Why Can’t All Politicians Be Like Mine

Last updated on November 23rd, 2023 at 07:50 pm

Sarcasm Alert – there may be some.

Like the rest of the country, here in DeadBadgerShire we have our very own MP, and he’s an absolute corker.

He’s good value for money because he doesn’t seem to bother Parliament very much;

• Has spoken in 17 debates in the last year — below average amongst MPs.
• Has received answers to 0 written questions in the last year — well below average amongst MPs.
• Until 2015 he saved us money by employing his wife as his part-time Senior Parliamentary Assistant at a salary of £15-£20k p.a.
• He is a Conservative MP, and on the vast majority of issues saves any confusion by voting the same way as other Conservative MPs.

So, when he is at work, he tends to vote, so far so good.

• Consistently voted for raising England’s undergraduate tuition fee cap to £9,000 per year
• Generally voted for reducing central government funding of local government
• Generally voted against equal gay rights
• Consistently voted against the hunting ban
• Voted a mixture of for and against allowing marriage between two people of same sex
• Generally voted against laws to promote equality and human rights
• Generally voted against allowing terminally ill people to be given assistance to end their life
• Consistently voted for the Iraq war
• Consistently voted for an investigation into the Iraq war
• Has never voted on a right to remain for EU nationals already in living in the UK
• Has never voted on UK membership of the EU
• Generally voted for reducing housing benefit for social tenants deemed to have excess bedrooms (which Labour describe as the “bedroom tax”)
• Consistently voted against raising welfare benefits at least in line with prices
• Generally voted against paying higher benefits over longer periods for those unable to work due to illness or disability
• Almost always voted for making local councils responsible for helping those in financial need afford their council tax and reducing the amount spent on such support
• Almost always voted for a reduction in spending on welfare benefits
• Generally voted for increasing the rate of VAT
• Generally voted against increasing the tax rate applied to income over £150,000
• Generally voted against a banker’s bonus tax
• Voted a mixture of for and against higher taxes on banks (???)
• Generally voted against an annual tax on the value of expensive homes (popularly known as a mansion tax)
• Consistently voted for more restrictive regulation of trade union activity
• Consistently voted for reducing capital gains tax
• Almost always voted for reducing the rate of corporation tax
• Voted a mixture of for and against measures to reduce tax avoidance (???)
• Generally voted against restricting the provision of services to private patients by the NHS
• Generally voted for reforming the NHS so GPs buy services on behalf of their patients
• Voted a mixture of for and against a transparent Parliament (???)
• Generally voted against transferring more powers to the Welsh Assembly
• Generally voted against transferring more powers to the Scottish Parliament
• Almost always voted against a lower voting age
• Generally voted for mass surveillance of people’s communications and activities
• Has never voted on merging police and fire services under Police and Crime Commissioners
• Generally voted against measures to prevent climate change
• Consistently voted for selling England’s state owned forests
• Generally voted for culling badgers to tackle bovine tuberculosis
• Generally voted against greater regulation of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) to extract shale gas
• Generally voted against a publicly owned railway system
• Consistently voted for phasing out secure tenancies for life
• Generally voted for capping civil service redundancy payments
• Voted a mixture of for and against restricting the scope of legal aid (???)

He has actually voted on about 76% of occasions so far this year, which is about average for an MP I believe.

He takes a lively interest in current affairs, I know he does.  When I wrote to him in 2012 about the slash and burn approach to Police Pensions, he had a firm opinion on the way forward and kindly wrote to me telling me how he felt about it.

So, there we have it, he’s not a waste of space like most of them are, and he hardly has any external income to trouble us with, all he has to declare to the Register is

Payments received in my role as consultant to xxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxx Ltd, a clinical diagnostics company, of xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx  xxxxxxxxx. This role began on 1 August 2015 and I received my first payment on 9 September 2015 (see below). Until further notice I now expect to receive £4,166 a month, for an expected monthly commitment of 8 hours.  He received an Oxbridge (or was it Uxbridge) Education where he studied for a degree in History (I assume he passed), he then went on to work for the British Leather Company in 1979, becoming Sales Director in 1983.  He has many other achievements since within the world of leather, all of which seem to make him ideally suited for a consultancy with a clinical diagnostics company commanding a meagre income of £4k per month for a whole 8 hours of his time.

All in all a thoroughly good egg, no? A great public servant with the best for his electorate always in his thoughts.