Brown Bread

I enjoyed Rod Liddle's piece in last week's Sunday Times in which he asked, rhetorically, whether Gordon Brown - the former Labour leader - was providing value for money these days as the sometime Labour MP for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.

Is Brown worth the bread?

Are we getting value for money out of Gordon Brown these days? The Tories think not. Brown has spoken in the House of Commons on just three ocassions since the terrible sad day he left office as prime minister - yet has claimed almost £20,000 in travelling expenses. Conservative Priti Patel describes this as shocking.

The website TheyWorkFor You.com, which keeps tabs on our MPs, reveals that Brown has spoken just two debates in the last year, managed to table a total of 11 writtten questions that have received a reply and voted in only 13.5% of commons votes. That's a bit thin, isn't it? 

However, the website does point out that Brown has excelled in one specific, somewhat mysterious area. It says that since first being elected he has "used alliterative phrases (e.g. 'she sells sea shells') 2,314 times in debates - well above average amongst MPs."

Mr Brown's office said the money was for travel and he didn't get to trouser any of it himself ...and Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper.    

Now the fact that Gordon Brown did not pocket the dosh himself is beside the point - surely the real issue is that that £20,000 represents a huge amount of public money.

Especially when the MP in question has so many outside interests - and spends so much time away from his day job.