Many MPs who have been in Government or opposition over the last 13 years have also done very nicely out of PFI, arranging nice cushy, well paid jobs with many of the companies they dealt with when THEY WERE MINISTERS AND GAVE OUT CONTRACTS.
Some familiar faces with PFI connections:
Alan Milburn MP
He famously described PFIs as the "only game in town" during a stint as health minister, and is now a director of Diaverum Healthcare – a company that is contracted to run the kidney dialysis unit at the PFI-funded Burnley General Hospital.
Quentin Davies MP
The Defence minister is a former director (he resigned in 2008) of Vinci UK and Vinci SA – firms involved in PFI projects with a total capital value of £223m which will cost £933m over the terms of their contracts.
John Reid MP
The former home secretary is (since November 2009) a paid consultant to G4S UK and Ireland. G4S is involved in PFIs, mainly in prisons, with a total capital value of £330m; they will end up costing £3.6bn.
Steven Norris
Once Conservative Transport minister under John Major, he is now the chairman of Jarvis, a major PFI player which has a number of contracts, worth £721m, with government. The total capital value of PFI programmes funded by Jarvis comes to £175m.
Adam Ingram MP
A defence minister for six years under Tony Blair, he now gets paid more than £50,000 a year as a consultant to Electronic Data Systems – an MoD contractor responsible for the PFI-funded Tafmis IT system which cost £171m over its 10-year contract.
Patricia Hewitt MP
During her tenure as health secretary, BT won IT contracts from the NHS. The former minister is now a director of BT Group and was paid £59,475 for 140 hours' work over the past six months – a rate of £424 an hour.
This is only a few of them. To my mind this BRIBERY OR LARGESSE, call it what you will, IS WORSE than fiddling a few quid on expenses or flipping homes. THIS GOES RIGHT TO THE HEART OF THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS. MPs should not be allowed second jobs and should not BE ABLE TO TAKE EMPLOYMENT FOR FIVE YEARS AFTER LEAVING A MINISTERIAL POSITION without express permission from a TOTALLY INDEPENDENT TRIBUNAL.
5 comments:
DL I’m sure it was you I saw getting being assisted from a chauffeur driven Bentley outside Dino’s in Burn’s Statue Square. It’s time you admitted how many non-executive directorships you have and whether you are resident and domiciled in Britain for tax purposes.
Stouters, if I had a wad of non exec directorships do you seriously think I would still be resident in the UK. No, no. I would be in Spain or the south of France along with Fred.
Your knowledge of Ayr is showing and I have long held the suspicion that you may indeed be dominciled in Scotland and you may even be a Scotsman of the unionist variety. So come clean, what's the truth?
Oh no DL, I’m proud to say that I almost certainly come from stock that was around these parts before Scotland and England were separate political entities; a bit of what the Crims in Oz would call an Abo (That’s unless some passing Spaniard or milkman got his genes into the family pool when the Headman was away killin the King’s enemies or slavin at his desk).
Ayr is a great place, the whole Ayrshire coast is lovely; in fact quite a lot of the countryside north of Hadrian’s DMZ is; the only drawback is the weather and the strangely socialist leanings of the indigenous population and I think it must be genetic.
I don’t know how you define a “Scotsman” so I can’t answer your question – I can say though, that I don’t live anywhere near the frozen north and that if I was going to it would be deeper into the tribal areas than you currently reside.
The Union – yup I think it’s a good thing for both sides, certainly from an economic and world scene point of view. It’s becoming less important as the population of the south rises – there are about 70 millions people on the island, if 5 millions live in Scotland there are still enough in the south to have a pretty good economy.
Have you ever read any of Ludovick Kennedy’s books? You should read “Sleeping with an Elephant”,
I think you would enjoy it explains things in a very easy way and I think you would enjoy it. If your DSS money won’t cover it and the Library don’t stock it let me have your address and I will send you a copy.
I meant to mention that Kennedy is also from Ayrshire so you might have some sympathy for his views, at the same time I recommend Jo Grimmond’s autobiography because it might straighten out some of your rather confused emotional views vis a vis the Union.
Stouters, for someone who is an execrator of Scotland and all things Scottish you seem to have an admirable secret envy to be Scottish a bit I suppose like penis envy in women. Strange. Anyway, yes if circumstances didn't dictate it, I would probably reside further north into the tribal north from whence came my forebears, I certainly feel at ease there.
There is no point in recommending books as I get very little chance to read what with spending time on this infernal machine and my other commitments. Strange Ludovic Kennedy being from Ayrshire. I hadn't I admit realised that. Although Kennedy is an Ayrshire name, I always presumed that Ludovic was of Jewish, east European origin.
I have no confusion in my thoughts regarding the union. Any confusion appears to be in your understanding of my viewpoint.
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