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Tim Aker: Political parties smell a profit from expenses
WITH the fresh scandal over Home Secretary's Jacqui Smith's expenses, people are again filled with a sense of outrage as some of the more dishonourable MPs do their best to take advantage of taxpayers' generosity.
Ever since the MPs' expenses debate began, we have looked on open-mouthed as our money has been spent on plush furniture, iPods and the infamous John Lewis list.
Parliament, perhaps wrongly, has become the only focus of this debate. Where and how parliamentary expenses are spent occupies innumerable column inches. Yet in our multi-layered democracy, we're not just governed by Parliament. There are certainly problems in Westminster and Whitehall, but we should not forget about local government.
Councillors no longer get an attendance fee, but, instead, are paid via monthly installments like anyone on a salary. What used to be a bit of compensation for the time councillors commit is now a salaried position in your town hall where you only have to turn up once every six months to keep claiming.
On top of all this, the political parties have smelled profit. Within perfectly legal rules, however unethical they may seem, councillors are being coerced into giving up part
of their taxpayer funded "salaries" to finance party political activities.
The public overwhelmingly oppose taxpayer-funding of political parties, yet by the back door the political parties are charging their councillors a monastic tithe to fund partisan campaigning.
There's nothing wrong with councillors voluntarily donating any income to a political party, charity or cause. The problem comes when it turns into a formal system in which political parties compel councillors to donate and then use the whip to push through increases in councillor allowances, leading to higher funding for themselves.
North Yorkshire county councillor Richard Hall resigned from the Liberal Democrats recently over this very issue. In a series of letters between himself and the Harrogate and Knaresborough Liberal Democrats, Coun Hall faced repeated demands to pay 10 per cent of his basic councillor salary – 877.20 – to the Harrogate and Knaresborough Lib Dems. If he didn't, he would be deselected.
Taking 10 per cent of the basic allowance of the whole Lib Dem group on the council (before defections and absences) means that Harrogate and Knaresborough Lib Dems receive 9,649 from the taxpayer a year.
Over a four-year term, the constituency Lib Dems could have built up a war chest of some 38,596. What's more, the same Lib Dem association gets 10 per cent of the allowances from its 18 district councillors, too.
Forty thousand pounds is a lot of money, and the use of compulsion and the party whip brings it close to state-funding of political parties on the sly. It is funding diverted from an allowance that exists to cover the costs of being a councillor, not for partisan campaigning.
Coun Hall resigned on ethical grounds in opposition to using public monies for political purposes. But the underlying problem still exists – the system of deciding councillors' pay is deeply flawed.
It may not come as a surprise that councillors themselves vote on their own allowance schemes. Independent Remuneration Panels, who advise and only recommend the sums councillors are paid, cannot make binding pay deals. Councillors are in a position to accept, reject or amend any recommendation given to them on their pay.
Just like MPs, who also vote on their own pay, some councillors have a shocking habit of disregarding taxpayers' interests and voting themselves more pay. For example, Windsor and Maidenhead council voted themselves a staggering 91 per cent pay increase last year.
With the recession hitting everyone hard, what can stop allowances perpetually rising, filling the pockets of councillors and subsidising the parties at the same?
People power is the answer. Find out what your councillor receives. How accountable are they? Do you see them only once every four years when they beg for your vote? Is your councillor value for money?
Enough of us heckled and barracked the Government to ditch plans to hide MPs' expenses. Change in local government will only come about through similar pressure. Remember: It's your money and you've got to fight to keep it in your pocket.
Tomorrow, North Yorkshire County Council will be voting on their own pay. Tell your councillor to say no to any increase.
We all have to cut back in the recession, and so should our politicians.
Tim Aker is the grassroots co-ordinator of the TaxPayers' Alliance.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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