We have just had a snippet of what is to come shortly when MPs are required to publish their earnings and time spent on second jobs. Labour were the keenest advocates of this requirement, possibly thinking that it was part time Tories who would provide the most interesting copy for the media.
Alas for the hardened socialist brethren, it appears that one of their own is amongst the first to have his other earnings dragged out of the closet. And horror of horrors, the MP is on the payroll of the great symbol of capitalism, McDonalds.
Little Doug Henderson, the largely unknown Labour MP for Newcastle North, earns £25,000 for ten days work a year "advising" McDonalds. In case you have eaten too many Big Macs and are feeling somewhat mentally incapacitated as a result, that's £2500 for each day worked. What a whopper! (Okay wrong company!) There was I thinking it was only failed bank executives who clocked up salaries on that scale.
Quite why McDonalds think Little Big MacHenderson has anything to offer in the way of "advice" is beyond me. He didn't exactly cover himself in glory when Northern Rock (based in his constituency) went belly up. His advice to the government was to ignore Vince Cable's call to nationalise the failed company.
Anyway, I hope McDonalds feel they get their money's worth. After all, they have to sell an awful lot of big macs to pay for his advice. As for the money, I bet he's loving it.
It's not the first time I have seen this giant of capitalism cuddling up to crusty old socialism. I've visited Yalta a couple of times in the last few years. (It's in the Crimea in the Ukraine.) The Lenin statues are all still in place but the city's McDonalds on the promenade sits right next door to a Lenin statue. I bet he's turning in his grave (or in his Moscow mausoleum)!
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3 comments:
Serious point, why not buy some shares in MacDonalds and go to their AGM and ask?
A socialist in New Labour,I don`t think so.
Stephen Hughes is as guilty as the rest - fact which his running mate, Nick Wallis seeks to hide after removing factual comments from his blog whilst at the same time levelling comments at the other parties.
Why not ask them?
stephen-hughes@btconnect.com
cindi.hughes@darlington.gov.uk
or visit his web site
http://www.stephenhughesmep.org
anyone know of any more because this sort of factual information should inform voters next week
The following is from Open Europe's press report of today
Leading opponent of UK's 48-hour opt-out pockets thousands in MEP allowances
The News of the World reported that Labour MEP Stephen Hughes is claiming his full £42,000 office allowance this year, despite his office rent being just £1,642. He also pays his wife, a local Councillor, £40,000 to be his "chief of staff". The paper notes that he is not breaking any rules, as the EU permits members to claim the full amount even if they do not spend it. It also notes that "he could have raked in hundreds of thousands from the benefit over his 25-year MEP career." Stephen Hughes is leading the European Parliament's campaign to end the UK's opt-out from the 48-hour week.
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