The Treasury have drawn attention to the £20 bn black hole in national finances thanks to the collapse of public sector productivity this decade. You would have thought every new MP would want to show how they can help do more with less to start the fight back for higher productivity and better value for money. Not so in Wokingham.
The new Lib Dem MP has advertised under a Lib Dem logo five well paid posts to do his job for him. I assume these are all taxpayer paid Parliamentary staff, yet they go out under the Lib Dem logo. One of the posts is for a “Campaigns Organiser and Communications Officer “ to “ work for Wokingham Liberal Democrats organising campaigns and volunteers for the MP and local elections and for the MP’s Parliamentary office on communications on constituency non party political matters.” Surely such a post should be a Lib Dem volunteer or party funded staffer if the MP can’t be bothered to do it himself?
He wants a speechwriter and drafter of Parliamentary amendments, questions and interventions. He needs a Chief of Staff to sign off constituents letters he cannot be bothered with, and to run the enlarged office. He also wants a Senior Caseworker and a Caseworker, more normal assistance.He is offering a maximum combined salary of £214,401 with a salary of £36,744 up to £ 52 ,793 for each job depending on the post gradings.There will be other staff costs on top of the salaries. It sounds as if this will all be paid by the taxpayers.
As the MP he replaces, in the last published year 2022-23 my spend on office staff was £101 ,873. I employed two excellent people.
I did all my own research, wrote all my own speeches and my daily blog to communicate, drafted any bill amendments and questions, kept myself up to date with Parliament’s agenda and with my constituents. I did any local campaigning myself alongside Councillors and volunteers. My two staff did a great job replying to constituents following discussion with me about the incoming queries . They ran the Parliamentary diary and worked with local institutions and people over meeting arrangements and events. They followed up and resolved difficult cases with local and national government officials. I dealt with the Ministers and Councillors where necessary to try to get a good outcome.
I could not have found full time work for 5 staff and have no idea what I would have done with my time if someone was doing my research, identifying and running campaigns, communicating with press and public as well as doing all the casework and signing my letters for me. Surely we should expect more from an MP on a good salary. The productivity of the Wokingham MP office has just halved at a time when everyone in the public sector should be striving to improve it.
September 19, 2024
Good morning
I do think one needs to elaborate on what is going on, Sir John 😉
Ever thought of standing for the Local Council? I think they could do with someone there.
September 19, 2024
Local Council? Mr Redwood could have stood as MP to take on this LibDem. But he didn’t. And now he’s sniping from the sidelines. Not a good look
Reply In a democracy you need to probe the behaviour and decisions of those in office. Why do you bother with this site if you find it distasteful?
September 19, 2024
Sniping? Providing a comparison of two approaches and letting the reader decide.
You have one viewpoint, others may differ.
September 19, 2024
If the taxpayer is being stung for another £100,000-odd, it isn’t “sniping” to ask if the constituency is really getting so much extra value for money.
September 19, 2024
Not true Lemming.
NOBODY would have tried to run against that particular campaign.
And now an MP is hiring a shadow MP to do the elected job.( Judging by the job description workload)
Is that even democratic….or legal?
September 19, 2024
‘ Five reforming steps to a Conservative recovery that would make Reform unnecessary’
John Redwood. Yesterday on ‘Conservative Home’.
Currently the party seems to be in hibernation until a new leader emerges. A majority view seems to be that the same old same old, coupled with buyers’ remorse about Labour, will do the trick if it is repackaged with better advertising.
First step – a new leader not one of the failures from before. Agreed – but one is not present among the current candidates and it will be difficult for such a person to emerge.
Second step- do not attack Reform. Agreed.
Third step – expose the failures of Labour. The Conservative Party are currently dormant. When they wake they are unlikely to oppose much of the Labour stuff they go along with – apart from taxes.
Fourth step – a principled position as a base to argue. I think that went out the window years ago. They make it up as they go along. There is also entrenched faction fighting.
Fifth step – use what talent remains in the party. The same problem here as in step one. How would this talent emerge? Ministers choose allies over talent.
September 19, 2024
On the contrary, Lemming. He is pointing out what a great constituency MP he was at an extra cost of only £100k compared to the new Lib Dem, adding £214,401 to the cost of the MP – an extra £100k for the same job.
If Lib Dems who have had a big boost in the UK are replicating this in every constituency they took over and have doubled costs the public need to be told about that.
September 19, 2024
So you are saying no one is allowed to criticise this LibDem MP if they didn’t stand against them in the election ? Seems like an odd idea. You were very keen on criticising Boris Johnson even though you didn’t stand against him in his constituency which you were free to do. How come ?
September 19, 2024
I have long believed Lemming to be a far left mouth piece , they are always grumpy!
September 19, 2024
Mark B : “Ever thought of standing for the Local Council? I think they could do with someone there.”
A very good idea. If not a local councillor then attending any public meetings possible to make the case for not wasting money on Net Zero schemes.
September 19, 2024
An increase the size of the office to enhance the sense of ones self importance.
Incidentally thank you for a clear financial piece on GBNews last night. This is where you could be most influential now that Liam Halligan has left them.
Reply I am hoping to have a weekly Wednesday spot on Jacob’s show.
September 19, 2024
So are we, Sir John …… hoping, that is.
September 19, 2024
oh I don’t know, maybe you could provide an interesting, thought provoking few minutes!
September 19, 2024
+1
September 19, 2024
Hear, Hear !
September 19, 2024
Some good news
September 19, 2024
👏🏻 rare to have someone capable of posing sensible questions and someone to provide sensible responses – analysis, explanation and answer.
September 19, 2024
I’ve seen you on Jacob’s show! A great addition! 👍🏻
September 19, 2024
I hope so as your contributions are sensible, accurate without the normal political exaggerations, distortion or down right lies!!
September 19, 2024
hear hear
September 19, 2024
I look forward to seeing you on GBNews
September 19, 2024
Reply to reply.
Does this mean it may not happen. If so why do you mention it? Would the answer be, you know it is agreed but dare not say so.
September 19, 2024
Superb! That will be a bonus as I always watch from 18:00 to 21:00
September 19, 2024
Sir John, the Califonia crosss roads is a monument to all what you say.
Just spend Tax payer money on things that don’t work and are of no benefit.
Just show and no substance.
But I did not spot a garage for a jet ski though
September 19, 2024
@John McDonald – then add in the new bin regime, all funded by borrowing. By all accounts massive borrowing. That now has to be paid back with ever high ‘rates’. Has bin collection improved anything other than personal ego? Was the old system failing?
September 19, 2024
GM SJ
State bureaucratic parasitism, pure and simple. Unashamed, unaccountable and two fingers to the taxpayer.
September 19, 2024
Clive Jones’ profile described himself as ‘hardworking’. Perhaps he regards a “Campaigns Organiser and Communications Officer“as being solely concerned with keeping Wokingham constituents properly informed, distinct from promoting Lib Dem policy and him in particular, such as in elections. His way seems badly skewed.
Good managers delegate, yet the roles he seeks reflect laziness on his part, as if employing others to tie his shoelaces or comb his hair to promote a better image for him as a Lib Dem, at taxpayers’ expense. ‘Spokesperson’ for Trade, indeed!
September 19, 2024
Does he pay for his own clothes?
September 19, 2024
Perhaps the new MP for Wokingham has under-developed skills in the “stunt department” and needs time to practice his bouncy castle and water slide techniques? That kind of thing does seem to feature highly on the selection criteria for representatives of the Illiberal Anti-democrats.
Or perhaps he’s simply incapable of doing the job of MP himself.
But I suspect it’s because the way the Illiberal Anti-democrats embed themselves in a Constituency is by permanently campaigning: spending a great deal of time preparing and distributing leaflets; pitching up for photo ops etc
Sadly, Wokingham lost a high-class MP and has now got a third-rate replacement. But that’s what they voted for, so they deserve what they’ll get.
September 19, 2024
I’ve seen similar “bouncy castle” politics in two places and constantly wonder why folk are so happy to be bamboozled by “Out with the old…in with the new” bs.
Is it infantilisation? The dumbed down education system? Is it because ( like here) they built a kind of new money ghetto full of woke voters? Or maybe this appalling govt-encouraged “side taking” divisiveness?
They are grasshoppers who do not yet understand the meaning of winter?
They are like the Romans rebuilding a city around Vesuvius?
September 19, 2024
Indeed using public money to buy votes is very common. My second daughter’s Gordon Brown baby bond has just matured another electoral scam. It has only doubles in value after 18 years slightly more than inflation but a pathetic return.
September 19, 2024
True Donna – but we all have to suffer him (even if we didn’t vote Lib Dem)
September 19, 2024
He may only be a third-rate replacement but he is jolly good at getting himself photographed pointing at potholes.
Thank the maker we are no longer in that constituency and saved the libdem blight of leafleting
September 19, 2024
The state cannot shrink without a crisis.
The state must shrink to prevent a crisis.
September 19, 2024
Sadly true. We seem to have a political species who believe in keeping the party going until the alcohol runs out, while filling their coats with bottles….
But knowing this, you can at least take personal precautions.
September 19, 2024
Shrink? Halve really.
A great shame they did not fine another MP as excellent, right thinking, hard working and honest as yourself. A great shame government over 40 off years did so little of what you advised.
The country would be way better off had they done so.
John ERM Major pops his head up to say Rwanda is un-Conservative and un-Christian. So his way to deter migrants is I assume allow so many to come that the place becomes so bad no more wish to do so.
September 19, 2024
Sounds like a plan for Reform
September 19, 2024
Outlook-total collapse (not just here but right across the west).
btw wasn’t it Russia that was supposed to collapse?They just will not follow the script,will they?!
“Execution of Federal Budget,Jan-Aug,2024”.bns of rubles,comparatives in brackets.source:Ministry of Finance:
Oil & gas revenues……………………………………7,555 (4,836) +56.2%
Non oil & gas revenues……………………………..15,473 (12,156) +27.3%
Total revenues…………………………………………..23,029 (16,992) +35.5%
Deficit……………………………………………………….331 (2,128)
More sanctions…….please!
September 19, 2024
Wonder if any friends and family will successfully apply?
September 19, 2024
Sue Gray may be able to make space in her schedule.
September 19, 2024
Watch this space to see how things pan out. It may be there is the intention just to fill say 2 of these posts, but the ad is more far reaching to get a spread of applicants.
I get the feeling though the Lib Dems have already decided on who to recruit for their party’s purpose and the ads are just for show.
September 19, 2024
+1
September 19, 2024
They usually take on friends and family from a neighbouring constituency MP, and then it goes unremarked.
September 19, 2024
This one needs further investigation JR
After years of trying to slag you off as a part time MP with personal interests elsewhere in many of the LibDem leaflets dumped through our doors, I wonder if he has other interests ?
Rumour locally has it that he allegedly has his own business that supplemented his recent local campaign to become an MP.
Afraid this sort of action and high expenditure is typical of how the party conduct local council government business in Wokingham.
Having made contact with your office a couple of times over the past decade, I can certainly confirm that
you ran an extremely efficient office, with knowledgable and polite staff who responded rapidly to any
communication with a sensible and informative response.
September 19, 2024
I trust the local paper and radio will pick up on this thread.
September 19, 2024
Is there a cap on how much an MP’s office can cost Sir John? Has the Wokingham MP potentially got close to the cap with the roles that will be filled by friends, family and sycophants?
September 19, 2024
How can up-and-coming new parties like Reform compete with this? It doesn’t seem fair that the taxpayer is funding the incumbent party to retain their seat by financing their electoral campaigns.
September 19, 2024
That comes as no surprise, When will they learn, probably never.
September 19, 2024
I am not surprised. Ineffective self-importance is a defining characteristic of LibDems. It’s leader’s behaviour adds a layer of absurdity.
September 19, 2024
It’s a shame there isn’t an easy way for you to communicate this to every adult in the constituency.
September 19, 2024
Sir John,
During the election campaign, the LibDems posted half of Bramshill Forest through my door with endless propaganda about “how bad” our MP was. He made a lot of fuss about you being only”a part time” MP because you had other jobs. You managed to be, in my opinion, very much a full time MP attending most debates in the commons, representing your constituents with regular surgeries, replying to correspondence etc you also had part time posts in the real world, you provided this lively blog and all without an office full of staff. This begs the question, just what is our current MP actually doing that requires five staff?
September 19, 2024
Surely advertising for State employees under a political party logo is illegal. Paying state employees and having them work in party matters definitely is.
Seems this ‘law-maker’ is a bit hazy about some of the most basic laws.
September 19, 2024
More waste and corruption from a leftwing politician. People really shouldn’t vote for them. I suppose if anyone has the time and resources the best thing would be to challenge the legality of this. It looks like the LonDem party is helping itself to taxpayers’ money.
September 19, 2024
Brings a new meaning to ‘Part-time MP’.
September 19, 2024
It used to be said that only scandal changes (social) policy, and by extension, other policy, but that’s no longer the case in an elective dictatorship. This MP is doing this because he knows he can get away with it. Just as Mr Miliband knows he can get away with destroying the domestic traditional energy sector. We can expect to hear (vague) justifications from him very soon about the need for increased energy rationing and blackouts, the prospect of which is a scandal no more.
September 19, 2024
Office costs seem to be transparent, so the time to bring this up is pre next election, on behalf of a sensible Reform candidate. Not, hopefully, on behalf of a newbie Conservative PPC fresh out of the ground floor of a City bank.
September 19, 2024
Who does this MP think he is? Something equivalent to a US president with a bucket loads of aids to tell him what to do. The MP is a fake!
Isn’t this attitude that goes with all of this empire building typical of the socialists in our midst. They want to have an arms length separating them from the world so that they can stand back and decide how to look good.
To say that Wokingham is not getting value for money with their new MP is just part of the issue here.
It does show however that being an MP now is all about making the MP look good and not about how well they do their job.
September 19, 2024
The error for Lib/Dems is to think that their arrival in Westminster in larger numbers is their rennaisance. Totally appalled Conservative voters who felt they could in no way support their own miss named party, voted LD as their least damaging percieved alternative. Once a truely Conservative alternative emerges they will be off. Then the LD leader with an appalling talent for karioke and miss management will depart stage left on a camel. The electors of Wokingham, having experienced LD management can then emerge from their confusion of road improvements with a clearer idea of where to lend their support. It is symptomatic of some 60% of the UK electorate, awaiting a viable alternative to the intrusion of so many driven but insubstatial chancers such as they have experienced since Margaret Thatcher. We are in a wait and see era. That phrase, ” Give them enough rope and they will hang themselves”, could not be more apposite to the roll out of events since the 4th July.
September 19, 2024
The skills and under standing are not available in Westminster there are no people skills what training do the ministers have to do their jobs
What training does the minister for the NHS have to run the service?
The 3 party’s are like the three wise monkeys
They see now”t,
they hear now”t ,
they speak now’t
September 19, 2024
The only way to build an empire in public service is to employ more subordinate staff
September 19, 2024
Sir John, this is happening everywhere especially in the NHS. We now have non medical persons being employed to undertake medical assessments, prescribing, etc but no reduction in Medical Staff on high salaries. Trained Nurses doing what were Junior Doctors duties, so they employ more HC Assistants to do the work of Trained Staff. The NHS doesn’t need more money it needs better Management, like the House of Westminster.
September 19, 2024
I had cause to use the NHS A&E the other day. I had to get past six levels of gatekeepers before I saw a doctor.
September 19, 2024
Sir John it is frankly a disgrace !
Voters got what they wanted Hope they enjoy when spending on services start depreciating
September 19, 2024
It look like the black hole will be getting bigger
September 19, 2024
I declare an interest in the chief of staff job but not if it pays less than is paid to the person to whom it reports for I have no wish to appear less worthy than Sue Gray.
September 19, 2024
“I assume these are all taxpayer paid Parliamentary staff…”
“It sounds as if this will all be paid by the taxpayers.”
I assume… It sounds…
So, an article based on guesswork and personal opinion rather than actual facts.
Reply No, these are facts
September 19, 2024
Reply to reply.
So why not make it clear. As usual, frightened to.
September 19, 2024
Oh Peter find out for yourself if in doubt, and then challenge JR properly and prove he is wrong !
September 19, 2024
Another Labour stooge, working directly for this Marxist Regime.
Rachel Reeves has been handed a boost of up to £10bn ahead of the Budget after the Bank of England said it was slowing down sales of government bonds amassed during lockdown.
Previous Sales were never required, just done to undermine the Conservatives. How much taxpayer money has gone support the failure’s of this corrupt political organisation.
September 19, 2024
This year alone the taxpayer has had taken from them £23.6bn to pay for BoE mistakes- is that black hole the taxpayer is being forced to pay twice for?
September 19, 2024
I’d love to know who precisely makes the recruiting decisions for these new ‘taxpayer paid Parliamentary staff under the Lib Dem logo’. Who sifts the applications, who sits on the panel that appoints them, and who instructs them in what they must and must not do?
And have any of Sir JR’s colleagues attacked the clear confusion of party and parliamentary in the new MP’s taxpayer-paid ad, or are they asleep at the wheel?
September 19, 2024
Left-hooker Henry Cooper used to tell us to ‘Splash it all over’, but that was what people chose to do with their own money on Brut after-shave; not reckless use of scarce taxpayers’ money by leftist Lib Dems.
September 19, 2024
Henry Cooper was an old school gentleman and top boxer. Unfortunately he was prone to cuts when he fought. When he retired he ran a greengrocer’s with his brother on Wembley High Street. He never made as much money as (Wembley local) boxer Audley Harrison – who was never as well regarded as Henry. Sportsmen did not get as well paid in those days.
September 19, 2024
As a big part of an MP’s job is holding government to account, it is absurd that they should be paid by government. One might as well have the police paid by the burglars.
Much better would be to have MPs paid by their constituencies, as they were in the Middle Ages.
Then good service could earn a rise and bad a cut.
September 19, 2024
It has been highlighted in the media the 2TierKier wear’s the Union Flag lapel badge upside down. Is he signalling our future ?