MPs, Expenses, and Elephants

I mentioned Willie Roe on 6^th May, in connection with contracts that his consultancy firm, Rocket Science, had been awarded by Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the quango of which he is chairman. He is to step down from the company following an investigation into contracts worth £150,000 that it won from the development agency. The audit found that William Roe’s company did not benefit from his HIE position, but he said he was quitting Edinburgh-based Rocket Science to prevent any “perception of a conflict of interests”. He said: “I asked myself if there could be an even higher standard of separation of functions that would prevent any possible perception of a conflict of interest arising in the future. As a result, I decided on May 21 that, irrespective of the outcome of the HIE review, I would completely separate my public service functions from my private business interests.” Does this mean that he loses out on money from his private interests? Of course not! However, he would have lost quite a bit over the next 3 years if he had resigned from his cushy chairman’s post. Should he still be in that post? Just ask the bosses of many small firms who were not even allowed to apply for those contracts, and the answer will be readily apparent.

As the fuss over MPs’ expenses has fizzled out, at least for the moment, we should look at the body that allowed those outrageous claims to be rubber stamped. The Fees Office has for years been the custodian of “The System”, which originally stated that expenses could only be allowed if they were absolutely unavoidable for an MP to do his or her job. Actually, The Additional Costs Allowance, which seems to be at the root of all the trouble, was introduced in 1971 during Edward Heat’s days. (I wonder if he was one of the first to claim, maybe for a conductor’s baton, or gold plated taps for his yacht). At that time, it was capped at a few hundred pounds, but was raised to many thousands of pounds under the leadership of Tony Blair, the supreme conman. With that carrot being dangled in front of them, is it any wonder that many stood for Parliament who do not care a hoot for their constituents, but only for their reinforced pockets?

I would think that the main aim of most MPs, once elected, is to make sure that they are elected again, given the amount of money that they receive for doing practically nothing. Hence, although most of his MPs would like to see Gordon Brown step down as Prime Minister, they decided on Monday night to give him another chance. Not out of any love for the PM, but because they thought that having another unelected leader of Government would lead to an imminent General Election, when a lot of them would lose their seats. Actually, even with a later Election, a lot of them will lose their seats, as the British public has been roused from their customary apathy by the stream of revelations in the past few weeks.

Given the dire state of the economy in most countries at the present time, it seems preposterous for a football club to be dishing out around £138 million for two football players. The club will recoup the money, of course, some of it from sponsorship, but also from fans who will be shelling out more than half their weekly wages on admittance to games, and on related items, thus leaving them and their families in even more poverty. I’ve also read that over £1.4 billion is spent each year on pet food – four times the amount spent on baby food. A world gone mad, with its priorities all mixed up.

On a happier note, being one of those folk suffering from a nervous disposition, I was very relieved to hear that an elephant is the only mammal that cannot jump. I’ll feel so much safer when I’m on my next annual trip to Africa.

UK Government and Lack of Responsibility

I see that across the water from us, in Ireland, politicians have come to realise that there is an economic crisis on the go. Usually, on St Patrick’s Day, March 17^th, around  30 of the Irish Government cabinet ministers take a trip to various overseas countries, supposedly to showcase Ireland abroad, but which are really “junkets”  for those lucky enough to be involved. Reason has prevailed this year, however, and only 17 are taking flights to foreign parts. For the past few years, Ireland has been nicknamed “The Celtic Tiger”, and rightly so, because of its vibrant economy. It is refreshing to see that they are taking note of the present downturn, and listening to ordinary people’s concerns.

During some of those years, Britain had a Chancellor who told the people that everything in the proverbial garden was lovely, that Britain was going through a golden patch, and that we could spend as much as we wanted to, by borrowing as much as we wanted to. During that time, when there were a couple of years that the economy did reasonably well, he failed to put by reserves that would be available later to cushion the ensuing low times. He got rid of our gold and our money, and now that he’s Prime Minister, amnesia seems to have set in, and he proclaims that he had nothing to do with it.

Amnesia doesn’t seem to be the only problem with Lord Myners, who was appointed Financial Services Secretary to the Treasury in October 2008. He has been in trouble ever since then, being the person blamed for sanctioning Sir Fred Goodwin’s £693,000 pension. He still insists that he had not been told how much the former Royal Bank of Scotland was to be paid, although he knew that it would be a “large sum”. Surely it was part of his job to find out what the exact figures and conditions were. No – it seems that others should have made those enquiries, and informed him. He has made a habit throughout his life of becoming directors with various bodies, ten as far as I can gather, as well as being a trustee or chairman of others. In fact, he was Chairman of the Trustees of the Tate Gallery when two Turner paintings were stolen. Those were recovered, but it’s thought that a secret sum of close to £3,000,000 was splashed out for their return. Seemingly, Lord Myners expressed his surprise, as he assumed that the gallery got them back for free. Doesn’t anyone tell the poor Lord anything?

Those are only a couple of examples of people at the top of the tree in our country, and it would take up too much of my time to cover a host of other instances that seem to crop up on a daily basis. This habit of passing the buck seems to be ensconced in the corridors of power everywhere in Britain nowadays, and things certainly won’t improve until folk begin to accept responsibility for their actions.