#G145* - A PLAGUE of POLITICIANS 30,000 @ £500M!!

#G145* - A PLAGUE of POLITICIANS 30,000 @ £500M!!

A plague of politicians:
There are 30,000 and they cost you £500m every year

By Daniel Martin

Last updated at 12:47 AM on 14th July 2009

Britain funds an army of 30,000 professional politicians and advisers thanks to a decade of Labour reform - and it is costing taxpayers £500 million every year.
Innovations such as devolution have swollen the number of politicians, while at Westminster, Labour has overseen a huge growth in the number of special advisors.

New salaries for councillors have also increased the bill.
Scottish Parliament: Devolution has helped raise politicians' funding dramatically

Figures obtained by the BBC suggest the number of members of the so-called 'political club' have soared ten-fold in 30 years.

And it seems political parties are effectively enjoying state funding via the back door by putting pressure on councillors to donate some of their salary - up to 10 per cent in some cases - to party coffers.

The numbers include every MP, councillor, peer, MEP and member of the Scottish parliament and Welsh, Northern Irish and London assemblies; together with their staff.

Mark Wallace, of the TaxPayers Alliance, said: 'The size and cost of the political class has grown hugely in recent years, against the public's will.

'Politicians of all stripes knew that people would never approve taxpayer-funding of political parties, so they just went ahead and did it without asking us.

'Taxpayers should not have to subsidise the activities of parties that have failed to excite the public about their ideas and their work.

'While these findings are very shocking, they are excellent news in terms of actual transparency and actual accountability because for the first time people can actually look over the whole national picture of what our democracy costs in terms of politicians, and that's essential before we can really work out whether we do get a good deal or not.'
Voiceless: Jane and Brian Handley have a problem with anti-social behaviour near their home in Dumfries but got little response from local representatives


Freedom of Information requests to all councils, devolved assemblies, Westminster and the European Parliament show that, in the financial year 2007/08, just under £500million came from public funds to pay 28,730 professional politicians in the UK.

The Political Club, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, found that MPs and Lords at Westminster, together with their staff and political advisers total around 4,700.

The cost of MPs and ministers' pay plus their expenses, staff and payments to opposition parties was £167million, while peers in the Lords clocked up £19.1million.
Some 73 ministerial special advisors are employed at a cost of £5.9million.
Members of the European Parliament and their staff make up a further 500, while devolved assemblies in Edinburgh, Cardiff, Stormont and London employ more than 1,100 and costing £48million.

Boris Johnson and his London Assembly costs £5.4million.

MEP and staff salaries add up to £4.8million - but the European Parliament would not disclose their expenses bill.
Thirty years ago, no more than 2,000-3,000 people in the UK were paid with taxpayers' money for political work, with the vast majority of representatives, organisers and fundraisers made up of volunteers or party employees.

Around 650 of those were MPs. The overall numbers were far smaller because councillors were not routinely paid.

Councillors used to only receive expenses for turning up to meetings. Now they draw a salary - and that, together with political staff, adds up to a £254.5million cost.

The investigation-also showed that many political parties expect their elected members to make contributions to party funds.

In a practice known as 'tithing', Liberal Democrat councillors are expected to donate 10 per cent of their salaries to party coffers; while Labour also demands a cut.

The Tories say they have abandoned the practice, but councillors told the BBC that there was pressure to contribute.

To view the original article CLICK HERE

To Read More on this subject:
CLICK HERE & also HERE

"In politics, stupidity is not a handicap."
Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821),

Regards,
Greg L-W.

for all my contact details & Blogs:
CLICK HERE

For More Information & Facts visit:
WEB SITES:
SilentMajority/
WelshAssembly
CatterpillarsAndButterflies
Greg's WordPress Blog

‘The arrogance and hubris of corrupt politicians
will be responsible for every drop of blood spilt
in the Wars of Disassociation, if Britain does not
leave the EU.

The ugly, centralised, undemocratic supra national policies being imposed by the centralised and largely unelected decisionmakers of The EU for alien aims, ailien values and to suit alien needs stand every possibility of creating 200,000,000 deaths across EUrope as a result of the blind arrogance and hubris of the idiologues in the central dictatorship, and their economic illiteracy marching hand in glove with the idiocy of The CAP & The CFP - both policies which deliver bills, destroy lives and denude food stocks.

The EU, due to the political idiocy and corruption of its undemocratic leaders, is now a net importer of food, no longer able to feed itself and with a decreasing range of over priced goods of little use to the rest of the world to sell with which to counter the net financial drain of endless imports.

British Politicians with pens and treachery, in pursuit
of their own agenda and greed, have done more
damage to the liberty, freedoms, rights and democracy
of the British peoples than any army in over 1,000 years.

The disastrous effects of British politicians selling Britain
into the thrall of foreign rule by the EU for their own
personal rewards has damaged the well-being of Britain
more than the armies of Hitler
and the Franco - German - Italian axis of 1939 - 1945.

~ for more Quotes & Facts:
http://www.silentmajority.co.uk/

############-\\\///-########### #
############= ~ = ############
###########(`~0~0~') ###########
--------oooO--------(_)-------Oooo---------
############Regards############
##########M r C H A D###########

Until we gain our liberty, restore our sovereignty, repatriate our democracy and reinstate our Justice system and our borders - defended by our Police and Military armed with sustainable and obtainable weaponry:
Treat every election as a referendum.

Don't waste your vote on a self serving Politician in ANY election until we are liberated from the EU and are a Free Sovereign peoples, with independent control of our own borders, making and managing Law & Justice for our own benefit, in our own elected Westminster Parliament where we can fire our politicians at the ballot box, if they fail to represent OUR best interests.
Make your vote count
Write on YOUR ballot Paper
LEAVE THE EU