Gordon Brown’s big spending cut

Cameron has salary cut – by Brown!

The Telegraph has a very interesting little piece in its Mandrake column illustrating nicely the tribal instincts of the outgoing unelected Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his attitude towards his successor (whoever it may have been).

Despite the fact that the Brown led Labour government was profligate and wasteful in its spending, went on a massive binge spending spree in the weeks leading up to the election which required civil servants to request “letters of authority” from ministers, and generally added £ millions more to the national debt and the budget deficit, Brown at least did have one important spending cut in mind. Perhaps it was the only one he was determined would go through, so determined in fact that he ensured there was little or no publicity attached to the decision. He ensured that the Prime Minister’s salary was reduced from £194000 to £150000, thus ensuring that David Cameron would see very little benefit or rise in income compared to being Leader of the Opposition.

Bearing in mind that Cameron had already pre-announced that his government ministers would take a 5% pay cut on taking office, the new PM’s salary will now be down to just £14200 pa.

Little wonder that Brown, the member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath, will be pretty scarce around the Palace of Westminster these days (come to think of it, just how will he justify claiming his MP’s salary?)

Never mind Dave, we are all in this together, many years of pain and all that, now what was that song? Oh yes, “The first cut is the deepest”.

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