Registering Their Interests
The new Westminster Register of Interests has been pored over More than 100 MPs employ family. Locally the Robinsons have registered their two sons, daughter and daughter in law as employees. Ian Paisley hasn't declared Ian Paisley Jr., although he is still on the Westminster researcher's register. (Questioned by my Westminster colleague Lisa Costello, Ian Junior wouldn't confirm or deny whether he is still employed as his father's researcher, saying only that it was something his father would have to clarify).
Family matters to one side there is an interesting discrepancy between what our MPs feel they ought to register. The Foyle MP Mark Durkan registers his Chairmanship of the Stormont Enterprise Committee, which should earn him a payment of just over £11,000. However Ian Paisley Senior and Martin McGuinness don't put down the fact that they are First and Deputy First Ministers (earning salaries of more than £71,000) and Peter Robinson, Michelle Gildernew, Conor Murphy, Jeffrey Donaldson, and Nigel Dodds also don't note their ministerial duties. The eagle eyed commenter Noel Adams pointed this out to me.
On tomorrow's Inside Politics the SDLP leader urges his fellow MPs to amend their details. He also talks about the Ashdown review on parading, the government's plans to detain terror suspects for 42 days, the Embryology Bill and the prospects for a joint Fianna Fail SDLP candidacy in next summer's European elections. That's all on Inside Politics at a quarter to one on Saturday afternoon on BBC Radio Ulster.
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Maybe the public will gradually realise why politicians are not engaged in a large recruiting drive looking for bright young people to join with a view to training for the job. Most parties are headed by an elite club who feather their own nests. Voters and party members are only servants to ensure that the anointed ones are returned to power.
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As an Ulsterman living in Athens, Greece, I'm embarrassed by the double and triple jobbers back home in Belfast. Since it's illegal to be both an MEP and an MP surely it should be illegal to be both an MLA, MP and even a local councillor? Why can't the parties in Ulster agree to abolish this practice as well as open the jobs in their offices to other members of the public? As a former Head of RE in Annadale Grammar School, where Peter Robinson was a pupil, I really can't understand Peter's unethical behaviour in these matters. Of course I wish him well as First Minister but I would appeal to him to divert the Lagan to clean out the political stables in Belfast, like the legendary Hercules when he diverted a river to clean out the Augean stables. The world is watching and it's only a matter of time before Peter will face a barrage of criticism and humiliation at the hands of the European press.
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Dr Green is quite right and although I know little of Athens other than a centre of art, science and philosophy, Dr Green is fortunate to have chosen a more noble career than the world of Northern Ireland politics. The hill at Stormont testifies to the God of Mammon which is far removed from the sermon the apostle Paul delivered on the identity of the unknown God on Mars hill in Athens. Acts 17.
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Simple. All politicians are in it for 1 thing. The money.
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That is a good idea to register their interests..
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