Now and again there are news stories that cross a person’s desk that have no connection to each other but reveal an underlying mentality that speaks volumes.

On Sunday, the animal party issued an announcement saying that plans to neuter some 70 cats living at the central prisons had stalled over the availability of €5,000 in state funding.

Preparations had been completed in cooperation with the relevant authorities, including the acting director of the central prisons but the money had not been forthcoming.

The party rightly deemed it contradictory for the state to repeatedly acknowledge the need to tackle the stray animal population while being unable to proceed with a specific initiative for a piddling amount.

That was not the only contradiction. A few days prior, the transport ministry announced a €68 million plus VAT tender for the new legal service building, with construction scheduled to begin in April 2027.

No one would argue that a new home for the legal service wasn’t badly needed and to hear that it will be an 11-storey building covering 16,000 square metres excluding the 7,000 square metres of underground space are meaningless stats to most people.

However, according to several reports, the plans reveal that the attorney-general will have an office the size of an average two-bedroom apartment at 74 square metres and his deputy 72 square metres. The reports also talk about personal kitchens and elevators and eight conference rooms.

This project was first announced in 2022 at a cost of €45 million plus VAT but following a public uproar it was shelved during 2023 citing “the rational management of public finances”.

What now justifies this new tender with apparently no change in the plans at an extra cost of close to another €30 million by the time it’s completed?

Has there been no reconsideration of the design, an attempt to reduce the size of these offices that at least tries to justify the public expenditure?

Are we now building not offices, but palaces for government employees while the public is constantly harangued to make sacrifices at every turn? 

When those who rule over us do not lead by example but decree that the public should curb their excesses – which used to be called the standard of living – we’re heading back to feudal times.

If there is money to throw away, why can’t the government find €5,000 to neuter 70 cats for the good of animal welfare and public health? Why can’t it save a few millions from the new legal service offices and put the savings into some other worthy cause like improving the abysmal education system, plugging gaps in Gesy, or add it to welfare or pension programmes?

As the animal party said: “There are times when state bureaucracy defies all logic”.

That’s because it’s about mentality, not logic. The reason Androulla Vassiliou was stressed recently over finding parking at diplomatic events without a state-employed security guy is the same mentality that believes those at the top of the heap, especially in the public service, deserve to be treated like royalty for some unfathomable reason.