Arise Sir Vince Cable and Sir Danny Alexander, rewarded for services to introducing the Bedroom Tax, tripling university tuition fees and, mainly, for enabling the most right wing Tory government of my lifetime, until this current one, that is. Cronysim is back with a vengeance, all right.
David Cameron has showered his political pals with gongs, but also people like the Downing Street gardener, as well as his political place men and women. The vast majority of “rewards” go to his pals, of course, although the Lib Dems, who were all but wiped out by the electorate in May, do very nicely too.
And wait a minute: aren’t these the same Lib Dems who want to reform the House of Lords? Yes, it is the very same people but now they are going to get an extra £300 a day for just turning up, I am sure they will have to live with their consciences. It will probably be very tough, particularly as they are no longer accountable to anyone.
My favourite award goes to Douglas Hogg, a Tory MP, better known for claiming £2200 of our – taxpayers’ – money to clean his moat. Presumably, the additional riches he will acquire by moving to the Lords will mean he can afford to clean his own moat in future?
There is another reason other than looking after his mates that Cameron wishes to swell numbers in the Lords: the Tories do not have a majority there. It will make it far easier, you see, for Dave to win votes in parliament if those pesky Lords don’t keep blocking him all the time. So, in the interests of democracy, and the 36.9% of the electorate who voted Tory in May, he is appointing extra unelected Lords to help pass his legislation.
Look at the £300 a day peers get. I worked with people at well known supermarkets who didn’t get that every week, never mind every day. Not only that, they had to work for it too and couldn’t just clock in and then go straight home again. You see, as the Tories always say, “We’re all in it together”.
Ah, but you say, all parties have always done this and yes, it’s true, they have, but does that make it right? Cameron believes he was born to rule and is happy about the fact he can appoint parliamentarians at a stroke, without elections, without them being accountable to anyone and that is the sick, corrupt system in which we live.
We need more democracy in this country, not less, but as the years go by and we are ruled more by an elective dictatorship than by a parliament where people are meant to represent us, democracy becomes more a distant theory than a reality.
Cameron’s cronyism shows, yet again, how politicians live in a world a million miles away from those who struggle to make ends meet and it proves beyond all reasonable doubt that they don’t give a damn about us, just the rich and powerful they look after.
