As Lady K sales off into the sunset retirement home for former politicians, aka the House of Lords it worth noting (The Western Mail (Monday 15th June 2009)) that Neil and Glenys Kinnock were the recipients of more than £10million in pay, allowances and pension entitlements accrued during their time working at the European Union in Brussels. Lady Kinnock (who as a Labour MEP may have mentioned Wales twice in 10 years) was appointed as Europe Minister by Gordon Brown this month, was a MEP for 15 years. Her other half who failed to win a General Election as Labour leader, made a mint as an EU Commissioner for ten years until 2004 and blocked investigations into allegations of fraud.
Lord and Lady K – with a total of £775,000 in wages for Lady Kinnock and £1.85 million for her husband clocked up £2,625,000. A £64,564 ‘entertainment allowance’ for Lord Kinnock. Allowances for Lady Kinnock’s staff and office costs of £2.9million. A total of five publicly-funded pensions, worth £4.4million, allowing them to retire on £183,000 a year. A housing allowance that allowed them both to claim accommodation costs although, as a married couple, they lived in the same house in the Belgian capital between 1995 and 2004.
We now can see why Lord and Lady Kinnock remain loyal servants to the Labour party; loyalty will always be rewarded to the few at the expense of the many. With Lord Kinnock in the House of Lords and Lady Kinnock in Gordon’s cabinet you could say they are both members of the greatest un-elected quango of them all - over seeing what go's on in Wales. May be this is Gordon Brown’s New Labour redefining "Champagne Socialism"?
No comments:
Post a Comment