The DUP won't confirm any family details sticking to a statement issued on Friday by their chief whip Lord Morrow which says they have to respect the confidentiality of their 100 plus staff in more than 40 offices.
Riiigggghhhhtt you are...ok then, don’t bother with the names, you just have to give us the figures...
No such problem with "confidentiality" for Sinn Fein, SDLP and the Alliance Party who’ve been all happy, or at least prepared, to confirm who’s working for daddy/mummy up at Stormont. The UUP are still pondering the question apparently.
And a bit more shocking "snout in the trough" news from the Belfast Telegraph:
And one of the key stated aims of Government policy even in the years before the now almost 10-year-old Good Friday Agreement was the rejuvenation of politics through the creation of a new political class.
If the issue between regional and local government looks like gradually sorting itself out, another level - the 16 politicians who double as MLAs and MPs - is yet another. But at least that kind of double-up is fairly lucrative.
A report just over a year ago showed the 16 share a whopping £3.34m in pay and expenses in a single year made up of almost £1.1m in Assembly pay and expenses on top of £2.25m in Westminster salaries and allowances.
That’s an average of about 200,000 quid each...and considering the abysmal attendance records of everyone of that 16 at Westminster, I think this is the much bigger scandal.
Compare and contrast: In Wales, just one of the 60 Assembly members is also an MP, while none of the 129 members Scottish Parliament members are MPs. And other EU states have deemed it unacceptable for some time for nationally elected politicians to hold European parliament seats.
Er...none in Scotland? Salmond is also double-jobbing, is he not?
But still, if the Scottish and Welsh politicos can only manage to perform one job at at a time, why are their poor counterparts in Northern Ireland being forced to pull in all those double expense claims?
Oink Update:
I knew good old Paisley Jr wouldn't let us down. The DUPed are still not releasing any info and the names of their party-workers, which were previously listed on their web-site, have now been removed. Stalin used to get his opponents air-brushed out of official photographs when they'd upset him, his spiritual heirs in the DUPed simply wipe their internet sites clean of those inconvenient names.
5 comments:
Some of those 16 are also Cllrs, messrs
Donaldson
Wilson
Robinson, I
Campbell
McCrea
There may be more. Thats at least another 5 grand, maybe 9, I dont remember.
None of the Welsh AM's are also MP's. Only in the first term did this happen, when MP's moved to Cardiff and stayed as MP's until the next general election.
Seems the Belfast Telegraph are struggling to get their facts right! Maybe they get their facts from the British Guardian, which lists First Minister Rhodri Morgan as an MP - he is not.
Michael,
Also McDonnell?
Also any idea where I'd get info about Councillor attendance records?
HF
Seems the Belfast Telegraph are struggling to get their facts right!
That's not a first!
However, they've still made a valid point here.
Northern Ireland is following a great cross-border tradition.
Practically all members of the Dail and the Seanad are also members of their local council. In a STV voting system, councillors of the same party compete with each other to try and get themselves sent to Leinster House.
As a rule the only members of the Oireachtas who are not councillors are government ministers, recently sacked government ministers and opposition party leaders. Even opposition frontbenchers used to have to sit on councils also.
It is also normal for mayors and council chairmen to be in the Oireachtas.
One chap in the mid 1980's had one heck of an onerous brief. He was a TD, a counillor on Dublin Corporation, Fianna Fail shadow on employment (hardly a small brief in the mid 1980's in the Republic) and Lord Mayor of Dublin.
The name of this "bionic"-uber politician:-
Bertie Ahern!
Dealing with Northern Ireland:-
I remember distinctly that Ken Maguiness when he was in the Commons was also sat on his local council.
And of course Paisley less than 10 years ago in his multiple roles of church minister, church leader, party leader, MEP, MP and Assembly member (when in session).
It must be something about the Emerald Isle that so many people want to take on so many jobs!!!!
Northern Ireland is following a great cross-border tradition.
Practically all members of the Dail and the Seanad are also members of their local council. In a STV voting system, councillors of the same party compete with each other to try and get themselves sent to Leinster House.
As a rule the only members of the Oireachtas who are not councillors are government ministers, recently sacked government ministers and opposition party leaders. Even opposition frontbenchers used to have to sit on councils also.
It is also normal for mayors and council chairmen to be in the Oireachtas.
One chap in the mid 1980's had one heck of an onerous brief. He was a TD, a counillor on Dublin Corporation, Fianna Fail shadow on employment (hardly a small brief in the mid 1980's in the Republic) and Lord Mayor of Dublin.
The name of this "bionic"-uber politician:-
Bertie Ahern!
Dealing with Northern Ireland:-
I remember distinctly that Ken Maguiness when he was in the Commons was also sat on his local council.
And of course Paisley less than 10 years ago in his multiple roles of church minister, church leader, party leader, MEP, MP and Assembly member (when in session).
It must be something about the Emerald Isle that so many people want to take on so many jobs!!!!
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