Money Saving Tips (and Monkeys)
In these credit crunch times it make sense to look after our pennies. So today we have had three money saving suggestions from different political quarters.
1. Sammy Wilson. Whilst our Environment Minister has come out against banning double jobbing per se he has told my colleague Stephen Walker that he is willing to legislate to cut the allowances of councillors who are also MLAs. Sounds a bit like an attempt to shift the gravity of the story away from MPs who are also MLAs (i.e DUP, SDLP and SF politicians) and towards MLAs who are also councillors (includes UUP, Alliance and other politicians).
2. David McNarry. Suggested this morning that more of the government's art works should be put on public display and some could be sold. Suggested this afternoon that civil servants in departments which underspend should forfeit their bonuses, as underspending represents poor service to the public.
3. Jim Nicholson. Suggested this afternoon that £180 million should be saved by closing the Strasbourg parliament and basing all MEPs in Brussels. This is an old EU chestnut.
Coincidentally, a group of animal charities wrote a letter to Jim Nicholson this week urging him to "stand firm" against the use of great apes and wild monkeys in animal experiments. The charities say Mr Nicholson is central to the business of updating EU legislation on animal experiments as one of the members of the European Parliament's Agriculture Committee. In a news release they commended him for "not bowing to pressure" from those they described as pro-vivisection lobbyists.
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