Nice Work If You Can Get It

You cannot stand for a council which employs you. So it is striking how many candidates for the new unitary authority here in County Durham are employees of the authorities that it will replace.

One of them is in his twenties with a small child, but clearly has no expectation that he will ever need to work again. Another is in a job which cannot be paying less than seventy thousand pounds per annum, but is obviously certain that this will be made up by an allowance in principle payable for attendance at a mere one meeting every six months, an allowance which moreover must therefore be more than an MP’s salary.

And during the transitional year when we have the pleasure of both systems, such people will doubtless be enjoying both incomes, putting the latter, at least, well within the top one per cent of “earners” in the country.

Nice work if you can get it.