Sunday, June 24, 2007

One More For The Gravy Train

So the Joker is, according to reports in today's Scotland on Sunday, heading for the Lords so that he can quit the Scottish Parliament "with honour". What a load of tosh! Everyone will know why he's going; we all don't care that much to be frank and what will happen? It will cost us all a good deal more in his expenses and allowances as a member of the House of Lords, on top of which is his pension as the ex first minister, which he'll get whether or not he's in the 'other place'. One Scottish party source is quoted as saying "Jack is still young for a senior politician. You don't want him hanging around the backbenches." Why not? It's no different from what Labour has criticised the Tories and the establishment of for years. The House of Lords s discredited by such actions and why can't he be like the rest of us. You fail to come up to scratch so you lose your job and have to find another one.

Even more laughable are some of the other justifications for this. Some Scottish MPs and Labour colleagues view him as 'well placed to liaise between the two capitals, where he could flag up potential areas of conflict before the SNP administration can exploit them.' We have the Scottish Office, we have MPs elected from Scottish constituencies and we have a very active media. It's just one more for the gravy train.

1 comment:

Crushed said...

Technically, can't he remain an MSP, whilst in the Lords?

Lord Watson sat in both, as Lord Foulkes does now.