Michael Foot: Wales' most brilliant adopted son

Westminster Bubble Antics

Peter Hain has hit back at Conservative claims that his support for Prime Minister Gordon Brown is under question.

"This is pure Tory mischief making. Everybody knows that I have remained loyal to the Prime Minister. I believe he is the best leader for this country and we can win the next General Election under him. I spoke to Downing Street early yesterday afternoon to reaffirm my support for the Prime Minister, but refused to join the Westminster bubble antics by putting out yet another statement when my position was so clearly known."

7 January 2010

Letter to Sir Christopher Kelly

Sir Christopher Kelly
Review of MPs Expenses
The Committee on Standards in Public Life
35 Great Smith Street
London
SW1P 3BQ
4th June 2009

Dear Sir Christopher Kelly,

REVIEW OF MPs EXPENSES
I welcome your Review and offer the following suggestions, both as an MP for over eighteen years and Leader of the Commons between 2003 and 2005:

Second homes
If MPs are not compensated for essential costs for maintaining a second home, Parliament will be confined to those who are wealthy. I know one current MP, an ex-miner, who was elected in 1987 whilst he was on the dole: how could he possibly have financed staying in London without an allowance to fund the cost? Most MPs, me included, did not enter the Commons for personal enrichment; most come from modest backgrounds and the cost of maintaining a second home would be prohibitive. MPs whose constituencies are not within acceptable commuting distances to Westminster should therefore have essential costs paid. The alternative is to go back to previous generations of metropolitan-based MPs who were either well-off, or made only quick and occasional visits to their constituencies.

Essential Costs
Essential costs for second homes should be confined to mortgage interest or rent (or occasional hotels), council tax and utility bills. The alternatives (permanently available hotel rooms or hostels) would be even more expensive to the taxpayer and socially debilitating for MPs who work arduous hours. Given rent levels in areas of London convenient for Westminster, mortgage interest costs are by far the best value for the taxpayer; furthermore maintenance is effectively sub-contracted to MPs, another taxpayer cost removed.

I would like your Committee to consider in addition:

- a capped one-off charge, when first elected, for modest essential furnishings, carpets etc. None of those items should be re-claimable thereafter and luxury lifestyle items should never be claimable
- MPs to determine their own second home designations because the alternative would be too rigid and could not reflect different personal and family choices; but there should be a ban on ‘flipping’ homes within any parliament except perhaps in certain defined circumstances
- either a continuing ability to claim for essential repairs or, preferably, for Parliament to negotiate a good value, comprehensive insurance policy obligatory for all MPs which would cover repairs as well as for the normal buildings and contents items
- how MPs’ second homes could be helped to meet UK Government climate change targets
- the Committee should consider modest costs for cleaning and specific maintenance because MPs’ workloads are too heavy realistically to undertake such tasks on two homes

Communications
Because of clear abuses, the expenses saga has opened up a truly alarming gap between MPs and citizens. The existing Communications Allowance helps bridge that gap, especially with newsletters which are valued by constituents. The Allowance is currently set at a reasonable level and is carefully policed by Commons officials to root out political bias. This, of all times, is not the one to block communications between MPs and constituents. Websites, especially for reaching younger voters, are also vital for modern communications.

Outside Interests
The best way to ensure remuneration for outside interests is consistent, both with necessary parliamentary proprieties, and with fulfilling the duties expected of any diligent MP, is, once again, full transparency. It would be impossible to determine where to draw the line with the alternatives - bans or rigid restrictions. For example, a ban on outside remuneration would presumably catch paid media work or writing or lecturing which adds to the quality of public life. But, if that were to be excluded from a ban, it could be seen to prejudice MPs with different expertise to offer to general benefit elsewhere.

Conclusion
As everyone has seen in recent times, the best weapon against abuse is transparency. The Commons needs a much more effective rules system, but not one that is too cumbersome and rigid to take account of the unique and difficult job MPs do, and the great variety of our personal circumstances. Revelations over the summer have properly identified abuses, some shocking. But they have also made most people who might otherwise be well qualified, recoil at the very thought of putting themselves and their families through the soiling prurience now surrounding MPs. It is to be hoped that your inquiry will strike a proper balance to ensure both future public confidence in MPs and a House of Commons of variety and quality, who can genuinely reflect and respond to the concerns their constituents and the country, not a political class of career clones.

I would be happy to clarify any of these points should you so wish.

Yours sincerely



Peter Hain MP

Rainbow Democracy

South Africans are voting today in only the fourth democratic election in the country's 350 year history.

I wish ANC presidential candidate Jacob Zuma well in overcoming the terrible legacy of apartheid.

Tens of thousands of people in Wales joined the anti-apartheid struggle that Nelson Mandela said was so vital in liberating his people to vote for the first time in their lives in 1994. Most of those in the Wales Anti-Apartheid Movement were Labour and trade union members, but it included a broader swathe of people: churches, liberals and welsh nationalists for instance.

Conspicuous by their absence were Conservatives, some current Tory MPs in their student days in the 1980s disgustingly sporting ‘Hang Nelson Mandela’ badges. The BNP of course supported apartheid and attacked members of the anti-apartheid movement.

Today, despite concerns about corruption and all the deep problems of unemployment and crime which are the terrible legacy of apartheid, there is much to be optimistic about in the New South Africa

• probably the most democratic constitution in the world
• a vigorous and independent civil society
• the ANC’s deep democratic tradition fifteen years of the ANC government running the most successful economy in the country’s history
• new housing, electricity, water extended to millions of people
• pensions to millions of blacks for the first time

• maintaining Mandela’s commitment to a pluralist democracy, and rejecting the tendency to rule by clique under Thabo Mbeki
• respect for judicial independence
• eradicating corruption
• tackling HIV/AIDS which kills1000 people daily
• tackling crime
• prioritising skills so unemployed blacks can get new jobs
• an anti-poverty drive combined with maintaining the business confidence and macro economic stability of the last fifteen years
• ensuring Mugabe’s despotic and tragic rule does not continue to damage Zimbabwe by supporting the new MDC Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai
• on foreign policy – a return to Mandela’s ethical policies, where South Africa was an example to the world, replacing its sorry recent record of blocking United Nations action against the Burmese Junta and the government of Sudan which was complicit in genocide in Darfur.

Jack Jones - A Labour Legend