Tory machine making excuses for second jobs

Second jobs, so we are told, help MPs to stay in touch with the real world and the needs of constituents.

David Cameron was quick to claim he is “relaxed” about more details of his shadow Cabinet’s outside earnings being made public this week under new transparency rules: “I do not think that a chamber full of professional politicians with no outside experience is a good thing,” he said.
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Who is the government really listening to?

Wow. Strong words from David Cameron yesterday. Only six years after a national poll found that over half of us felt we had “no say over what government does”, he’s today calling for “the redistribution of power from the powerful to the powerless”.

“Through decentralisation, transparency and accountability we must take power from the elite and hand it to the man and woman in the street,” he said. But why do we feel excluded from politics?
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Osborne isn’t as thrifty as he claims

George Osborne announced an “age of austerity” at this week’s Conservative spring conference: “We need a government of thrift,” he said, adding: “David Cameron and I have earned the right to be heard on this.”

Has George Osborne earned this right? His personal record on expenses seems if not frugal, then certainly not extravagant. Last year George’s office – minus any housing and personal claims – cost the tax payer roughly £110,000. The bulk of this – £79,000 – went on staff costs. Sounds like value for money for a busy shadow chancellor.

Except that in the same year, George also accepted donations, earmarked by donors for staffing his office, of nearly half a million pounds. Suddenly George looks a bit of a spend-thrift.
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