Damien McBride may have gone but the stench of negative spin and lie campaigning stills wafts around Downing Street.  This election broadcast by the Labour Party shows Gordon’s tactics in forthcoming elections………and they stink.

Gordon, you have been in power for the past decade.  Do you not have a positive vision…new ideas?  Just want to negative campaign?  Bash the Conservatives with lies.

David, please react to this.  Shame Gordon.  Is this what the nation wants from its politicians?  Expose Gordon for the negative man he is.

A disgrace……

The House of Commons….no longer the seat of power it once was

So much attention has been given to expenses this past week.  Rightly, as corruption has no place at the heart of a democracy.  But there is an even bigger issue that we need to discuss.  The Houses of Parliament, our foundation of democracy, upholders of liberty and freedom and protector of British citizens, is being massacred and our democratic heart is being surgically sliced away.

David Cameron was right this week to raise reform of the House of Commons.  He particularly is focusing on reducing cost through initiatives like boundary changes to reduce the number of MP’s and culling various allowances such as the Communications allowance.   But what he also needs to do is to restore the House of Commons, (& the House of Lords), back to rude health as an effective check on the powers and abuses of the Executive.  This does not just involve reviewing the powers given away/devolved to other bodies but how the House of Commons is used today.

Parliament, particularly the House of Commons, in recent years has been reduced in stature, under Tony Blair first and even more so under Gordon Brown, to a rubber stamping device.  MP’s constantly complain that debates are guillotined / cut short.  No real review/debate/analysis or scrutiny takes place.  Brown admittedly prefers to utilise independent reviews and quangos/outside bodies to propose ideas and then, if the Government like them, they are three line whipped through the House with limited debate.   A form of authoritarian democracy I guess.

Brown comes across as a Prime Minister who hates to be challenged, hates debate and hates therefore to ‘lose’ an argument.  Why debate issues in the House of Commons, with a healthy opposition who can embarrass you, when you can send issues out to Independent Review Bodies who are of course less partisan and then take their findings and rush them through the House?  However much Brown likes to claim to be a democrat, he does not come across publicly as a man that enjoys scrutiny. 

Couple this lack of accountability, with the fact this Government has an extremely light legislative workload and therefore the House of Commons is not overly busy, meaning MP’s aren’t as focused or important as they used to be.  No wonder that they have low self esteem and just thinking of things they can put through on their expenses.  Parliament is being raped of its authority.

This light legislative workload will continue right up until the next election.  What major initiatives can you name of that the Government are pushing through Parliament?  The ID Scheme will be ditched.  Truth is the more restless MP’s get, as they get closer to the election and face losing their seat, the more rebellious they will get, hence why Brown will not want any controversial legislation to go through.  His last big legislative test will be over the Post Office and of course he needs the support of the Conservatives as Labour are split down the middle.  I would not be surprised to see the Post office legislation moth balled.  I mean, how much more bad press can Gordon take?

Of course this brings us to another point.  We talk of Parliamentary Sovereignty and the Power of Parliament and the House of Commons.  Parliament today is totally unrecognisable to the that at the time of Pitt, Gladstone or even Churchill. 

So, define Parliamentary Sovereignty……A supreme Parliament can:

-   Pass a law on any subject it so wishes

-   No Parliament can bind a future Parliament (ie future Parliaments can pass laws to change/reverse laws made in previous parliaments)

-     An act of Parliament cannot be questioned by the court.  Parliament is the supreme lawmaker

Fast forward to today.  Each of the above definitions of Sovereignty are fundamentally distilled and undermined in the UK.  Parliament has been stripped of the powers it once held.    How?….we are all familiar but as a reminder key developments have been:

- Devolution of Powers to Regional Assemblies in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales.  All three Assemblies can pass primary legislation within the areas of power devolved to them.  (However, this power can be suspended by the UK Parliament).

- The UK’s membership of the European Union.  The EU sees the biggest devolution of powers from our elected representatives.  Legislatively, the European Court of Justice have ruled of a, “new legal order of international law for the benefit of which the [Member] States have limited their sovereign rights, albeit within limited fields”.   The EU has its own market & rules, (Single Market), Single European Currency, (which the UK is not part of), common policies on agriculture, fisheries and regional development.  But the Lisbon Treaty shows the naked ambition of the federalists and their blood lust desire for more and more power and the creation of the United States of Europe.

-  Monetary policy is now devolved to the ‘Independent’ Bank of England.

-  London has its own directly elected Mayor and London Assembly.  The Mayor has powers.  These give the Mayor new lead roles on housing and adult skills in London; a strengthened role over planning in the capital; and additional strategic powers in a wide range of policy areas including waste, culture and sport, health, climate change and appointments to the boards of the functional bodies.

- Human Rights Act 1988 incorporating part of the European Convention on Human Rights into domestic law.

David Cameron this week struck a chord with his views on expenses.  He was right to say many MP’s had not broken the rules but broken the ‘spirit’ of the rules.  This is a moral and ethical question.  If you place an expense in front of the general public, would they feel that it was acceptable, a public ‘snift test’ of acceptability…can they smell corruption? 

David, you can apply the very same logic,  to the powers of Parliament.  Do the people feel it fair to have certain powers devolved to local institutions?   I am sure the Scottish people love having their own Parliament but do the English, Welsh, Northern Irish people love funding the Scots and them benefitting through their tax payers?  and vice versa etc.  Do people feel, through the sniff test, that powers lent, (yes ‘lent), to the European Union benefit our Nation?  This of course is why the Government are so scared about a referendum on the Lisbon treaty.  The British people are so fair and want to control their own destiny by their ability to vote in and vote out governments, as to their wishes.  Hence why devolving power from our Parliament is foreign to their core DNA of  ‘Government of the People, by the People, for the People’.

David, there is lots to do.  Once through this expenses mess, look at the Sovereignty of Parliament and how to restore pride and influence back to a once mighty instituion.

The Conservative Front Bench smell the whiff of bad spin from Brown at PMQ’s

Times are hard for the Prime Minster….as he hums ‘Things can only get better’…..but today was not a good day

Gordon suffered another bad day for his Government.  He must wake up in the morning and dread the day ahead.  Today was a nightmare.

Today was bad for 3 reasons for Gordon…..

1)   Another poor Commons Performance at PMQ’s

2)  More bad economic news from the Governor of the Bank of England

3)  His Ministers create headlines for all the wrong reasons.  Jacqui Smith was lambasted at the Police Officers Federation and Hazel Blears is looking like a headless chicken.

And all this before the latest sleeze and expenses are being announced by the Telegraph pre publication tomorrow.

PMQ’s

Brown looked like a defeated figure.  On the other side Cameron has got the wind in his sails.  He is showing real leadership in this current expenses crisis.  Yesterday, as blogged here….he seized the moment, showed real backbone and all commentators acclaimed he had shown the way forward on this issue.  Contrary to Brown, who could only react and stalled on track.

What was clear today is that there is a real paralysis in Gordon Brown’s decision making.  If its not his idea, his stubborn side kicks in.  His only response today at PMQ’s to sensible suggestions from Cameron was to defer decisions, creates committees….wait for reports…wait, delay, defer.  This is a real moment when the nation demands leadership from its politicians.  Brown has been very much off the boil.  He seems a broken man.

Again, Clegg hit hard against the PM and one has to wonder how much more of this Brown can take.  He is facing a real ‘Ricky Hatton’ moment soon. 

Take a look.  Shown on Sky News today:

 The Economy

Next up, The Governor of the Bank of England, again distanced himself from the forecasts of the Treasury.  In the Press Conference he claimed he would love to know how they calculate their forecasts, as they have different methods to those used by the Bank.

The Governor stated that the recession was far deeper than expected and the strength of the recovery is highly uncertain.  It’s quarterly inflation report downgraded the outlook for the economy. 

Let’s face it.  Gordon is pinning his hopes to economic turnaround before the election next May.  News like today, will depress Brown as his options to save his skin and his legacy are rapidly diminishing.

Mervyn King has pointed to a 4.5% year on year decline at it’s lowest point—compare that to Alastair in Wonderland’s budget forecast of 3.5%.  The reason for the downgrading was a worse than expected first quarter of 1.9% decline.  King also said he thought it would take longer than expected for the bank lending to return to good levels. 

The Governor did have some good news.  The weakness of the pound should help inward investment…but oh a punitive tax system on high earners will not help stimulate investors to the UK!!!

As this recession drags on Gordon Brown does less.  He is mired in a sea of inaction over sleaze and government failings.

Here’s Mervyn on the BBC trying to be positive….

Poor Ministers…..bad headlines just keep on following

Wherever Jacqui Smith goes, cameras follow….because they know that there is a news story waiting.  Today Jacqui returned to the scene of an ear bashing last year at the Police Federation.  Jacqui is not a popular Home Secretary, especially in Police circles.  But the moment a question came from the floor on expenses, bang, the rapturous applause and sense of delirium amongst the Police, Jacqui knew that this was another news headline clip.  She is now a lame duck limping from crisis to crisis.  Gordon has no option but to axe her at a reshuffle as she creates all the wrong headlines and is a liability.

Then we had Hazel Blears rushing round today.  She is desperately trying to hold on to her job.  Her jibes over Gordon’s leadership and his YouTube appearance, hurt Gordon.  He is mightily pissed with her.  Then comes her outrageous expenses claim and the No.10 spin doctors start the spin that she will be dumped at the reshuffle.  This stings Hazel into action to repay £13,000—equivalent to capital gains tax she should have paid—-and then today, at the launch of the jobs fund for Social Enterprises Scheme, Hazel tried to impress Gordon by twice—yes twice—saying that she had been up to 2am working.  Gordon’s reaction said it all.  No smile, no recognition.  Just a fed up, saggy cloth face like bagpuss. 

Yes, ‘an old, saggy cloth cat, baggy, and a bit loose at the seams”….sounds just like Gordon Brown after the day he has just had.  Will tomorrow be better……?

Please Please forgive me Gordon………I’ll do anything…even say you are great on YouTube

That winning moment all Conservative PPC’s dream of…..VICTORY!

Earlier I blogged on the successes of Norman Tebbit and his impact on the Conservative Party.  One view Norman expressed was his concern that the modern Conservative Party of David Cameron was not in touch with the working class….did not have the common touch….too Etonian/elitist.  That got me thinking.  What’s the best way to judge a modern political party and its ‘closeness’ to the electorate and whether it is elitist?

This afternoon I looked through a list of all the Conservative PPC’s posted on Conservatives.com.  I glanced through each record….some are complete, some have zero information or links to a constituency web site, (that needs fixing pre the election campaign CCHQ).  Certainly an interesting mix of candidates that do not have ‘Classical Conservative’  backgrounds.

Certainly, John Maples, Head of Candidate Selection and local associations have broadened and deepened the diversity of candidates on offer.  Great job John!  Tebbit’s view of the modern Conservative Party does not bear fruit when looking at the next intake.  We have former miners, housewives, an author, businessmen, military, entrepreneurs, social workers, students…yes students!

So, this is not an exact science.  Some information is missing, some is sketchy but look at the trend.  I cannot find accurate data on the web so I hope this is a start.  Please treat data lightly and look at the overall picture/trend.

There are 333 Conservative PPC’s listed.

73% are men………and 27% are therefore women.

4 % are ‘ethnic’ candidates.

52% are aged 40 or below.  That’s a much younger intake than traditonal Conservatives.  (had to guess with some looking at their picture as no DOB…so again a rough overall).

51% have volunteered on their information they have a University degree.  Maybe more have them but they did not list them.  Most people list their degrees as they are proud to have them.

18% of those with a degree are from either Oxford or Cambridge.  This feels a lot lower than previous intakes of Conservatives.  Hence the elitist and Etonian link is very tenuous and not something that the opposition can attack with.

When looking at the bios of the new candidates, one thing struck me.  Throughout the week we have heard, as part of the expenses row, that MP’s should be of the highest quality, bring strong life experience and commercial/specialist knowledge to the House of Commons.  They should possess above all…..’gravitas’. 

I found it hard therefore to marry up this expectation with the number of younger potential PPC’s looking to enter parliament.

Standing at the next election we have a number of younger candidates…..again this is a quick selection…there are more:

Andrea Simpson                      Aged 29

Stuart Penketh                         Aged 26

Douglas Ross                            Aged 25

Miles Briggs                              Aged 25

Then, I came across:

Ross Thompson                       Aged 20

Wow….. 20 years old.

Now, I have no experience of Ross and therefore no personal malice.  Of course, I want him to win the seat of Gordon for the Conservatives, but hand on heart, does a youngster aged 20 possess the life experience and gravitas to represent his constituents? 

Ross is obviously a very talented young man.  He must be very engaging and super intelligent.  I see he is studying in his 3rd year for a degree at University.  So, Ross if you are reading this, this is nothing against you.  It’s a philosophical discussion and a belief that to represent constituents, takes an understanding of life, an understanding of the mechanics of society, an understanding of making your way in life and the pitfalls that entails, that have to be avoided, negotiated and learnt from.  Complexities and dynamics of relationships, love, lust, marriage, children…..all add to that very life experience.

Now some will say….what rubbish you talk.  It’s all dependent on the skill of an individual.  Age is not a limitation to success.  Age is no barrier to greatness.  Which is very true….as an entrepreneur…..making a new business succeed takes drive, passion….qualities youngsters have. 

When a 20 year old holds a Constituency surgery, how much can they understand and emphasize with an 80 year old waiting for a hip operation on the NHS.  What life experience can they draw upon?  There is more to life than theory and history & politics learnt from text books.

TBB remembers back to School & University and how zealous some friends and fellow students were in the early part of their life.  Some were extreme left only today to experience the realities of life and settle into a traditional life pattern…(and now Conservative voters).  

That leads to an interesting point…what should be the minimum age of an MP?   TBB puts it out there that maybe it is better to have MP’s minimum age between 35-40….perhaps a fairer reflection of having experience in the House? 

But message to Norman…..the Party is in rude health and not that Etonian/Elitist bunch of the Past.

‘The Chingford Skinhead’…..’Semi house-trained pole cat’.  Most of all a stalwart for Conservatism

Margaret Thatcher said of Norman Tebbit, (in her memoirs The Downing Street Years).  ‘Norman is one of the bravest men I have ever met. He will never deviate on a point of principle—and those principles are ones which even the least articulate Tory knows he shares’.

Yesterday got me reflecting.  Whilst Norman Tebbit’s recommendation to send a protest message to the House of Commons by voting for any party apart from Conservatives, Labour or Lib Dems, was at best foolish, it got me thinking as to the man and his achievements.

As mentioned yesterday I was disappointed with Norman’s statement.  The Party cannot tolerate people, whatever their standing, recommending the electorate not vote for us.  My personal frustration with Tebbit’s comment is mostly driven from the frustration that the Conservatives have been in opposition for far too long and I, like all of us, are desperately tired of the incompetence of this Labour administration and don’t want anything to derail our chances of a strong majority.  But his foolish statement should never mask his achievements for our Party and the country.  He is a politician to be held in awe and we should not lose sight of that.

Tebbit has always been a polite man to meet.  Despite his tough public personification, he is a kind man with a superb sense of humour.  When he speaks he does so quietly, calmly, (devoid of aggressive emotion), he speaks with authority and his views always deserve to be listened to.  I remember the great West Indies fast bowler Michael Holding.  He had the nickname ‘whispering death’ because his run up was so smooth, calm and beautiful to behold then he unleashed a ball of such menacing ferocity that batsman the world over were savaged by this quiet unassuming man.  Tebbit is the same.  Speaks quietly but when he tears into something or someone, they are left shredded to pieces.  Hence why he was so effective as Margaret’s right hand man.

Tebbit in his prime was a formidable politician.  No question.  For many the biggest regret was that he never stood for the leadership after Thatcher was so unceremoniously ousted from office.  Tebbit would have been a formidable opponent against Tony Blair.  Tebbit held Blair in contempt and summed him up beautifully: ‘I don’t think he’s a liar, just a fantasist. He says whatever he likes, and then he believes it’.   Brown can also be said today to fall into this camp ie says whatever he likes and believes it!

Tebbit, in his prime, like Thatcher, had his finger on the pulse of the working man & woman.  As ‘The Sun’ newspaper would say…he was the voice of the people.  He could speak to them in terms they emphasized with.  Tebbit was born into a working class family and this meant he could inspire and motivate many of them to vote for the Conservative Party.  The working class has always been suspicious of the Conservative Party and the Etonion and Oxbridge roots but Tebbit & Thatcher blew these concerns away.

In an interview with The New Statesman in 2000 Tebbit responded to why he supported John Major post Thatcher and did not stand himself…..  ‘I helped him. If I’d opposed him, he wouldn’t have been on the radar screen. I’d have been opposing Michael Heseltine. I had to make the decision quickly. I didn’t want to go back on my word to my wife that I’d retired from front-line politics. How would it all work? Was No 10 suitable for someone in a wheelchair? All these things go through one’s mind. Then if Michael had won…he would have had to ask me to join his government, and I didn’t want that. I asked myself: why am I risking all this? And I made my decision…I might have been an absolute disaster in the job. It’s possible. So I am left there. You can’t rewrite it. You can’t rerun it.”

For those too young to remember Norman, a basic overview of his life is:  Born in Enfield, worked as a journalist for the Financial Times, before spending 4 years with the RAF and later joining the BOAC as a pilot.  He entered politics in 1970.  He served as Secretary of State for Employment, Secretary of State for Trade & Industry & President of the Board of Trade (Oct 1983 – Sept 1985), and Party Chairman (1985-87).  During a Conservative Party Conference in Brighton he was injured and his wife, Margaret, was permanently disabled by an IRA bomb.  Like Margaret Thatcher, he retired from the House of Commons in 1992 and entered the House of Lords as Baron Tebbit of Chingford.

What was endearing and refreshing about Tebbit was that he was (and is)  a no nonsense politician.  A plain speaker.  No messing around.  In the aftermath of urban riots in the summer of 1981, with media suggestions linking riots to high levels of unemployment, Tebbit, so memorably, but capturing the mood said:  ‘I grew up in the 1930s with an unemployed father.  He did not riot.  He got on his bike and looked for work, and he went on looking until he found it’.  A quote that resonates to this very day.  The quote today is more distorted to ‘On yer bike and find work’, but emphasizes the need for self help and personal drive.

The real question of why Tebbit never pursued a more senior role ie Leadership of the Party and being the PM, must lie back to the shocking night when the IRA tried to take out the Conservative Cabinet.  The Brighton bomb really redefined Tebbit’s political life.  Margaret Thatcher reportedly told Woodrow Wyatt (this is when Tebbit decided to leave the Cabinet after the 1987 election to look after his wife and support the Government from the back benches), that:  “He’ll carry the scar of that Brighton bombing all his life. I didn’t want him to go. Whenever he is away from her he can’t even attend to business properly. He’s always ringing up to find out if the nurses are looking after his wife all right”.  Thatcher lost a great support from her right hand side in 1987 from Cabinet.  Some see this as the first seed in the decline of Thatcher as she lost that close guiding steer.

Tebbit has always courted controversy.  In 1990 he proposed the now infamous, ‘Cricket Test’.  This also became known as ‘Tebbit’s test’.  Tebbit’s proposition was that seeing which cricket team people from ethnic minorities supported, ie whether they would support England or the team closest to their ethnic origins.  He argued this was the barometer to judge their allegiance and integration into society.  This inevitably caused a shit storm in the media, with Tebbit being accused of racism.  The British media are a difficult beast when it comes to discussing integration and immigration issues and are quick to call people racist the moment they discuss these issues…however constructively. 

Tebbit will be remembered for many things.  One of his biggest passions, to this day, is the loss of British Sovereignty to the cancerous growth of the federalist European Union.  Tebbit will fight on this issue until the last breath in his body.  Tebbit in 2007 summed up his views:  ‘”From being a supporter of British membership of the Common Market in 1970 I have come to believe that the United Kingdom would be Better Off Out of the developing European Republic of the 21st century. We British have a thousand year history of self-government. We have been free and democratic longer than any other nation. The European Union is too diverse, too bureaucratic, too corporatist and too centralist to be a functioning democracy. We are happy to trade with our European friends and the rest of the world – but we would prefer to govern ourselves.”

It is true that Tebbit is no fan of Cameron.  He supported David Davis in the leadership campaign and loathes Camerons attempts to reposition the Conservative Party on the ‘left of the middle ground’.   A return to the ‘wets’.

Tebbit’s big concern for the modern Conservative Party is that despite a lead in the polls, (due he sees to the unpopularity of Labour and not a positive endorsement for Conservatives), is that he sees Cameron and many of the front bench as being out of touch with common people, the working class.  Tebbit told the Times that: ‘”what a lot of people will suggest is that they don’t know how the other half lives. David and his colleagues — the very clever young men they have in Central Office these days — are very intellectually clever but they have no experience of the world whatsoever. He has spent much of his time in the Conservative Party and as a public relations guy. Well, it’s not the experience of most people in the streets. That’s the real attack and that’s damaging to him, I think”.

Tebbit is a free thinker.  He is principled.  He is his own man.  Takes no bs.  And lived up to Thatchers values as a ‘conviction politician’.  Despite his comments yesterday, I remember his achievements with fondness and look forward to him uniting behind the Party and fighting hard for the general election victory this country so desperately needs. 

As a reminder of the great man in action.  This is a video posted by the Bruges Group to YouTube, with Norman in humorous and reflective mood, as he speaks at a dinner in the Presence of Baroness Thatcher.

Let’s leave the last word to Norman.  Taken from his Disraeli lecture in 1985, defining his principles:

‘The path away from economic freedom is, as Hayek long ago demonstrated, the road to serfdom. The road may be a long one: the pace may be swift or slow: but the destination cannot be changed. State ownership, state monopolies, state regulation and state planning, through the centralisation of economic power, inevitably lead to economic failure. They inevitably increase both the temptation and the scope for abuses of political power until freedom itself is threatened. The planned economies, the controlled societies which socialism requires, pervert what are truly economic decisions for the market into political decisions for the politician or the bureaucrat. The fruits of centralised economics are corruption, poverty and servility—and in the socialist society the only medicine which may be prescribed is heavier doses of the same socialist poison’.

Thumbs up.  Cameron takes bold action over expenses

David Cameron has just given his news conference and announced the Conservatives first steps to resolve the expenses issue.  Clearly fuming at some of his MP’s and this situation, David gave bold direction and imposed his leadership on the Party.  Exactly as called for and needed at this time.

David told the ‘electrically charged’ press conference that:

- Senior members of the Shadow Cabinet will repay back thousands of pounds of expenses, including Michael Gove (£7,000), Andrew Lansley (£2,600), Oliver Letwin (£2,000), Francis Maude, Alan Dundan (£5,000) and Chris Grayling

- All Conservative MP’s will have to pay back expenses judged in appropriate by an internal Party panel or face expulsion from the Party

- This internal Party Panel includes Patrick McLoughlin, (Cons Chief Whip), whose purpose is to adjudge whether expense claims, including those which were within Commons rules, meet the “smell test” of public opinion

- All Tories will have to publish every expense claim made online for the public to see

- Finally, we see an end to “flipping” – where MP’s changed their designated second home to make a profit from their allowance.

- Claims for furniture, household goods and food are also banned.

TBB called DC to be bold and this is a great start.  Given the Government were exposed first and had longer to respond, NO….yes…NO Cabinet Minister or Labour MP has offered to repay money as yet.  Given David has stolen the charge on this issue, we will no doubt see Gordon pushed into a corner…grumbling away and announcing Cabinet members will do the same.  BUT the world will know.  Gordon was reacting to the Tories leadership. 

If Gordon does not announce that Labour Cabinet Members and Labour MP’s are to pay back money, then they will be badly discredited.  BUT TBB feels that the amounts involved for the Labour Cabinet members are FAR higher and may prove more of a challenge to repay than the Conservatives amounts. 

One of the things that TBB called for was MP’s who grossly claimed to have the whip withdrawn.  David fairly announced that he is giving members a chance to repay amounts paid.  The Party Panel will judge excessive claims and that member will be given the option to repay.  If they decline, then DC has stated they will be expelled.  That’s a fair system and one the public will resonate with.

In a decent and fair world, many people will see today that David has acted properly and sought to restore pride to politics and being a Conservative MP.  Good start David.  Full respect.  Now let’s all watch with interest to see what Gordon et al do next……over to you Gordon……

David, making his statement on Sky News.

An MP’s life:  Long hours and poor pay, (great summer holiday)

Let’s get to the root of this issue.  It is the elephant in the room.  Let’s out it.  An MP’s salary is far too low.  FAR TOO LOW.  It’s derisory.  It’s a pittance.  Given the responsibility of the role, change needs to be made.

An MP’s basic salary is £64,766 pa.  On top of this an MP gets allowances for running an office and employing staff, having somewhere to live in London, somewhere to live in their constituency and travel between the two.

An MP’s life is long and hard when Parliament is in session.  They have to balance attendance in the House of Commons, (sometimes staying until 11pm to vote), with constituency work, party work, research, media appearances, writing speeches/articles etc etc.  Long hours.  Yes they get Friday off but that is consumed by constituency work and the hours they have worked Monday to Thursday balance out having Friday ‘off’.  Many MP’s work weekends as well.  Yes they do have a long summer break, slightly longer than a teacher but they do have a responsible job.

We expect MP’s to be of the highest integrity, to represent us, ensure our country is well governed, come up with new ideas and ways to enhance our lives.  We want the best people to represent us…and yet we pay the salary of a senior middle manager.  How can we attract the best people to stand as an MP, if we don’t reward them?  I would love to see quality players like Iain Dale in the House, but let’s be honest he would do so for the love of the role, not the financial aspects, as he is better off as a publisher, public speaker and blogger.

Yes…..why become an MP?  Salaries and benefits are far more luxious than that of an MP in BOTH the public sector and private sector.  Look at some of the salaries I published on this blog yesterday.  You will never convince me that those public sector roles are more important or influential than that of an MP, yet they are commanding £10ok salaries.

So when an MP gets into office, of course they look to supplement their income.  They often use their wife/partner as their political secretary.  They are seeking ways to boost their income and this is where expenses come into play.  It’s a way to ‘retain’ their salary by charging costs to the tax payer.

Like everyone reading this blog I hate corruption.  I hate seeing what is happening to Parliament.  But I also understand that MP’s salaries need reform.  Each year, the media jump on the band wagon…anti any raise in MP’s salaries.  Hence why the expenses system makes sense to some members.

The highest most prestigious office of our great nation:  Prime Minister gets….£130, 959, plus on top their House of Commons salary of £64, 766.  So do we really think that the highest office in the land is worthy of only £200k.  Of course not.  That’s the drop in the ocean for a top executive and no executive has the power and influence of a Prime Minister.

As we look for politicians to amend their expenses, let’s hope the white elephant of the room, their poor pay comes onto the table…….