Insurance pariahs

Humiliation

I shuddered when I saw the name of an insurance company in e-mail from a prominent magazine executive. I cannot name them here yet until I name them in the house.

Two very gentlemanly agents of the company came down from the North of England to visit me about 8 years ago. They told a chilling tale of strong-arm tactics by this company in pushing sales. Both the agents and the unfortunate clients were treated abominably.

The most memorable incident reported was the annual dinner for senior agents held in a swish hotel and attended by the firm international supremo. The evening climaxed with a call for half a dozen agents to stand up in their places. Their less than successful sales records were then read out. ‘I did not ask you to stand in order to embarrass you’ the chief executive explained, ‘I did it to humiliate you.’

My two complainants are still pursuing a case against the company. They have been partially successful and I organised two meetings with them and the regulatory authorities.

The new complaint is of alleged sickening sales tactics used on an elderly lady. No apology appears to be forthcoming. The company is not British. If no redress offered, I will raise the issue in the Commons.

Then I can tell you who they are.

Sleaze Con
Well it’s news to me.

Tonight it was revealed that MPs are allowed to claim expenses of up to £10,000 for a new kitchen, £2,000 for furniture and £750 for a TV or stereo for their second homes. This is the so-called "John Lewis list" used by Commons officials to list maximum amounts for items.

In a meeting of senior MPs a fortnight ago, I was not the only one who said I was bemused by the present revelations. One of the most shocking is the news that MPs do not need receipts for items under £250. I challenged anyone to find where that information is written down. For eighteen years I have sent great piles of receipts to the Fees Office for all items. It would have avoided a great deal of photocopying if someone had mentioned it, earlier.

Nor has any MP seen any of these limits, which strike me as pretty generous. The system is archaic and indefensible. A root and branch reform is essential.

What irritates Labour MPs is that we are being branded as the worst party for sleaze. It’s not true.

Derek Conway MP who made payments worth £40,000 to his son for ‘work’, as a parliamentary researcher while he was a student is a Tory.

Michael Trend MP in the previous parliament who claimed tens of £thousands for a non-existent home in London is a Tory. All those involved in the cash in brown envelopes scandal were Tories.

The Sunday Times sting on cash for questions netted 7 Tories and no Labour or LibDem MPs.

Nearly all the accusations against Labour MPs are for breaking rules than do not exist. There are no rules on air-miles or which home should be treated as a second-home. Cash for peerages has been practiced by all major parties for at least a century. Labour was accused because we were holding the parcel when the music stopped.

What the press has done successfully is to smear by association. The bigger the headlines to a vaccuos non-story, the deeper the impression of guilt is created.

That why Labour is blamed. The reform will come soon. we should have done something about the rotten system tears ago.

Lost Leader

Eliot Spitzer is still a hero.

He achieved great victories for consumers against Big Greedy Business when he was Attorney General of New York. Two years before we in the UK nailed GlaxoSmithKline over the Seroxat Scandal, Switzer sued them in New York. Unfortunately a deal was done and it cost GSK only a piddling $2million.

Spitzer won his political reputation on merit – not on back stairs political deals. It’s galling to realize that champagne corks will be popping tonight in the offices of some of the world’s most unscrupulous and loathsome companies.

The surveillance of the Governor’s Office, bank balance and telephone would be unthinkable here on the grounds of privacy. The end justifies the means and he has been judged to be hypocritical in his conduct. He had to go.

Spitzer's deputy, Lieutenant-Governor David Paterson is New York's first black governor as well as its first blind governor.

He said he had spoken to Mr Spitzer, saying: "I just told him how sorry I was this happened and how much he still inspires me.’

Me, too.

Comments

[Ian]

Paul, I hope that from all these 'revelations' that we can move on afresh for the sake of democracy. Whichever party is blamed, we all suffer under the same label of sleaze. There is enough cynicism out there without adding to it.

[Paul Flynn]

Dear Ian,

That's true. We are all tarred with the sleaze brush.
As I hope to establish, we are hitting the wrong targets on sleaze. Members Allowances are an Alice in Wonderland world, but, I believe, that future published evidence will show that few have exploited it.

The serious abuses are the revolving doors and hidden lobbying. Watch this spot.