It wasn’t the denial of rendition flights. Nor the attempts to suppress information coming out in court that our American allies preferred kept secret. Nor was it the cynical creation of a marine ‘National Park’ around Diego Garcia to keep the Chagos Islanders from their home. It was none of those things (but they did help).
Above all it is the fact that he is a thoroughly nasty piece of work. And a greedy bastard too.
Anyone in any doubt should read the latest issue of Private Eye*.
David Miliband is still an MP. He ‘represents’ South Shields - a rock solid Labour constituency. The brothers and sisters there may well be more than a little troubled by his recent activities.
May 2012: Paid £14,000 for three hours work speaking at a conference paid for by hedge fund investors including Tory donor Michael Hintze and Mitt Romneys former employer Bain Capital.
May 2012: Paid £12,500 for four hours ‘work’ speaking to Bridgepoint, a company who’s interests include NHS privatisation - it owns the hospital contractor, Care UK.
August 2012: Paid £4000 by Qatari government for addressing the Doha Forum Conference on Middle Eastern security.
Also
£30,200 per year for advising Indus Basin Holdings which invests in Pakistani food crops.
£92,840 per year for advising VantagePoint Capital - a US technology investment firm.
£65,000 per year for helping the United Arab Emirates government host a high profile international conference.
At a time when jobs are scarce it is a wonder to see one man hold down so many.
How much constituency and parliamentary work he does is another matter. Would that he were a lone example - sadly he is all too typical of the gravy-train mentality of so many of our MPs. David Blunkett of the homely homily is yet another toe rag who uses his position to feather his nest. He too represents a very economically depressed area.
One of Mark Thomas’s contributors to his manifesto radio programme came up with the idea that all these MPs with other jobs should have to dress like racing drivers with the logos of the companies they ‘represent’ on them. At least that way we would have some idea who they really were working for.
MPs should not have to be saints ....but they should not be such egregiously greedy bastards either.
*Private Eye: essential reading for anyone wanting to find out what is really going on in the UK.
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