Ken Clarke actually made a rather interesting point today.  He often does, altthough not always to the benefit of the Conservative Party.  This morning the former Chancellor rattled on about how MPs are perceived by the general public.  He was right in saying that our national respresentatives are held in extremely low esteem. I do agree with that sentiment that a few ’rotten apples’ should not cause everyone to be tarred.  (I’m mixing metaphors I’m afraid!)

Westminster has to get its collective act together. 

Local Politics is a slightly different matter.  Different in that the sums of money are much reduced for one thing.   If I had remained on the Town Council I would now be entitled to just under 50 pence a mile travel allowance.  Even if I walked!  yes this is about it (financially speaking that is)  Some things are just too silly.

How people of my age (mid thirties) cope with the demands of a regular employment and a career in local government si a wonder.  I thing it is true to say that if someone puts aside time to serve their community they should not be overly punished in a financial sense.  I’m not in it for money, and I think most local politicians are the same, but if ‘we’ are to achieve a representative balance on our local authorities we need to have realistic allowances for councillors 

Food for thought?