Britannia Radio

The government talks of spending to get the country out of recession, 
but this shows what they really mean.  

All these MPs have got jobs  already.  

They've had their holidays extended both in the summer and 
over Christmas.  

So now they are to get a futher dollop of public 
money to regulate their own totally unnecessary quangoes .  

Meanwhile  unemployment is soaring and family finances are getting tighter.  
Brown just doesn't care - building the socialist state is all.
This is a digusting proposal,  and will contribute to making the 
recession worse.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx  cs
==================
MAIL ON SUNDAY   9.11.08
'Elite' MPs' £13,000 salary hike will land taxpayers with £1.5m bill

By Brendan Carlin

MPs were at the centre of a new pay row last night over plans to 
spend £1.5million on a fresh layer of Commons bureaucracy that would 
give some backbenchers a £13,000 salary hike.

Plans have been put forward to create new Commons committees with 
more staff, travel and accommodation costs, as well as extra pay for 
an elite group of MPs.

The huge package - to be formally proposed by Commons Leader Harriet 
Harman on Wednesday - includes a £1million network of eight new 
English 'regional committees' to oversee Labour's controversial 
English regional development agencies.

Each would be made up of nine MPs, including a chairman earning up to 
£13,713 on top of the normal MP's salary of about £62,000.

Ms Harman will also propose eight new 'grand committees' for the 
English regions outside London, at a cost of more than £300,000. The 
chairman of each would receive a pay-hike of up to £5,200.

Gordon Brown has specifically requested a new 'Speaker's Conference', 
costing an estimated £261,075 over the next two years, to try to 
increase election turn out and regenerate public interest in politics.

The plans sparked disbelief at a time when hard-pressed families are 
struggling to pay bills and hold on to jobs.

Tory MP Douglas Carswell said: 'The idea of creating another set of 
talking shops for self-regarding politicians will be seen as 
outrageous.'
Mark Wallace, of the TaxPayers' Alliance campaign group, said: 'When 
the public are struggling to make ends meet, it is inappropriate to 
establish more salaried positions for MPs and create a fresh layer of 
Commons bureaucracy.

'It would be far cheaper and more popular to abolish these regional 
agencies.'

Mr Wallace said his group had carried out research showing that the 
regional development quangos - set up and championed by John Prescott 
- either hadn't worked or had worsened economic life in their region.

But a spokesman for Ms Harman last night defended the plans, saying 
that the cost of the new committees was relatively small when set 
against an annual budget of £2.3billion for the regional development 
agencies.

And he pointed out that the Commons' modernisation committee had 
already approved the changes.

The pay row comes amid fears that details of MPs' expenses for the 
past four years might be, according to one Labour MP, 'sneaked out' 
over the Christmas break.

The expenses were originally to be released last month after Commons 
authorities bowed to pressure and agreed to publish the details.

However, a senior Commons source indicated last night that the 
publication date had now been put back until the New Year at the 
earliest.