Archive for the 'Ministers' Category

I spy with my Little Pie - Phil Woolas MP, Immigration Minister

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October 25th, 2008 by Matt Wardman

Immigration minister Phil Woolas has been pied during a debate at the University of Manchester.

This is one way to offer Ministers a view of policy.

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Democracy, Ministers , .

All About The Money

2 Comments
June 19th, 2008 by ThunderDragon

money-pound-notesIt’s not just all about “the economy, stupid”, but it’s also all about our pay.

Alastair Darling is telling us all to be restrained in our pay demands, as inflation is reaching towards the 4% mark [and is over it if you use the RPI], and energy bills could rise by as much as 40%, costing the average household an extra £400 per year.

So why shouldn’t - or wouldn’t - we ask for a pay rise when essentials are costing us so much more? It’s pretty damn obvious that if Life is costing us more, we want Work to pay us more so that we can live. That is why we work, after all! Not just for the enjoyment of it!

Yes, Darling, Brown et al are setting themselves up as a good example, as they and Cameron and the other Conservatives on the ministerial payroll forgo their 1.5% pay rise this year. But when Brown is getting £189,994, Cabinet ministers are getting £138,724, Cameron gets paid £132,317, and even an Assistant Government Whip is getting £87,493 every year [pdf] - including their parliamentary salary - then losing a 1.5% pay rise won’t really affect them all that much.

To them, it is just a gesture.

Whilst it’s all meant nobly, I’m sure, it doesn’t make much difference to someone who has just been clobbered by an increase in their tax rate after Brown scrapped the 10p tax rate, followed by the massive rise in the cost of essentials such as fuel, power, and food. Such people simply can’t afford to follow the political classes’ financial gesture.

What is especially galling is that whilst ministers are applying the hair shirt policy, MPs just want more money - with £100,000 being touted as their worth! This is certainly not the right time for MPs to be asking for a pay rise, especially one as big as they want.

Personally, I much prefer Peter Lilley’s idea - but extending it to apply to all government personnel as well. Right up to and including the Prime Minister. How keen would they be then to keep giving away power to Brussels?

Ministers, Money, Parliament

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April 2nd, 2008 by ThunderDragon
Busy doing nothing:
The number of Government ministers should be slashed by a quarter because too many are “busy doing nothing”, a former aide to Tony Blair said.
Matthew Taylor, who was the head of the Number 10 policy unit, said that senior politicians were being paid for “detail” work that should be carried out by officials…
“I would more specifically devolve authority to officials and make officials more accountable to MPs and the public so that politicians don’t feel they have to get involved in the fine details.” (The Telegraph)

Government is just wasting our money and just throwing it all down in the laps of MPs. We don’t need such a large number of government ministers, or even such a large number of civil servants. Just a smaller government.

Civil Service, Ministers, Wasting Taxpayer's Money