Showing posts with label Chauffeur-driven cars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chauffeur-driven cars. Show all posts

Monday, 8 November 2010

SPEAKER BERCOW LIVES IN LA LA LAND

John Bercow was supposed to be the reforming Speaker. He was going to sort out parliament, make it accountable to the people (erm, which it was supposed to be all along) and deal with the scandal of expenses.

But he obviously, like so many other people in Westminster, seems to think that what’s good for other people is not necessarily good for him.

It seems that Mr Speaker Bercow has never heard of trains. He has, however, heard of chauffeur driven limos, and uses them to great effect.

Mr Bercow has used cars for 111 journeys, including 21 within the SW1 postcode, where he could have walked.

A trip to Oxford cost us £833 (you can do it for around £10 on the bus), whilst his visit to Canterbury cost £558; Gloucester cost £632 as did a visit to the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff.

Amazingly a journey to South Kensington no more than 3 miles from the Commons, cost £151.

Additionally, as if there were no financial crisis in the country he has spent £15,600 on business class flights for himself, his wife and his staff, employed a spin doctor at £107,000 a year and spent £45,000 on altering and redecorating the Speaker’s House, his grace and favour home in the Palace of Westminster to make it nicer for his children.

Hello Bercow, could you try to live in the same world as the rest of us. You’re an MP for heaven’s sake, not some deity.

You can maintain the dignity of the office perfectly well on the train. It is how YOU BEHAVE that marks your chairmanship of the commons, not how you travel, or the style in which you live.

Thursday, 28 October 2010

MAY IT PLEASE HIS LORDSHIP TO GET A TRAIN, LIKE THE REST OF US


I was somewhat miffed to read that the Scottish Court Service has plans to spend £300,000 on chauffeur-driven cars for judges, whilst all around us people are cutting and making do. The chauffeurs will be used to take judges between courts all across Scotland.

The expenditure of our money has been rightly questioned by opposition politicians. After all the Scottish government is expecting a cut of £900,000,000 in its pocket money for next year.

The courts service has defended the arrangement. They say that judges needed a safe and secure environment in which to travel. Erm, well, we all need a safe and secure environment when we are travelling be it to and from work, or for pleasure. What exactly is different about judges? Can they not drive? Are they incapable of getting on and off buses, or trains?

If so, maybe they shouldn’t be sitting in judgment on the rest of us.

They say of course, that despite the financial challenges, the service is vital to provide a safe and secure environment for court documents or equipment accompanying them to court. It is also deemed necessary for the judges to work on cases confidentially while travelling “so that hearings can be dealt with promptly and efficiently without causing delays.”

WHAT? Has anyone ever been in the chaos that is the court system? And does no one else have to work whilst travelling for work, sometimes on confidential papers?

Presumably then, counsel for the accused and the defence will also require chauffeur driven cars so that they too can work in confidence in transit?

Richard Baker for Labour criticized the decision, swaying that in England and Wales there would be job losses and court closures following last week’s spending review. What exactly England and Wales have to do with this I’m not sure, but it does seem that Mr Baker hasn’t quite grasped the idea that having separate parliament and a separate legal system does mean that we do things differently here. Being Labour of course, he has been in the habit of taking his orders from London. But one thing for sure Mr Baker, the English judges won’t be getting bus to court.

John Lamont for the Tories said that in these hard times people would question whether this was really the best use of a large amount of their money. Damned right we will John. I trust Kenny MacAskill will be looking into this. I’d hate to think that the Scottish government would let it pass.

Judges need to be reminded that we are all in this together, even them.