The ThunderDragon: Parliamentary Family Fortunes

01 April 2008

Parliamentary Family Fortunes

The Commons Standards and Privileges Committee said there was "no intention" of MPs having to go "into any detail" about the work they pay family members to do. Erm, why? We, the poor suffering taxpayer, are paying for them so why should we not know what work they are doing?

Besides, what exactly would the point of just having a register of who has family members working for them without any further details? The issue with Derek Conway wasn't that he was employing his sons, but that he was paying them over the odds to do work that they weren't actually doing. If the details are not known and recorded, why bother creating this register? It's a waste of everyone's time and our money in that case, and worth nothing except as an attempt to appear transparent rather than to be transparent.

And it seems that even the European Parliament - despite it own great problems over Members finances - are to go a significant step further than Westminster and ban MEPs from employing family members.

This is a step too far in my opinion. All that is needed is a proper register of what family members do and the payment they received - not a piss-poor attempt like that suggested for Westminster, but a proper full register. Otherwise there's no point.

Do it properly or not at all. Half-measures help no-one.

SELF-CONGRATULATORY TESTIMONIALS

54th Right of Centre blog - Iain Dale's Guide to Blogging 2007: Top 100 Right of Centre Blogs

79th best Conservative Blog - Iain Dale's Guide to Political Blogging 2006

"I like the way he handles a broad range of subjects in an engaging and friendly manner. Definitely one of the good guys." - Croydonian

"Right-Wing blogging from a UK student. A fresh perspective on a plethora of events with a healthy interest in shelf-stacking to boot." - Cityunslicker

"One of the more depressing aspects of blogging and the modern world is seeing reams of text on a page. The Thunder Dragon's mixture of politics and fun posts, with good illustrations and quickly made points makes his blog an accessible and fun place to discuss and think about politics." - gracchi

"Already an A lister, technical whiz Thunder Dragon shows that not all A listers are stuck up stats groupies who’d sell their grandmothers for more traffic. And he’s on Iain Dale’s list for a reason – he’s simply a fine blogger, scoring highly on the ten point Dale criteria and with his finger always on the political pulse. He's also the technical brains behind Blogpower, along with Ian at Imagined Community." - James Higham

"The ThunderDragon consistently provides an interesting and enjoyable read - always entertaining and often insightful. His writing may even give us a foretaste of our political future. Stick with him. After all, time will cure his youth." - Tom Paine

"Thunder Dragon - Provocative and inventive, especially for this post about how to sort out the USA. About 22." - Matt Wardman

"The Thunderdragon is one of the rising stars of conservative blogging" - Graachi

"... a cheeky young fire breather" - DuSanne

"A lovely little political blog... The articles are competently written with a small levening of opinion but not too much to annoy" - Baht At

LINK TO THE THUNDERDRAGON - WITH A BANNER!