Yes You Did – No I Did Not

I feel a spat coming on. It may take a bit of time to reach a peak, but the Sir Tom McKillop, Lord Myners game of who knew what and when is warming up nicely, while Sir Fred Goodwin must be happy to see the discussions and disagreements over his RBS pension focusing elsewhere. I do wonder if Gordon Brown was a little hasty in saying the letter from McKillop added nothing new to the facts of the situation. From what’s been reported to be in the letter and the answers Myners gave to the parliamentary select committee there is a huge difference.

If McKillop’s letter is a true record of events then Myners lied to parliament and should be removed from office. It may be Gordon Brown is hopping the G20 talks will swamp press coverage of the letter and the whole sorry affair will quietly fade away. Sorry Gordon, but this is just another example of the shambles that is the Labour government. They are jerking their knees faster than a drummer in a rock band, and each time they get it wrong.

Reducing VAT by 2.5% was pointless and very costly for many businesses. Alistair Darling has cut the planned business rate rise of 5% to 2% the day before it was due to happen even after saying on many occasions he would not. How much disruption will that cause to local authorities? What other desperate acts will this government try before they realise that it’s them who are causing many of the problems before they do the decent thing and call a general election.

Two Faced Two Jags

What was John Prescott going on about this morning, saying we should just snatch back all the money given to the ex-head of RBS and let him sue the Government. He was just as money grabbing when he was Deputy Leader. Perhaps we should sue him to get back all the money he took for doing no more than playing croquet, talking rubbish and punching idiots.

Fair Pay

Perhaps the Government should start by setting an example to the ex-boss of RBS by giving up some of their financial rewards having presided over, and contributed to, the county’s current woes and a national debt that equates to over £33,000 for every person in the country.

Lets start with those over generous pensions. It only takes 25 years at 6% contributions to get a pension of half pay. If you contribute at 10% its only 20 years to half pay. It must be one of the best pension deals around.

And how about those poorly regulated expenses claims. No receipt is required for items under £250 and the range of items which can be claimed is extensive. The average expenses claim is more than twice a MP’s salary and the total for the whole of Parliment is almost £100,000,000.

Asking the bank bosses to give up some of their cash seems rather two-faced in view of how MPs have taken to the money grabbing culture. Just look at the official guidance below to see what’s on offer to MPs. You might just think it worth having a go at the next general election.

The Green Book [Guidance to Members on Fees and Allowances produced by the House of Commons’ Department of Finance and Administration]