Snouts in the trough

Above: Asda sell these pig-shaped pink cakes - they are slightly amusing, very rich and leave a sickly aftertaste.

The issue of MPs expenses and employment of family members (characterised as snouts in the trough) continues to appear in the news bulletins. The latest, outrageous, suggestion is that MPs pay should rise by £23,000 in return for abolishing all expenses claims. MPs say they could earn far more in other professions that they can in Westminster (those who make this statement should be told to go and work in other professions, as no-one would miss them and there would be no shortage of candidates for their Westminster seats).

Margaret Beckett, MP for Derby South, tried to claim £1,900 to put up a pergola in her garden. She justified the claim by saying it was within the rules, ignoring any moral restraint she should have shown (Gavin Esler was far too polite when asking her about this pergola on Newsnight). What possible public interest is to be served by putting up a pergola in Margaret Beckett’s garden - is she going to sit under it and wait for policy inspirations to manifest themselves?

The government lost the Crewe & Nantwich by-election last week. Among the many reasons put forward for the defeat no-one seems to have mentioned public distaste with nepotism (using the word in its widest sense) and yet the Labour candidate’s chief selling point was the fact that she was the daughter of the previous MP. Despite the public eulogy shown for Gwyneth Dunwoody, privately many voters must have been unhappy with that political silver spoon.



Above: political snouts in the trough is a familiar theme of the Daily Express. This article appeared yesterday, revealing that husband and wife “team” Ann Keen MP and Alan Keen MP claimed a staggering amount of mortgage interest. More than extravagant “expenses” it is the employment of family “teams” that the public finds so distasteful - politicians don’t seem to get this.

The Daily Express is one of the middle-ranking newspapers - “middle” in more ways than one (middle-class, middle-brow, middling standards of journalism). In its heyday the Daily Express brand was exhibited through popular icons such as the art deco Fleet Street headquarters, the Rupert Bear cartoon, larger-than-life writers such as Jean Rook and John Junor (Sunday Express editor, with his own tagline: “pass the sick bag Alice”). Old timers say the Daily Express was never the same after Jean Rook stopped writing.

Express newspapers is owned by the controversial Richard Desmond. He is renowned for acrimonious relationships with others within the media elite. Hostile to Gordon Brown.

More: http://www.newstatesman.com/200012040043