HOW LONG before the expenses issue starts to blow up in the faces of AMs, writes Clive Betts from the National Assembly press gallery.
A new system of rules was, as expected, adopted sheep-like by AMs in Cardiff in response to the shenanigans in London.
The new, rather draconian, rules have been drawn up by an independent review under Sir Roger Lyons “in order to restore faith in the political process”.
However, it didn’t take journalists – for long not unknown for taking expenses rather than oft-inadequate pay settlement - long to pick holes in them.
Some of the points are minor. Such as, what happens if an AM marries a member of his staff. He would then seemingly be barred from employing that person.
An arcane point ? No, former Lib Dem leader Mike German married one of his staff members, and he remains as an AM.
The hope is that such issues will be dealt with through the “discretion” in the Assembly.
But can we rely on such “discretion” when a certain tabloid (the Western Mail) has shown that it is only too willing to go over the top on the expenses issue.
Remember the ridiculous saga over Tory leader Nick Bourne expenses, while that paper ignored so long the issue of two AMs occupying a single second home (they were, of course, married).
While Mr Bourne seems to have escaped largely unscathed, “Valleys and working class tribune” Huw Lewis may have scuppered his bid for his party’s leadership.
More right-wing screams from the Western Mail is the last thing we want to hear on this issue; no doubt that person truly loves to adopt the policies of the right-wing Tory friend the Taxpayers’ Alliance …
At least one AM seems rather worried about the effect of the new rules which are about to be introduced. LibDem Peter Black could suffer dangerously from the rule that Swansea is too close a location for a first home to justify a flat in Cardiff Bay.
Perhaps it is. Perhaps it isn’t. It is at least an hour’s car trip, which is two-hour’s less working time each day. And then there’s not quite a London-suburban train service on the line (the last train is 23.15).
It’s OK driving for an hour on an often-busy motorway when you’re awake; but what about when you’re tired after a busy evening meeting constituennts …
Mr Black told the press that he had argued before the independent commission for Swansea to be designated a second-home town. Unsuccessfully.
The independent review panel’s chairman Sir Roger Jones seemed to fall a bit too much into the tabloid agenda. He said, “It’s like sending kids into a sweet shop with shelves knee-high off the ground; they were told to help themselves, and they did.”
Really, Sir Roger, we are talking here about enabling democracy. No AM possesses a duck island, even if one MP does. But they need to tools to do their jobs properly and well.
No 50-year-old would want the job, “fighting off the press every morning…” But most are seldom approached by the press.
And if we are bringing in rules which mean most 50-year-olds wouldn’t want the job, who would go for it ?
Inexperienced youngsters ?
Party hacks who are happy to swim in the slime of only their own party’s political dogma ?
That is not the sort of body which the National Assembly was supposed to be. We should beware extremely carefully of being led to adopt such a situation as a result of screams from the tabloid press.
Or of the discoveries of London’s sole remaining broadsheet – although we should be eternally grateful about the discovery of the application of cash for a duck-island.
A note of sanity is brought into the issue with a letter in today’s Western Mail from my level-headed friend John Owen. He refers to meals allowances, and to how they are dealt with in a normal commercial environment (John was an engineer, often working away from home).
In such a world, the AMs’ £36.65 allowance would not be sniffed at by the accountant. Mr Owen says a receipt would be necessary. But what sort ? Is the Western Mail accepting that paper’s equivalent of £36 when it is hastily scribbled by the claimant on the ripped-out page of a notebook, with a rough date attached ?
The Cardiff temple of journalistic proprietyblew hot and furious about Tory AMs (led, of course, by the Temple’s favourite hate figure, the Assembly-friendly and slightly to the left of dead-centre Nick Bourne) travelling outside Wales to study the political situation in areas apparently remote from their concerns, such as Brussels.
The Temple put its considerable journalistic resources into discovering that the AMs used quite a good hotel. Unfortunately, the paper failed (or didn’t try) to find out the discount (around 40 per cent).
Later that evening I chanced on a Lib Dem who waxed eloquent about the hatred being built up by the right-wing press against such foreign trips. Eleanor Burnham had spent taxpayers’ money travelling to Spain.
To sun herself on the beach ?
No, to travel to the Basque country to learn about their local-language daily papers.
Laugh if you like from the back of the public bar, as you peruse page three of The Sun.
I’d much rather listen to Ms Burnham on political issues (although, I know she is inclined to have her own take on them), than to the uneducated sections of the public bar on anything (unless they’re drinking good real ale, and that’s the last they’ll be imbibing).
