TURKEYS don't vote for Christmas. So we can be fairly sure that despite G20 and the apparent determination of world leaders, bankers are never going to voluntarily forego their bonuses and hell will freeze over before politicians give up their lucrative expenses.
What we need, and what we are all waiting for, is emergency legislation to end rewards for the greedy. Instead, we are repeatedly told it is "not that simple". Even Gordon Brown continues to insist that bankers need incentives, although he says they
should get bonuses for success (whatever that means), not failure.
Among the solutions proffered to stop MPs milking the system are overnight allowances instead of second home expenses, or – and you've got to laugh at this – ending expenses altogether and giving them a huge salary hike instead.
Rather than the poor things having to put in the effort of submitting claims to swindle the public out of flat-screen TVs, bath plugs and the appreciation value of London homes, we simply legitimise it all and pay them up front, no questions asked.
What a great example they set – and we wonder why neds think nothing of taking cameras, laptops and anything else that isn't nailed down from publicly-owned institutions like the NHS? Robbing from the public runs through our culture like lettering in a stick of rock.
We are in a state of international emergency like no other, certainly in my lifetime. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Unheard of legislation had to be passed in wartime and it's surely not beyond the powers of governments to rush in appropriate laws now.
It's no use saying to bankers: "I say old chap . . . would you mind awfully having a look at your bonus system? Damned irritating to the public, might have an effect on voting at the election, don't you know." What's wrong with: "We own your bank now and you'll do as you're told. End the bonus system now or you'll be sacked and sued for misappropriating public money"?
As for MPs, they don't actually NEED homes in London. They need to stay in London four nights or so a week and that's quite a different proposition. Why can't they stay in publicly-owned halls of residence? We could provide them with a comfortable bedroom complete with the necessary facilities. They could share communal kitchens, lounges and meeting rooms. The difference being that these buildings and their contents would be owned by us. The country, not the MP, would benefit from property appreciation. When the MP lost their seat, their successor could move into their room. No accommodation expenses and no claims.
MSPs aren't whiter than white, either. Their salary, like their colleagues in Westminster, is allegedly assessed by an independent body. Quite how that independent body comes up with a 2.33 per cent pay rise in this climate is a mystery.
Yes, Scottish Cabinet members have turned down the increase – the others are still graciously considering.
Our problem is that we don't have leaders or parties with the cojones to do what is necessary in a crisis. Oh, they can look worried, wrinkle their foreheads in deep thought and try to pretend they have a handle on all this. But, in reality, it is business as usual, the greed goes on.
Their concentration is at best split between solving the financial crisis and on how they and their party will survive it, how they can escape without blame.
They can't. Maggie Thatcher set the greed culture in motion. Gordon Brown raided the pension plans, forcing savers to turn to property as a means of financing their old age. Borrowing and property prices soared and we now have some people with two or three homes which they can't afford and a chronic housing shortage. Borrow, borrow, spend, spend got us into this, and we simply cannot borrow and spend our way out.
If we were all in the same boat, we might regain some of that Second World War spirit of pulling together, but we're not. The elite, including our elected representatives, are feathering their own nests at our expense and revolution isn't just in the air, it is only a breath away.
Family values?IT used to be written in the statute books: a husband or wife could not be compelled to give evidence against their spouse except under certain circumstances. It's now under review but, rather than scrapping it, surely we should be considering extending it. Janette Mercer, the mother of Rhys Jones' killer, has been jailed for lying in a bid to protect her evil son.
Of course, she was wrong to do so. But how reliable was her evidence ever going to be? In reality, many women who wouldn't think twice about testifying against their husbands would lie, steal or kill for their children.
On that basis, questioning her in the first place was a waste of time.
