave their lives to preserve our freedom?
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PS:
Since the Millennium Dome closed it has continued to cost taxpayers more than £21 million, according to Government figures. Removing the exhibits has cost £9.6m and negotiations to sell the project have cost £8.3 million. Of this, £6.6 million went towards the "competition" to find a buyer for the Dome. The latest negotiations with "interested parties" have cost £1.7 million. There is still no sign of a deal.
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