Thursday, September 10, 2009

George Osborne: To Announce Rich Get Richer Ploy?


Seems like George Oliver Osborne aka GOO is to make an announcement today, following up on his buddy Cameron's "raising the cost of salads"/"cutting ministerial pay" RE-announcement (first made three or four weeks ago) about a reduction in salaried ministers should the millionaires take over in office. According to the ever so 'umble Iain Dale it was his blog post wot did it, the one here, a month ago. Rather than various wittering from CCHQ and elsewhere in the past. LOL found the Lib Demmer Alex Wilcox calling for severe cuts in Ministers in January 2009 and referring to his party's internal chunterings on the subject ten years ago.

Essentially the Tories are saying nearer to 100 paid ministers than the current 119. Another brilliant idea from Iain Dale! We'll be hearing that a lot in the coming months! He'll have McBride's old desk in no time.

Seems likely that arithmetic will show that the average "designer sandwich" of the lucky 100 millionaire ministers will be significantly more than the current average "butty" of the average child of the toil. There, we've moved off toffs and not toffs, to haves and have nots. Is GOO about to announce redistribution from the have nots to the haves at the highest levels of government?

FOR THE AVOIDANCE OF DOUBT: I don't think there's anything wrong with the idea of cutting the ministerial payroll. Or the idea of flattening the scales. Bit sceptical about how long it would last under Tories. See next post! And also worried that as it is clearly the case that it was only the poverty pay of MPs and Ministers that made 90% of them flex the rules on allowances, that any tightening of belts could lead to a Westminister crime wave.

2 comments:

Iain Dale said...

So let's get this straight. You agree with what Osborne has proposed. But because it's a Tory proposing it you disagree with it.
I see.

Chris Paul said...

No Iain, I just don't see anything wrong with the idea full stop. I'm not against it in any way shape or form.

It's not your idea is one of my points.

I'm not sure if it'll last is another.

And it will have the effect very likely of increasing the average amount paid to fewer ministers. But that's just an artifact. One which I play with a little, gently.

No, Iain. I am relaxed about this proposal. There's nothing wrong with the idea. It is not a Tory idea particularly if at all. But even if it were 100% a Tory idea I still wouldn't disagree with it.

Result!

PS Cameron has announced this one TWICE in the space of a month btw.