Nice work if you can get it

I see that a Conservative MP has been arrested for sexual assault, though whether the Justice Minister Ken Clarke views it as a 'serious' assault or not remains to be seen. Anyway, despite being a Tory and therefore predisposed to the selfish and unthinking exercise of power, he's innocent until proven guilty and I'm certainly not going to speculate one way or another.

But what a charmer Andrew Bridgen is. He seems to be a subscriber to the hysterical Glen Beck/Palin school of conservative though (apparently fans of the NHS are 'Stalinist protectionists' rather than worried patients), and he isn't shy of taking the full reward for a full  day's work. On top of his £65,000 MP's salary, he find time to work for the family business:

he is paid £7,773 monthly for six hours work

Or £1,295.50 per hour. £93,276 per year, for 72 hours' 'work'. Not a man who'll be relying on the 'Stalinist' NHS then.

Interestingly, he says this about business efficiency:

"In 1997 we were the fourth most competitive place in the world in which to do business, but now we are a lowly 84th. Much of that is due to regulation from Europe. This cannot continue." 

I'm not convinced. I reckon any company could save £93,276 per year and improve efficiency by not paying someone that much money for doing very little indeed.

Meanwhile, some public safety advice, gratis. If you're a politician's researcher, don't go home with them: putting out in the hope of a safe seat isn't a great strategy. They're power-mad, largely rather odd and out of touch with modern mores, plus they lead strange lives of separation. They know the public hates them but they still believe that proximity to power is an aphrodisiac.

For the male Tory MPs amongst my readers, try to remember these facts: servants and women now have rights. I know this may be a surprise, but there have been a few developments over recent centuries, and droit de seigneur is apparently no longer a legal defence.