Friday 4 April 2014

MPs outside earnings - more unworkable populist nonsense from Labour

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I guess that this works well with the focus group and appeals to the hair shirt tendency in politics:

"There will be some business people coming into parliament [for Labour] but, after they have become an MP, there will be a short transition at the end of which they will not be allowed to work for, or be a director of, a company. A choice has to be made by Labour as to whether we want parliament to be a reflection of the people whom we represent or be perceived as an instrument of the corporate sector."

But what do we mean by working? Labour suggest that it's only the 'corporate sector' that's a problem - so the suggestion is that business is inherently corrupting. I find this deeply disturbing and it reveals that Labour retains its essentially anti-business, anti-choice agenda.

And in order for the proposal to work, we will need more monitoring and a new set of rules governing MPs. Rules that will allow the writer, lawyer, doctor or consultant to earn money while serving as an MP but not the businessman. Such a policy takes away from the essential contract between MPs and those who elect them.

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1 comment:

Curmudgeon said...

So they just become self-employed "consultants" then.

I'd say it would be a good thing for MPs to have MORE outside interest to prevent them become narrow professional politicians.