£500M for TOO MANY POLITICIANS!

£500M for TOO MANY POLITICIANS!

Too many mouths at the political trough

By Daily Mail Comment

Last updated at 10:20 AM on 14th July 2009

While the economy goes on shrinking, one group is thriving as never before.

Welcome to Britain's greatest growth industry – our swelling army of professional politicians and their advisers, who now cost taxpayers an extraordinary £500million a year.

Disturbing figures obtained by the BBC suggest the political class has swollen tenfold over the past 30 years, taking the number of party hacks who draw salaries from the state to an incredible 30,000.

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Indeed, in some areas an individual voter may have as many as 20 different elected representatives – including a Westminster MP, councillors, MEPs and members of a devolved regional assembly.

No wonder this country's in a mess. Leave aside the sheer confusion, buck-passing and waste produced by this multiplying political herd, each treading on the other's trotters as they cluster round the trough.

How can businessmen, soldiers, teachers or nurses expect any understanding from elected representatives who know nothing of the real world, but are expert only in the machinations and rewards of politics?

How can any of us plan for the future, when policies and the people responsible for them change every few months with every passing breeze of political fashion?

Worse still, as the political class grows, the quality of its membership is being constantly undermined by the parties' obsession with political correctness.

Increasingly, candidates are chosen not for their ability but for their gender, race or sexual proclivities – a policy as insulting to minorities as it is damaging to the national interest.

So it is that the biggest and best-paid political class in our history is also the most third-rate.

What this country desperately needs is a revival of the sense that politics is not a self-serving career but a public duty.

Wouldn't it be a good start to slash the number of paid politicians – and insist that anyone who stands for public office should have at least some experience of life outside the political bubble?

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A PLAGUE OF POLITICIANS 30,000 @ £500M!!

A PLAGUE of POLITICIANS 30,000 @ £500M!!

A plague of politicians:
There are 30,000 and they cost you £500m every year

By Daniel Martin

Last updated at 12:47 AM on 14th July 2009

Britain funds an army of 30,000 professional politicians and advisers thanks to a decade of Labour reform - and it is costing taxpayers £500 million every year.
Innovations such as devolution have swollen the number of politicians, while at Westminster, Labour has overseen a huge growth in the number of special advisors.

New salaries for councillors have also increased the bill.
Scottish Parliament: Devolution has helped raise politicians' funding dramatically

Figures obtained by the BBC suggest the number of members of the so-called 'political club' have soared ten-fold in 30 years.

And it seems political parties are effectively enjoying state funding via the back door by putting pressure on councillors to donate some of their salary - up to 10 per cent in some cases - to party coffers.

The numbers include every MP, councillor, peer, MEP and member of the Scottish parliament and Welsh, Northern Irish and London assemblies; together with their staff.

Mark Wallace, of the TaxPayers Alliance, said: 'The size and cost of the political class has grown hugely in recent years, against the public's will.

'Politicians of all stripes knew that people would never approve taxpayer-funding of political parties, so they just went ahead and did it without asking us.

'Taxpayers should not have to subsidise the activities of parties that have failed to excite the public about their ideas and their work.

'While these findings are very shocking, they are excellent news in terms of actual transparency and actual accountability because for the first time people can actually look over the whole national picture of what our democracy costs in terms of politicians, and that's essential before we can really work out whether we do get a good deal or not.'
Voiceless: Jane and Brian Handley have a problem with anti-social behaviour near their home in Dumfries but got little response from local representatives


Freedom of Information requests to all councils, devolved assemblies, Westminster and the European Parliament show that, in the financial year 2007/08, just under £500million came from public funds to pay 28,730 professional politicians in the UK.

The Political Club, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, found that MPs and Lords at Westminster, together with their staff and political advisers total around 4,700.

The cost of MPs and ministers' pay plus their expenses, staff and payments to opposition parties was £167million, while peers in the Lords clocked up £19.1million.
Some 73 ministerial special advisors are employed at a cost of £5.9million.
Members of the European Parliament and their staff make up a further 500, while devolved assemblies in Edinburgh, Cardiff, Stormont and London employ more than 1,100 and costing £48million.

Boris Johnson and his London Assembly costs £5.4million.

MEP and staff salaries add up to £4.8million - but the European Parliament would not disclose their expenses bill.
Thirty years ago, no more than 2,000-3,000 people in the UK were paid with taxpayers' money for political work, with the vast majority of representatives, organisers and fundraisers made up of volunteers or party employees.

Around 650 of those were MPs. The overall numbers were far smaller because councillors were not routinely paid.

Councillors used to only receive expenses for turning up to meetings. Now they draw a salary - and that, together with political staff, adds up to a £254.5million cost.

The investigation-also showed that many political parties expect their elected members to make contributions to party funds.

In a practice known as 'tithing', Liberal Democrat councillors are expected to donate 10 per cent of their salaries to party coffers; while Labour also demands a cut.

The Tories say they have abandoned the practice, but councillors told the BBC that there was pressure to contribute.

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