Wednesday 15 June 2011

Maude - Minister of State, cheating bastard or both?

Listening to Frances Maude on the Today programme was not edifying. He is the Minister responsible for negotiations with the public sector unions. He poured scorn on the turnout in the strike ballot and ridiculed the extent of anger. He was also minded to review legislation about strike ballots making it more difficult to achieve a yes vote. This from a party elected with barely 20% of the possible vote at the last election. (Turnout 65%, Tory share 35%). 
This is the same man who before he came to office was exposed in the Telegraph as another example of a greedy MP. The information below is from The Telegraph.
“Francis Maude claimed almost £35,000 in two years for mortgage interest payments on a London flat – even though he already owned a house just a few hundred yards away.
The minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster general owned the house outright, but in 2006 took out a £345,000 mortgage on the flat no more than a minute’s walk away, which he designated his second home. He then rented out the house and began claiming mortgage interest payments on the flat which is in a grade II-listed building with a gym and 24-hour concierge.
Mr Maude also claimed, and was paid, £387.50 for the cost of moving his effects down the road from the house to the flat. The shadow minister made the unusual property flip after a lengthy row with the Parliamentary fees office over which home he could claim expenses for.
After being told he could not claim for his constituency home, he bought the London flat using a mortgage – and began claiming the interest.
Mr Maude is independently wealthy. He was previously a managing director of Morgan Stanley, a director of Salomon Brothers and a non-executive director of Asda during the 1990s.
He has four properties — two in London, one in France and one in his constituency of Horsham, West Sussex. After being exposed by The Daily Telegraph, Mr Maude said he had stopped claiming for a second home.” Telegraph.

So thats alright then? The Tory voters of Horsham clearly thought so. His share of the vote went up at the last election. Clearly Maude is a role model for greedy unscrupulous  tories.
According to Wikipedia His personal net wealth is estimated at £3m. Despite this, during a discussion on Newsnight on 22 October 2010 he argued that a 5% cut to his £65,738 salary was equal to the 'pain' suffered by Britain's poor. Oh yeah!
As the negotiator for the government he is at best flawed and at worst an inflammatory presence who some think should be in jail. He should not be in government. 
He certainly should not be invoking single mothers in support of the cuts. 
He is a very bad example of the political class at its worst.

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