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A new Italian book, La Casta, (the caste) by two journalists, Sergio Rizzo and Jian Antonio Stella, has sold over a million in a few months and caused shock horror in Italy. It reveals that the Italian political class has given itself a well heeled political niche.
Italian MPs are paid three times as much as the French. Their perks include chauffer driven, bullet proof, cars, body guards, discounted air travel, tennis coaching, comfortable pensions after only 30 months service. Between 600,000 and 700,000 Italians live off the political machine most of them well. The Italian Parliament is the costliest in Europe and a deputy`s basic salary before tax is Eu 11,703 per month compared to British Eu 7,459. They also have Eu 10,000 a month in hypothetical unchecked expenses.
Before fellow MPs rush off to find the Italian Immigration Bureau they should think that we’ve been doing quite well at turning ourselves into a privileged caste in Britain. We’ve not done as well the Germans, the American or the Euro MPs and certainly we’re well behind the self-enriching Italians. But we’re still pretty well off. Better pensions, better pay, better allowances, free travel to Europe three times a year, substantial pay offs when we’re chucked out and much bigger office allowances, much of which is often paid to overpaid wives. Life’s better than it`s ever been before.
In fact our rapid enrichment goes a long way to distance us from the mass of our constituents. No wonder we’ve done so little about the housing crisis. We’re well up the housing ladder to property millionaire status. No wonder we’ve been so little worried about the pension crisis. We’re alright. No wonder we’ve been slow to raise the mean Minimum Wage. Ours goes up by leaps and bounds. No wonder we feel the economy is doing so well. We are.
It’s a dangerous insulation. We should be the people`s representatives. Instead we’re a new and privileged ruling class living a very different and well cushioned life style. This inevitably inclines us to believe our own propaganda about how well Britain is doing. It isn’t. But we are.
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Note from California. We are 14 miles from San Louis Obispo (pop 40,000). It has four 50 metre swimming pools. International swimming competitions are always in 50 metre pools of the kind budding Olympiads need to train in.
London has two fifty metre pools. One of them, Crystal Palace, is about to close for a long renovation from which, given its debilitated condition, it may never re-open. What price British swimming medals in 2012?
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The TV debates between Presidential candidates, both Republican and Democratic, are fascinating. I`m glued to them.
Americans aren’t. The CNN You-Tube debate (a brilliant concept by the way, with You-Tube contributors producing little films) got an audience of 2.8 million, the Federation of Labour debate 0.8 million, the Republican Caucus in Iowa even less. Both parties should threaten to go on having debates until someone actually watches. I don’t count.
I wasn’t even allowed to take part in a Democratic poll in San Louis Obispo on who should be their candidate (Hillary Clinton was winning and Obama a close second) because I`m not a registered voter. Which is perhaps as well because I didn’t know who to support. |
