WHAT price democracy? There is no price too high, most of us would once have instinctively replied. Reluctantly, I have concluded we are deluding ourselves.
Like many readers, I last week posted a significant cheque off to Her Majesty's Revenue &
Customs to settle my tax liability. Usually, I do so willingly, thankful to be fortunate enough to have reasonably well-paid work I enjoy.
Not so this year. The news that Conservative MP Derek Conway has been using my hard-earned tax receipts to fund his children through university had me spitting tacks. To put it mildly.
My fury is entirely personal, having supported my children through university for five years now. And next year, when Number Three heads off for ivory towers, I will have the dubious pleasure of funding two simultaneously.
As any parent with college-age children can tell you, the sums involved are breathtaking, particularly if it goes on for any length of time.
It leaves me speechless that a member of the Mother of Parliaments should be so devoid of any moral fibre that he could see nothing wrong in palming this cost off on honest hardworking taxpayers like me and you.
In any other walk of life, not only would he have been sacked, but arguably he would be facing more serious charges.
Which started me questioning the value we are getting from this gravy train we call democracy. In Scotland, I reckon we each have five people protecting our rights at various levels of government.
Leaving aside the fact that they seem more intent on protecting their feather beds, I calculate we are bankrolling them, their families, hangers-on, their second homes and cars to the tune of nearly £1m annually, not including pensions.
It is virtually impossible to work out what they cost us, because the web of allowances is unfathomable. But our Westminster MP, like Conway, earns £61,820, has a staff allowance of £95,050, second home expenses of £21,339 and additional expenses of £23,083. There are travel expenses, communications allowances and so forth, but at that point I lost the will to live.
Our two MSPs earn £53,091 and can claim £60,700, with a further £11,400 allowed for accommodation. Again there are travelling and other expenses on top.
Our European MP earns around £62,500 and can claim even more in staff, travel and accommodation expenses than the other representatives. He has a £142,000 annual limit on staff expenses.
Add in the higher costs of ministers and their expenses, and salaries and expenses for councillors, and the numbers go through the roof.
Do we really need all these people? And that's before we consider the huge costs of pointless inquiries and quangos, many of which are of blatantly dubious worth.
From that perspective, Conway may have done us an immense favour by turning the spotlight on the enormous confidence trick that politicians have been playing on the rest of us for years.
Kids on the skids
STAYING with the Conway story, and the debate about whether parliamentarians should be allowed to employ their families, the other story which caught my imagination was the Channel Four Dispatches programme 'Why Kids Kill'.
How disappointing that with so much 'democracy' to protect our rights, we have to accept deep-seated nepotism at the heart of Government.
But what normal person would want to work with their spouse anyway? How does the saying go? For better or for worse, but not for lunch.
Not for lunch is one thing, but can you imagine being joined at the hip for the morning meeting, 11am press briefing, right through to late-night debates?
The Dispatches programme followed two groups of young people living in communities torn apart by violence, in Lambeth and Glasgow. They said if there were more jobs, they wouldn't be hanging round the streets and getting into trouble.
Who are we kidding here? From what I saw, the interviewees were unemployable. It wouldn't matter how many jobs we had, no employer would touch them.
So my solution to the parliamentary staffing scandal is that members should be forced to employ young people from the most disadvantaged communities. After all, they are responsible for the policies which have failed these kids.
This way these excluded youngsters can be brought right into the heart of our democracy. And crucially, politicians would be brought face to face with the often disastrous consequences of their policies.
The full article contains 759 words and appears in Scotland On Sunday newspaper.
