Talking-up Scotland

Can only imagine that the Tory toff bloke got disorientated for a moment (when checking his bank balance or something) and suddenly thought he was in his spiritual home of the H of L rather than the Scottish Parlt. – Link and snippets to the grauniad’s latest update of H of L’s shenanigans below:

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/may/30/labour-peer-never-spoke-house-of-lords-claims-50000-expenses?CMP=share_btn_tw

A Labour peer claimed almost £50,000 in attendance and travel expenses covering every single day the House of Lords was sitting last year, despite never
speaking or asking any written questions.

The former trade union general secretary David Brookman was among dozens of other lords and baronesses who never took part in a single debate, while almost a third of the 800 peers barely participated in parliamentary business over a 12-month period despite costing almost £3.2m in allowances.

• Eighty-eight peers – about one in nine – never spoke, held a government post or participated in a committee at all.

• Forty-six peers did not register a single vote, including on Brexit, sit on a committee or hold a post. One peer claimed £25,000 without voting, while another claimed £41,000 but only voted once.

• More than 270 peers claimed more than £40,000 in allowances, with two claiming more than £70,000.

The former Lords speaker Frances D’Souza, a long-term advocate of reform, said the findings corroborated “what everyone suspects is going on…. there are people who are attending the House of Lords who are not contributing, and therefore they are simply redundant”.

Peers are entitled to a daily allowance of £305. Parliamentary staff note peers’ attendance when they arrive, but no record is kept of how soon after that they depart.

The median allowance claim by peers was £30,180, though some peers claimed substantially more than that through more frequent attendance or through travel expenses.

Peers are permitted to claim for business-class flights to and from parliament.

The largest claim for attendance and travel expenses was from the former Labour minister Jack Cunningham, who chairs one of the chamber’s most
important committees scrutinising secondary legislation. He claimed £75,122 for 154 days’ attendance, £23,108 of which was for air travel.

Receipts obtained through freedom of information requests suggest Lord Cunningham took dozens of flights to and from London. It is not clear whether or not Cunningham travelled business class.