AMs' second home scandal is ammo for their enemies.
Byline: ian PARRI
FOR my sins, I have to admit I once spent a brief period working for the BBC in Cardiff. Already owning a home in the frozen, forgotten north and not really eager to uproot and set up permanently in the capital, I forked out for a dingy, rented bedsit with shared bathroom on Cathedral Road.
The view from the windows consisted of a brick wall some three yards away.
It was far from ideal but, hey, hadn't it been my idea to take up the offer of a job there? And I comforted myself with the thought at least it was directly opposite the Halfway pub.
How different life would've been had I taken up paid employment as an Assembly Member.
Not only would I be raking in more than pounds 50,000 a year in salary paid for by the taxpayer, but I could also have afforded to have relaxed in the lap of luxury in a swish second home. Paid for by - you've guessed it - the taxpayer.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not suggesting they should doss down in Roath Park, or anything. Although one or two of them have probably done so.
But as they're rarely in the Senedd for more than three days a week, wouldn't a couple of nights in a Travelodge suffice? I would've jumped at that option in preference to my bedsit.
Wouldn't it even be a worthwhile investment for the Assembly to build some accommodation units for its members on site?
It beats me why husband and wife Huw Lewis and Lynn Neagle, both Labour AMs, should have got pounds 22,000 this last year towards purchasing and furnishing a swank little pad in Penarth. His constituency in Merthyr Tydfil is only 25 miles up the road from the Senedd, while hers is based on Pontypool, all of 22 miles away.
There are plenty in most offices, shops and factories who travel much further every day for a fraction of the salary, I can tell you.
Then there's Wrexham AM Lesley Griffiths, who splashed our cash to the tune of pounds 2,000 to buy a sofa for her southern bolt-hole.
A quick search on the Shopzilla internet site reveals I could buy a sofa for pounds 228.98, with free delivery thrown in. Hardly the height of luxury, I suppose, but a sofa's just for sitting on, isn't it? Or is an AM's bottom rather more precious than that of the rest of us?
Going upmarket, the Laura Ashley company has a natty model selling for pounds 600. A steal, with the bonus of dealing with a Welsh company.
The Assembly still has more than its fair share of enemies out there, moustache-twirling dinosaurs who'd rather see this country ruled by England in perpetuity. I just wish our AMs wouldn't keep providing them with the ammo they need for their blunderbusses.
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Publication: | Daily Post (Liverpool, England) |
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Geographic Code: | 4EUUK |
Date: | Aug 15, 2008 |
Words: | 488 |
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