“The sense of decline and depression all over Westminster has been around for a year or two already, intensified by the expenses scandal” wrote Baroness Deech on Lords of the Blog the other day.
I am uneasy about the latest two additions to the scandalous state of affairs; set ups by journalists, such as that of the invitations to pitch for jobs with a false lobbying company, always have that effect on me. The three Labour ex-ministers who were caught did indeed cut very sorry figures – did they really think their influence would be worth anything in the market after the election or was this just a hope for very short term gain?
And anyway, wasn’t it under Thatcherism that we were all taught that the primary duty is to sell yourself & your talents, no use just being a backroom boy or brilliant but scared of bigging yourself up when talking to strangers?
I have not had time to look at the details of the alleged non-declaration of interests, but then neither have most commentators; that hasn’t stopped a lot of knee jerk reaction of the they’re all as bad as one another variety
I heard the long serving Liberal Democrat MP for Portsmouth South, Mike Hancock explain his ‘mistake’ to Victoria Derbyshire this morning. It occurred to me that one way for MPs to get their own back would be just to mark with an R (for registered interest) every Written PQ they tabled. That would get the journalist/investigators scratching their heads & give them some work to do.
It has also been very interesting to hear some of this being explained to the Irish audience of RTE1.
Showing posts with label MPs expenses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MPs expenses. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Saturday, October 24, 2009
Will respect ever return?
Joke heard on local radio this morning
You see that bloke I was just talking to? He’s an MP
- No! Honest?
No. He’s just like all the rest of them.
You see that bloke I was just talking to? He’s an MP
- No! Honest?
No. He’s just like all the rest of them.
Related post
Thursday, October 15, 2009
By three quarters
Perhaps Sir Thomas Legg is cleverer than we think.
By producing such an obviously ridiculous audit he has made us shamefaced about mob rule, & given MPs a taste of what it is like for we the people just trying our best to comply with endless torrents of contradictory rules, liable to be descended upon by a functionary who tells us no, what the other one told us was wrong.
So we can draw a line & get down to devising a better system for the next parliament
By producing such an obviously ridiculous audit he has made us shamefaced about mob rule, & given MPs a taste of what it is like for we the people just trying our best to comply with endless torrents of contradictory rules, liable to be descended upon by a functionary who tells us no, what the other one told us was wrong.
So we can draw a line & get down to devising a better system for the next parliament
Link
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
The worst thing that can happen to an MP
The Punch editorial for 28th October 1964 was mostly about the sudden stepping down of Nikita Khrushchev, musings on Communism & the fate of Soviet politicians. (Bernard Hollowood was editor).
Some of it is very pertinent on 13th October 2009:
We complain in the West that politics have become so dowdy that they now attract only second rate citizens. But there is still some pride in the calling.
MPs are horribly insecure & badly paid – even when, as with Mr Wilson’s team, nearly one third of the party manages to get into the Government.
Even so, the worst that can happen to an MP is that he becomes an ex-MP.
There is no disgrace in the demotion; often he lives to fight & fight again ….
There then follows a list of all the openings available to allow an ex-MP to maintain HIS status, profession, position.
Many MPs today might be secretly hoping that they will lose their seat in the coming election.
I could also describe myself as a retired civil servant, though I do not think that that qualifies me to set an arbitrary limit for a reasonable amount for an MP to pay a cleaner. I can say that 20 years ago I paid about £1000 a year (2 mornings or 6 hours a week) for someone to clean the house, & more importantly keep a general eye on things while I was away working. If I were to do the same now, paying just the minimum wage, it would take up nearly all of the amount which Sir Thomas Legg considers reasonable (even in London), for a presumably larger house, larger family & more entertaining.
The cynic in me thinks that the amount was settled after careful exploration of the implications, with an eye kept particularly on the consequences for the Prime Minister.
$20,000 (as BBC World Service puts it) makes a nice round number to be ordered to repay. Gives more grease to his elbow when he says all MPs should pay up.
I do hope that neither he nor his family have to go without while he meets this sudden demand for cash.
Having this kind of public humiliation by retrospective regulation to go through still doesn’t approach the worst thing that could happen to a Soviet politician but it hardly dignifies our constitution
Some of it is very pertinent on 13th October 2009:
We complain in the West that politics have become so dowdy that they now attract only second rate citizens. But there is still some pride in the calling.
MPs are horribly insecure & badly paid – even when, as with Mr Wilson’s team, nearly one third of the party manages to get into the Government.
Even so, the worst that can happen to an MP is that he becomes an ex-MP.
There is no disgrace in the demotion; often he lives to fight & fight again ….
There then follows a list of all the openings available to allow an ex-MP to maintain HIS status, profession, position.
Many MPs today might be secretly hoping that they will lose their seat in the coming election.
I could also describe myself as a retired civil servant, though I do not think that that qualifies me to set an arbitrary limit for a reasonable amount for an MP to pay a cleaner. I can say that 20 years ago I paid about £1000 a year (2 mornings or 6 hours a week) for someone to clean the house, & more importantly keep a general eye on things while I was away working. If I were to do the same now, paying just the minimum wage, it would take up nearly all of the amount which Sir Thomas Legg considers reasonable (even in London), for a presumably larger house, larger family & more entertaining.
The cynic in me thinks that the amount was settled after careful exploration of the implications, with an eye kept particularly on the consequences for the Prime Minister.
$20,000 (as BBC World Service puts it) makes a nice round number to be ordered to repay. Gives more grease to his elbow when he says all MPs should pay up.
I do hope that neither he nor his family have to go without while he meets this sudden demand for cash.
Having this kind of public humiliation by retrospective regulation to go through still doesn’t approach the worst thing that could happen to a Soviet politician but it hardly dignifies our constitution
Links
BBC ON THIS DAY 15 1964: Khrushchev 'retires' as head of USSR
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, Dictator of the Month, October, 2003
BBC ON THIS DAY 15 1964: Khrushchev 'retires' as head of USSR
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev, Dictator of the Month, October, 2003
Related post
Friday, June 19, 2009
Apathy or anomie
Out of interest I took a look at my MPs expenses on the Parliament website yesterday
Only the first document in the ACA file
My goodness. It’s bad enough having to do the ordinary household accounts, without having to do all this on top. Any of us would feel humiliated if our personal stuff, however mundane, were revealed like this
OK, so it’s public money. So is my pension
And so is, in aggregate, 40% of everything we earn, in the sense that we collectively, via government, decide how to spend it, instead of leaving it to the privacy of individual decision
No wonder we are all so fed up & cross with each other: why does she get that, when I cannot get this? What makes him think he deserves that? On, & on, & on
Coincidentally I am reading a book Small-Town Politics: A study of political life in Glossop by AH Birch, published in 1959 (of which more anon)
It is worth quoting one passage here, on why it had become so difficult to find candidates to stand for the local council:
Only the first document in the ACA file
My goodness. It’s bad enough having to do the ordinary household accounts, without having to do all this on top. Any of us would feel humiliated if our personal stuff, however mundane, were revealed like this
OK, so it’s public money. So is my pension
And so is, in aggregate, 40% of everything we earn, in the sense that we collectively, via government, decide how to spend it, instead of leaving it to the privacy of individual decision
No wonder we are all so fed up & cross with each other: why does she get that, when I cannot get this? What makes him think he deserves that? On, & on, & on
Coincidentally I am reading a book Small-Town Politics: A study of political life in Glossop by AH Birch, published in 1959 (of which more anon)
It is worth quoting one passage here, on why it had become so difficult to find candidates to stand for the local council:
The main motive for participation in local politics has always been a mixture of the desire to serve the local community & the desire to gain prestige in the community, & the main reason for the growth of apathy is almost certainly that the local community is no longer the focus of interest that it wasHalf a century later we seem in danger of finding that Parliament is now in that position
Link
Related post
Friday, June 05, 2009
Sexist expenses
I was surprised to see that I was commenting a year ago on the question of MP’s expenses It is surprising that no one saw the real storm coming
I am wondering, especially in the light of more recent developments, if sexism had anything to do with it.
My choice of title (Too hot in the kitchen) for the comment on the cases of Caroline Spelman & Wendy Alexander – is revealing
So was Gordon Brown’s reference to a Gentleman’s Club
Did we (all) think that this was perhaps a girly thing – they haven’t learned the rules yet? Or, as my comments hint, think it unfair to exclude child care but nor other kinds of personal domestic service such as cleaning & gardening
Did the men not gather round to defend them because there was no threat to them, it was a woman thing, women are not full members of the club
It would be interesting to see a cool objective analysis of how many of the early victims/casualties were female & whether the explosion of public opprobrium coincided with the turning of the guns on the men
I am wondering, especially in the light of more recent developments, if sexism had anything to do with it.
My choice of title (Too hot in the kitchen) for the comment on the cases of Caroline Spelman & Wendy Alexander – is revealing
So was Gordon Brown’s reference to a Gentleman’s Club
Did we (all) think that this was perhaps a girly thing – they haven’t learned the rules yet? Or, as my comments hint, think it unfair to exclude child care but nor other kinds of personal domestic service such as cleaning & gardening
Did the men not gather round to defend them because there was no threat to them, it was a woman thing, women are not full members of the club
It would be interesting to see a cool objective analysis of how many of the early victims/casualties were female & whether the explosion of public opprobrium coincided with the turning of the guns on the men
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Pampered politicians?
On the other hand …
Read this about how some of our distinguished peers are provided with luxury offices
It also worth remembering what Cherie Blair has to say about the attitude towards helping the prime minister’s wife (& the prime minister himself, come to that) with the expenses of keeping up appearances – literally - at official engagements all over the world
Mind you, if parliamentary expenses were so generous & flexible, it is not perhaps surprising that officials took the view that it was up to the couple to find the money themselves
Read this about how some of our distinguished peers are provided with luxury offices
It also worth remembering what Cherie Blair has to say about the attitude towards helping the prime minister’s wife (& the prime minister himself, come to that) with the expenses of keeping up appearances – literally - at official engagements all over the world
Mind you, if parliamentary expenses were so generous & flexible, it is not perhaps surprising that officials took the view that it was up to the couple to find the money themselves
Friday, May 29, 2009
Necessary costs
In 1985 Lord Gowrie famously resigned from his post as Minister for the Arts in Margaret Thatcher’s government, on the grounds that it was impossible to live in Central London on a mere £30,000 a year
This blog, Grandmother of World's 23rd Best Economist Posthumously Offended by Sonia Sotomayor's Spending Habits; Will Obama Withdraw Nomination? , explains why $179,000-per-year doesn't go that far in New York City these days
That explains why MPs these days find it hard to get by on a mere £66,000 a year
This blog, Grandmother of World's 23rd Best Economist Posthumously Offended by Sonia Sotomayor's Spending Habits; Will Obama Withdraw Nomination? , explains why $179,000-per-year doesn't go that far in New York City these days
That explains why MPs these days find it hard to get by on a mere £66,000 a year
Thursday, May 28, 2009
When you're on your own
On Tuesday’s Woman’s Hour Lynn Faulds Wood – another consumer/health campaigner/journalist/tv presenter & would-be Independent MP – without, I think, quite realising it pointed to the problems she & we would face if we tried to rely on a Parliament of politicians without Party
Stung by a dismissive remark about the ability to do a good job in a 15 minute tv segment, she hit back by talking about the huge amount of research which underpinned each such piece
Research carried out by a team employed by the tv company, financed by advertising (a levy on our shopping) or the licence fee (a regressive tax on households)
Just who would carry out the research needed to underpin an Independent MP’s decisions on how to vote on questions such as the following picked from a random Hansard?
The future of Royal Mail
Welsh Ministers (Transfer of Functions)
Contracting Out (Highway Functions)
Use Of The Commons Chamber (United Kingdom Youth Parliament)
Immigration Rules (Small Businesses)
And how would we – the electors – pay for it?
Stung by a dismissive remark about the ability to do a good job in a 15 minute tv segment, she hit back by talking about the huge amount of research which underpinned each such piece
Research carried out by a team employed by the tv company, financed by advertising (a levy on our shopping) or the licence fee (a regressive tax on households)
Just who would carry out the research needed to underpin an Independent MP’s decisions on how to vote on questions such as the following picked from a random Hansard?
The future of Royal Mail
Welsh Ministers (Transfer of Functions)
Contracting Out (Highway Functions)
Use Of The Commons Chamber (United Kingdom Youth Parliament)
Immigration Rules (Small Businesses)
And how would we – the electors – pay for it?
Link
Sunday, May 24, 2009
ASBOs revenge
A nice cartoon, but goes a bit far
Nadine Dorries asks "I wonder how many people are aware, that if you are an MP and divorce, the courts base your maintenance payments to your husband/wife/children on a combination of your ACA and your salary" - the system was so ingrained
But for more light relief, read Garrison Keillor's Stop the (Trouser) Presses!
And then try Lolfatcats
Friday, May 22, 2009
Going, going
Something rather interesting seems to be going on in the Conservative Party as a result of Expensesgate
It was the statement that Sir Peter Viggars will retire “at the direct request of David Cameron” that alerted me
Sir Peter is always tagged as a Tory grandee - & not one of the type usually described as backwoodsman; the fact that I recognise the name means that his Parliamentary career must be rather distinguished (I have not tried to check the details). A Hampshire seat which must be rock solid safe (another fact I have not checked), a prize for a future Tory star, or an existing one in a more marginal seat
It shows Cameron is confident about his authority in the Party – whether Sir Peter fell on his sword from a blow from a clunking fist, or as a result of a silkily civilised agreement between toffs, is immaterial to this
As a responsible landowner, Douglas Hogg would have had his moat cleaned with or without an allowance for ‘necessary costs.’ He may or may not have found a receipt for something less unfortunately worded to claim for, if he had stopped to think about it. Who knows
But what is a duck island? Is it a praiseworthy Green contribution to conservation, a sort of mini-Slimbridge in something which I might call a lake, rather than a pond?
Or a hide from which to shoot the things?
Or – quelle horreur! – a water feature in a pond, as tasteful as a garden gnome?
It is so easy to mock. And unfair
But it all seems to point to the return of rather old-fashioned Tory values, the grandees back in charge after years of Thatcherite estate agents, garagistes & grocers
It was the statement that Sir Peter Viggars will retire “at the direct request of David Cameron” that alerted me
Sir Peter is always tagged as a Tory grandee - & not one of the type usually described as backwoodsman; the fact that I recognise the name means that his Parliamentary career must be rather distinguished (I have not tried to check the details). A Hampshire seat which must be rock solid safe (another fact I have not checked), a prize for a future Tory star, or an existing one in a more marginal seat
It shows Cameron is confident about his authority in the Party – whether Sir Peter fell on his sword from a blow from a clunking fist, or as a result of a silkily civilised agreement between toffs, is immaterial to this
As a responsible landowner, Douglas Hogg would have had his moat cleaned with or without an allowance for ‘necessary costs.’ He may or may not have found a receipt for something less unfortunately worded to claim for, if he had stopped to think about it. Who knows
But what is a duck island? Is it a praiseworthy Green contribution to conservation, a sort of mini-Slimbridge in something which I might call a lake, rather than a pond?
Or a hide from which to shoot the things?
Or – quelle horreur! – a water feature in a pond, as tasteful as a garden gnome?
It is so easy to mock. And unfair
But it all seems to point to the return of rather old-fashioned Tory values, the grandees back in charge after years of Thatcherite estate agents, garagistes & grocers
Link
Thursday, May 21, 2009
All can now be revealed
When I heard the recent ‘revelation’ about the second homes allowances of husband & wife MPs Julie Kirkbride & Andrew MacKay I thought ‘But we knew that’
I am wondering why I felt I knew – I only know what I read or hear in the public media
And I rarely imagine things completely – though there is always a first time
I think it must have been in Private Eye, which I no longer read, but Kirkbride has been an MP since 1997
Which just confirms my suspicion that lobby journalists knew much of what is now being revealed, they just did not think it worth telling us, or they put a higher value on keeping their sources sweet
I am wondering why I felt I knew – I only know what I read or hear in the public media
And I rarely imagine things completely – though there is always a first time
I think it must have been in Private Eye, which I no longer read, but Kirkbride has been an MP since 1997
Which just confirms my suspicion that lobby journalists knew much of what is now being revealed, they just did not think it worth telling us, or they put a higher value on keeping their sources sweet
Monday, May 18, 2009
Playing our tune
It is not just the phone-in hosts & doorstep canvassers who cannot get away from MP’s expenses. No programme is safe – Maggie Gee got in a dig on Start The Week, even David Jacobs apologised that one of the records from his usually politics-free programme was “That’s the Way the Money Goes” from the 1970s musical The Card
Every so often a pop song comes along at just the right moment – destined to be played everywhere & used by broadcasters as a sound track even to news reports
And so today we have Dizzy Rascal with Bonkers. Even I noticed that one. I look forward to a Times leader on the subject
Every so often a pop song comes along at just the right moment – destined to be played everywhere & used by broadcasters as a sound track even to news reports
And so today we have Dizzy Rascal with Bonkers. Even I noticed that one. I look forward to a Times leader on the subject
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Household management
Anybody who cannot understand how a (male) politician might fail to realise that the mortgage had been paid off might care to read Cherie Blair’s book “Speaking For Myself” about the blessed Tony’s attitude to family finances
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Jobs for wife
It seems extraordinary now, but not that long ago there was no such personage as the GP’s receptionist
Indeed, apart from a junior partner, most GPs employed no staff at all
His wife would be expected to do the support job, such as it was, at least to the extent of keeping track of his movements & answering the phone
Clergy wives had duties too. A friend of mine recalls, with some bitterness, how the vicar’s wife (my friend’s husband was her husband’s curate) used to think it her duty to inspect & criticise the way my friend starched & ironed the surplices
At least you usually knew if you were marrying a doctor or a clergyman
I always felt sorry for Mary Wilson, who had thought that she was marrying an Oxford don rather than a future prime minister
I know of one politician’s wife who ran away the day before the Queen arrived on an official visit (not in this country) – she was taken aback & by surprise when she turned out to have married a politician & the strain of all those public duties just got too much. She never came back
I am not sure how much the vicar’s wife, or husband, is still considered, ipso facto, ex officio, part of the team (unpaid), but a GP’s wife these days is unlikely to have any such duties
One outcome of the present imbroglio is likely to be a revolt of the partners & spouses. In fact, as Alice Thomson has written, wives in particular are likely just to refuse to countenance it
And then there are the children: those of the vicarage & the police house used to come under a special kind of pressure. Now only the children of politicians face this
Is it possible to go back to the days when it was not a condition, an inflexible expectation, that an MP (plus family) actually live in the constituency? Even teachers these days tend to prefer mot to live in the same area as their school, to escape the curiosity of pupils (& their parents) about their private lives & spare time activities
Agents still have an important - & accepted – role in the constituency of at least the prime minister & Speaker
Perhaps it is time to bring them back in a modern role
Indeed, apart from a junior partner, most GPs employed no staff at all
His wife would be expected to do the support job, such as it was, at least to the extent of keeping track of his movements & answering the phone
Clergy wives had duties too. A friend of mine recalls, with some bitterness, how the vicar’s wife (my friend’s husband was her husband’s curate) used to think it her duty to inspect & criticise the way my friend starched & ironed the surplices
At least you usually knew if you were marrying a doctor or a clergyman
I always felt sorry for Mary Wilson, who had thought that she was marrying an Oxford don rather than a future prime minister
I know of one politician’s wife who ran away the day before the Queen arrived on an official visit (not in this country) – she was taken aback & by surprise when she turned out to have married a politician & the strain of all those public duties just got too much. She never came back
I am not sure how much the vicar’s wife, or husband, is still considered, ipso facto, ex officio, part of the team (unpaid), but a GP’s wife these days is unlikely to have any such duties
One outcome of the present imbroglio is likely to be a revolt of the partners & spouses. In fact, as Alice Thomson has written, wives in particular are likely just to refuse to countenance it
And then there are the children: those of the vicarage & the police house used to come under a special kind of pressure. Now only the children of politicians face this
Is it possible to go back to the days when it was not a condition, an inflexible expectation, that an MP (plus family) actually live in the constituency? Even teachers these days tend to prefer mot to live in the same area as their school, to escape the curiosity of pupils (& their parents) about their private lives & spare time activities
Agents still have an important - & accepted – role in the constituency of at least the prime minister & Speaker
Perhaps it is time to bring them back in a modern role
Related post
A woman once in politics
A woman once in politics
Friday, May 15, 2009
Keeping up with the Jones's
Looked at in one way, the system of Additional Cost Allowances for MPs is demeaning – for us, as well as for them
Imagine that 25% of everybody’s salary were paid only for the ‘necessary’ costs of running a home – the necessity to be supported by receipts detailing all purchases or transactions, available for inspection by anyone
We would love finding out what our neighbours were doing, hate it for ourselves
But would we really like ourselves for our reactions, whether these were naked envy, sneering snobbery, or just a mean-minded they do not deserve this or that?
Imagine that 25% of everybody’s salary were paid only for the ‘necessary’ costs of running a home – the necessity to be supported by receipts detailing all purchases or transactions, available for inspection by anyone
We would love finding out what our neighbours were doing, hate it for ourselves
But would we really like ourselves for our reactions, whether these were naked envy, sneering snobbery, or just a mean-minded they do not deserve this or that?
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Bygones
Economists are taught that when it comes to failing investments, bygones MUST be bygones, there is no point throwing good money after bad just because you have already spent a fortune. Write off your losses. Put new money into something more productive
Once upon a time I was peripherally involved in a long ongoing negotiation between the Inland Revenue, Her Majesty’s Customs & Excise, a landlord & the executors of the estate of a bankrupt builder. I will not bore you with the details
But the legacy of that painful time made me to go OH NO! when Gordon Brown proposed some kind of independent investigation of all those receipts which have now come in to the public domain
Somebody mentioned the figure of a million, or millions, of bits of paper. How long would it take just to read them all, sort them into OK, doubtful, definitely dodgy. How many people would it take?
How many people would be being pursued, years from now, for extra evidence, never mind the repayment of sums large or small
How much would it cost?
Would it cost more than the amount recovered?
Would it be value for money?
What’s done is done. Some people will be lucky to get away with things, others will get their come-uppance in various ways. Everybody is embarrassed & hurt
One year away from a General Election, the emphasis should be on sorting out better systems for the future, & thinking hard about the real political malaise of our creaking democracy
Once upon a time I was peripherally involved in a long ongoing negotiation between the Inland Revenue, Her Majesty’s Customs & Excise, a landlord & the executors of the estate of a bankrupt builder. I will not bore you with the details
But the legacy of that painful time made me to go OH NO! when Gordon Brown proposed some kind of independent investigation of all those receipts which have now come in to the public domain
Somebody mentioned the figure of a million, or millions, of bits of paper. How long would it take just to read them all, sort them into OK, doubtful, definitely dodgy. How many people would it take?
How many people would be being pursued, years from now, for extra evidence, never mind the repayment of sums large or small
How much would it cost?
Would it cost more than the amount recovered?
Would it be value for money?
What’s done is done. Some people will be lucky to get away with things, others will get their come-uppance in various ways. Everybody is embarrassed & hurt
One year away from a General Election, the emphasis should be on sorting out better systems for the future, & thinking hard about the real political malaise of our creaking democracy
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
£92,000
When I was a child things were perfectly clear: you knew what everybody earned
Well you did if they were an employee
National rates for those in Trades Unions. Pay scales for teachers, civil servants, university lecturers. Job adverts always told you what to expect, none of these mysteriously competitive packages
I was quite used to my salary being known to anyone who consulted Whitaker’s Almanac
It all started to go wrong with the inflation of the Oil Price Shock of the 1970s. Inflation linked rises struggled to catch up & by the time official statistics of income & earnings were published (usually at least 2 years in arrears back then) it was too late to use them to find out where you stood in the league
And now we all just seem in a fog about it, even if we are clear about what we mean by ‘earn’, whether that includes overtime, allowances, expenses, performance bonuses, pension pots, whatever
But why are people so ashamed to let on?
Richard Bacon, on his own programme last night, was making much of Carrie Baker’s ‘mistake’. Seemed to think he was being clever not telling us what he gets
Why are we not allowed to know what the BBC pays people out of our licence fee? Just the salaries I mean, we’ll move on to demanding to know about their expenses some other day
Well you did if they were an employee
National rates for those in Trades Unions. Pay scales for teachers, civil servants, university lecturers. Job adverts always told you what to expect, none of these mysteriously competitive packages
I was quite used to my salary being known to anyone who consulted Whitaker’s Almanac
It all started to go wrong with the inflation of the Oil Price Shock of the 1970s. Inflation linked rises struggled to catch up & by the time official statistics of income & earnings were published (usually at least 2 years in arrears back then) it was too late to use them to find out where you stood in the league
And now we all just seem in a fog about it, even if we are clear about what we mean by ‘earn’, whether that includes overtime, allowances, expenses, performance bonuses, pension pots, whatever
But why are people so ashamed to let on?
Richard Bacon, on his own programme last night, was making much of Carrie Baker’s ‘mistake’. Seemed to think he was being clever not telling us what he gets
Why are we not allowed to know what the BBC pays people out of our licence fee? Just the salaries I mean, we’ll move on to demanding to know about their expenses some other day
Parliament then & now
I have taken the liberty of reproducing here in full yesterday’s post from the blog Lady Lucy Cavendish
LONDON, April 13th, 1866.—This is my never-to-be-forgotten day. Auntie P. and I did St. G. in the E., taking flowers there. I read to a roomful of oakum-picking women. We went to the House afterwards, quite on the chance ; and had the immense luck of hearing the famous Mr. J. S. Mill make a most perfect speech in favour of the Franchise Bill. In spite of the cry-down humour the Tories are in, it was striking to have this small-voiced philosopher listened to with the greatest possible attention and respect ; and indeed the speech was irresistibly fair, profound, and trenchant. Three or 4 times he made a dead pause of more than a minute, but only to produce some new, cogent argument armed at all points and perfectly expressed ; though he was keenly satirical once or twice, the whole tone of his speech was gentle and temperate to a degree. The Opposition held their tongues as if bewitched ! He followed Sir Bulwer Lytton, who made a slashing, clever speech. I found myself a good deal struck and moved, coming straight out of one of the depths of misery and pauperism, to hear the claims of the people so grandly brought forward : those "dumb" thousands, as Bright called them, among whom there must be so many feeling, as none of us can feel, for all this degradation ; and voiceless in the nation whom they might help to rouse to the most noble of battles
Just compare & contrast with Daniel Finkelstein’s If you thought this was bad, just wait in today’s Times
It is hard to imagine anyone of the stature of John Stuart Mill becoming a member of today’s House of Commons
The House may have listened respectfully to Mill on this occasion, but he was not an especially effective MP overall. He used to bore & offend members with his lofty lectures on land economics & the proper response to the Cattle Plague. And of course he lost his seat in the 1868 Election
Which came as something of a relief to Mill, who went on to spend much of his time in Avignon. As he later wrote:
“It is an infinitely pleasanter mode of spending May to read the Gorgias and Theatetus under the avenue of mulberries, surrounded by roses and nightingales, than it would be to listen to tiresome speaking for half the night in the House of Commons.”
Although MPs do not often these days have to sit through half the night there must be an awful lot of MPs today (not to mention their families) who are wishing devoutly that they had found more pleasant & restful occupations
Related posts
Lady Frederick Cavendish (1)
Lady Frederick Cavendish (2)
The N word then & now
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
When books are not enough
I wonder where stands, in the present day Tory hierarchy, an MP who has to use his Additional Costs Allowance to furnish his home?
Would that be higher or lower than (now Lord) Michael Heseltine, who was dismissed by a truly toffee Tory as ‘a wideboy who has to buy his own furniture'
Would that be higher or lower than (now Lord) Michael Heseltine, who was dismissed by a truly toffee Tory as ‘a wideboy who has to buy his own furniture'
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