What A Joke
Here's an interesting news item reported by the BBC yesterday - which highlights Gordon Brown's earnings outside the Westminster Parliament - of around £80,000 a month - since Labour lost the general election in May 2010.
"Gordon Brown earns £1.4m since leaving Number 10"
"Gordon Brown has earned more than £1.4 million since he stood down as prime minister, including fees and expenses.
More than £127,000 has been given to charities, including all proceeds from his book, Beyond the Crash.
His most lucrative speech, in Nigeria, earned him £74,936, and he has received more than £180,000 in fees and expenses for work at New York University.
Nearly £1 million in fees has been paid to the Office of Gordon and Sarah Brown to fund charity work and campaigns.
Mr Brown left Number 10 after the May 2010 general election but remains the MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.
His predecessor in Downing Street, Tony Blair, reportedly earns some £12 million a year on the lecture circuit and from other posts.
The latest figures for Mr Brown are contained in an updated entry in the House of Commons register of members' interests.
It shows he has earned:
- More than £180,00 for his role as Distinguished Global Leader in Residence at New York University
- £74,936 in fees and £20,165 in travel expenses for a speech organised by the ANAP Foundation, a charity promoting good governance, and Nigerian newspaper This Day
- £61,637 for a speech to a Moscow bank, £62,108 for a speech to a South Korean business newspaper and £49,052 for a speech to King Saud University in Riyadh
- An advance of more than £78,000 for Beyond the Crash - all proceeds from the book have been pledged to charity Piggy Bank Kids
- An advance of £22,500 for a second book due out this year
He has had other engagements in Kenya, Singapore, India and Switzerland. On several occasions, organisations have paid travel and accommodation expenses for both Mr Brown himself and members of his staff.
Some £997,000 in fees and about £293,000 in expenses have gone to the Browns' office which they set up to fund campaigns on issues such as improving education and cutting maternal death rates in the developing world."
Now I have no problem with the former Prime Minister making a new life for himself - but I fail to see how this is consistent with doing his day job as an MP in Fife.
How can it be good value for taxpayers' money if Gordon Brown is swanning about the world for so much of his time - when he is supposed to be earning his £65,000 a year salary as a Westminster MP - plus all his personal expenses and office costs.
Someone else could be doing that job on a full-time basis - and that would be another person off the dole queue.
