Those few local residents who don’t chuck advertising leaflets that come bundled with their copy of the Advertiser straight into the bin recycle bag will notice that alongside the Optical Express sale leaflet is a four-page A3 publication entitled “Barbara Keeley MP News”.
Now, the publication in question is plastered in a nice red colour with yellow trim, it is filled with stories about what the Government is doing, and there’s a big picture of Gordon Brown on page two. You would presume that the production and distribution of this newsletter would be paid for by the Labour Party, right? Wrong.
So who does pay for it? Well, if you look at the tiny writing down the side of the front page, it tells you:
Paid for by the Communications Allowance, House of Commons
Yes, that means you, the hard-working taxpayer, is paying for our local Labour MP’s political propaganda, and I defy anyone to argue that these leaflets are anything but. Not only is Barbara Keeley using taxpayers’ money for her own self-promotion, but I’m sure it’s a complete coincidence that this leaflet has arrived just as Gordon Brown is mulling over a snap election. That said, the newsletter is dated “Summer 2007″ (a bit optimistic) so perhaps she is just a bit disorganised.
Of course, had I left it at that point, someone - probably Chris Paul - would have come along and pointed out that the sitting MPs of all political parties do the same. I’m sure Chris has a few choice words for the equivalent newsletter from Withington Liberal Democrat MP John Leech. That’s absolutely true, but it doesn’t make it right. I hope that a future Conservative Government will abolish these propaganda allowances, rather than significantly increasing it as this Labour Government have done.
I agree with you Iain. Shock horror. “Parliamentary reports” paid for by the tax payer should (a) be strictly business with no boosting of local candidates and (b) be published at a set month.
Or they should be specified to be a two-page, four-side letter on HoP paper and not as glossy as you like propaganda.
Actually September wouldn’t normally be a bad one to choose. Chance to review last 12 months (June to June) and get it ready and published.
Leechy stuck his out in April 06 and 07 with a lot of bigging up for LG candidates (unnamed but same pics and stories as in their own leaflets) AND stuck it through doors outside his constituency.
He is Lib Dem, but even by their standards he is a chancer.
I agree Iain, we had one from Ivan Lewis last week. to thing every leafelt I put out I have to fund myself or at least raise the funds.
Iain,
Clearly you aren’t a big fan of impartiality, but let’s set the record straight. This year opposition parties have recieved nerly £7.5 million of taxpayer money - £5 million of which have gone directly to the Conservative Party. The Labour Party recieves no such donation. Every MP gets the same communication allowance - there is no bias towards the governing party.
There is no mention of the Labour Party in Barbara’s newsletter, and it is almost entirely devoted to local priorities. The picture of Gordon Brown you are referring to was taken at a carers event in Downing Street during carers week - for which Barbara was Parlimentary Champion. It doesn’t surprise me that you do not like the idea, after all the Tories have never done much for carers. But considering there are around 20,000 carers in Salford, i think you should be delighted that our MP is taking the issue direct to the Prime Minister.
Also, at a time when election turnout is at its lowest level ever, newsletters are a vital way of communicating with constituents. It is important that people know what their MP is doing for them and I, for one, am grateful that Barbara has made this effort.
Well first of all, “Anon”, I’d take your opinions more seriously if you had the guts to put your name to your opinions. One can only assume that you are a Labour attack dog otherwise, particularly given your in-depth knowledge of the leaflet in question!
The “Short Money” you refer to is there for a reason - the governing party have the civil service to do the sums on their policy proposals, and the offices of the Prime Minister and cabinet ministers are paid for directly from the public purse. The Short Money is there to provide a semblance of political balance.
I am aware that every MP gets the same communication allowance, and if you’d read my piece I acknowledged that in the first place. My point was that I do not agree with this allowance in the first place - and as you’ll notice above I do not consider this a partisan issue.
The idea that Barbara’s newsletter was not pseudo-party-political campaigning is laughable. It was full of “the Government is doing x” articles and was printed in Labour colours - pushing the boundaries of a supposedly impartial taxpayer-funded leaflet to the limit. Do you really think it is a coincidence that having heard nothing from our local MP for months if not over a year, suddenly this leaflet appears out of the blue (or out of the red, perhaps) a few weeks before a possible General Election?