Cash for Access Scandal

[Syt]

An Austrian former minister and EU MP has been sent to jail for a few years over pretty much the same thing. It was a bit of a surprise, considering how lenient Austria normally is in such cases.

[Sheilbh]

It's weird. Rifkind gave a very good defence of the whole cash for access but totally ruined it with his other comments.

You'd be 'amazed how much free time' he has, the Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Select Committee.

A man of his professional background is 'entitled' to certain standard of living. He earns around £81 000 as an MP, and £270 000 as a director of various companies. And compared his £67 000 annual base salary with the £8 000 he can earn for a half day's work for a private company

[Martinus]

Sheilbh, I have a question - since there are so many of scandals like this in Britain - is this illegal? In Poland there is a crime of "paid patronage" which would capture some of these scandals, I think.

[Sheilbh]

I don't think this is illegal or even against the rules. MPs are allowed second jobs or outside earnings as long as they provide details on the register of members' interests.

Some of it is more sympathetic than others. There are still a few barristers who've kept up their practice (though I think eyebrows are probably raised at one MP who billed around 2000 hours last year....) and there are a few people who are involved in companies they founded. Then there's people who earn a lot from public speaking (Gordon Brown), shilling for unpleasant regimes (George Galloway - who hosts shows for Press TV, Russia Today and once a month, live from Beirut, for Al-Mayadeen) or novel writing (Nadine Dorries).

But most of the £7 million MPs earn on the side comes from consultancy work and directorships.

Edit: On the other hand it's worth emphasising that a lot of this is from just a few MPs. The top ten earn over £2.5 million and I believe only 20 MPs earn over £100 000 a year from their outside interests.

Edit: What often amazes me is how cheap some MPs are and there are problems away from the big figures. For example a junior housing minister is now a director of a private rental company for around £15-20 000 a year. Which probably isn't enough to worry massively about corruption but is still, clearly, a problem.

[Richard Hakluyt]

It is not illegal but exploiting one's political connections in this way for private gain is seen as immoral. I imagine that a bad law will be passed soon that puts a stop to far too much extra-parliamentary activity, confining that place even more to "professional" politicians.

MPs' pay is crap btw, and would be a step down for most modestly successful professionals.

[Martinus]

Yeah, that's always a problem.

A Polish MP earns approximately EUR 2.5k per month after taxes. That's about fifth of what I earn. Yet to an "ordinary Pole" this is way too much and "bloody bastards should not be paid more". Not to mention, the scrutiny is obviously much higher than anything you are subject to in private practice.

The end result is mainly people who are either "professional politicians", unsuccesful professionally, independently rich or count on other "benefits" end up in politics.

Edit: The solution is 1-year term only and sortition, as I have always been saying. Political representation (i.e. legislative positions) should be like draft or jury duty.

[Warspite]

The problem of pay for public service is not limited to MPs - see attitudes towards 'overpaid' and 'lazy' civil servants.

[Sheilbh]

By way of comparison, a 3-year qualified Associate at a top London law firm might be on about £85,000, plus bonus.

Yeah but most law firms don't close down for eight weeks of the year

[Monoriu]

The problem of pay for public service is not limited to MPs - see attitudes towards 'overpaid' and 'lazy' civil servants.

I can't agree more.  Civil servants deserve higher pay 

[Sheilbh]

MPs' pay is crap btw, and would be a step down for most modestly successful professionals.

I'm not sure that's true. See the stats with this Spectator piece:
http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2015/02/the-sad-truth-is-that-malcolm-rifkinds-political-career-ended-in-1997/

I think part of it is that weird distorting element about London.

I always think of an Evening Standard piece about property written by one of the Made in Chelsea girls. She'd been given £500 000 by her parents to get her started on the property ladder. To her horror she couldn't afford a remotely decent flat in Chelsea and was forced to look further afield in places like Fulham and Putney. Or I think of novels from the mid-twentieth century which have Chelsea as a plausible area for civil servants and hacks.

It's the usual keeping up with the Jones scenario, but for people who are senior MPs or board members they're trying to keep up with a super-rich that now live in the bits of London that the merely rich used to be able to afford. Which then distorts everything else for everyone else.

[Richard Hakluyt]

The average pay figures for professionals always surprise me by being on the low side but we should bear in mind that they include the recently qualified and also people with their own businesses who take much of their earnings as company dividends rather than as salary. They will also include a large cohort of people who never get a substantive promotion, many of these people are steady and reliable but are unlikely to set the world alight as MPs. There is also the business of potentially losing your job at an election then having trouble getting back in your old profession.

Of course, in living memory, there used to be many electricians, coal miners , bus drivers and so on in the Commons.........no doubt they were delighted by the pay and conditions and they made perfectly good MPs 

[Martinus]

The average pay figures for professionals always surprise me by being on the low side but we should bear in mind that they include the recently qualified and also people with their own businesses who take much of their earnings as company dividends rather than as salary. They will also include a large cohort of people who never get a substantive promotion, many of these people are steady and reliable but are unlikely to set the world alight as MPs. There is also the business of potentially losing your job at an election then having trouble getting back in your old profession.

Of course, in living memory, there used to be many electricians, coal miners , bus drivers and so on in the Commons.........no doubt they were delighted by the pay and conditions and they made perfectly good MPs 

Yup, average pay for professionals is always low, as the spreads are huge. For every high-flying City lawyer bringing in half a million quid per year, there are 20 country solicitors with annual income in tens of thousands or less.