Them & Us


Lording it up…

Spare a thought for stricken peers who can’t survive on their pitiful £300 a day allowance. Baron Farmer of Bishopsgate has spoken up for insolvent lordly colleagues. The Tory hedge-fund manager doesn’t claim his daily fee, relying instead on an estimated £150 million personal fortune.

But he has described the rate – more than a minimum-wage worker on 35 hours would earn in a week – as “modest and even inadequate”.

No doubt lords can be seen slumped in hallways at the Palace of Westminster, threadbare ermine on their backs, tricorn hats held out for pennies. “Will pass laws for food,” read their battered cardboard signs.

The Socialist is touched by the plight of members in Parliament’s unelected upper chamber. We are launching an appeal fund to abolish poverty in the House of Lords – by abolishing the House of Lords.

To donate, visit socialistparty.org.uk/donate, or send cheques payable to ‘Socialist Party’ to PO Box 24697, London E11 1YD. Please give generously.

…at tipping point

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Houses of Parliament, waiters who serve MPs are victims of tip theft. Serving staff at four Commons restaurants only get to keep cash tips. If diners pay with plastic – as most MPs do – the catering department mysteriously never passes them on.

Waiters throughout the country will be familiar with this abuse. General union Unite successfully campaigned to stop Pizza Express thieving an “admin fee” from card tips last year.

But paying waiters all their tips could affect the highly subsidised prices MPs demand to make up for their niggardly £67,000 salaries. Perhaps they could start bringing sandwiches from home?