Costly by-elections and surplus salaries
This morning Sammy Wilson made it clear he wouldn't give up his councillor job because he didn't want to trigger the first in a rash of "costly by-elections". At £25,000 a go this is clearly a concern for ratepayers. But is the DUP keen on co-opting councillors purely for financial purposes?
As long ago as May last year, this blog pointed out that, with the TUV threat in mind, the DUP would not be keen on a rash of council by-elections. After the European election, this concern will be all the greater.
Tomorrow the DUP's assembly team are off on an away day. Will they have to take part in any team building activities? All suggestions gratefully accepted, or if you happen to spot an MLA abseiling, ziplining or (my personal favourite) zorbing, let us know.
Presumably whatever they get up to will be funded from their Stormont ministerial salaries, given Peter Robinson's revelation to the that he and the other DUP ministers put their wages towards party funds.
This "tithe" puts the DUP in a similar category to Sinn Fein, whose politicians take what they term "an average industrial wage". The DUP politicians keep a larger share of their income, but the principle is the same. In both cases the surplus salaries of elected representatives are used to subsidise party coffers.
Given the expenses uproar across the water, would there be a gap in the market for a party standing across the UK on a platform of paying its representatives the average national wage? That's around £24,000 A politician might attract more votes if they pledged to pay the surplus to charity, or back to the public purse, rather than to their own party coffers. Of course they would then have a direct incentive to raise the national wage through good management of the economy.
But don't hold your breath. According to the the new Commons Speaker wants MPs to get a six figure salary, four times the average wage. In the current climate, politicians are all keen to be seen to put on but I can't imagine many of them wanting to adopt the Sinn Fein salary model.
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