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It leaves a bad taste in my mouth too, but at least that's taxpayer money going directly back to the taxpayer.

Even better: it's not actually taxpayer money. The repatriation is funded by a mandatory £2.50 surcharge on all package holiday bookings that's been in place since 1973. https://www.caa.co.uk/ATOL-protection/Consumers/About-ATOL/

Tomato, tomato. At least it was put to good use.

Repatriation is paid for by the travel industry, the government have nothing to do with it

Through which mechanism?