IN the words of the song by The Clash “if I go there will be trouble, if I stay it will be double”. Such is the dilemma facing the double jobbing DUP MLAs, after party boss Peter Robinson declared that the double mandate members will have to choose.
Stark choices face the honourable members of the House of Commons, with Peter promising a summer re-shuffle of his executive party colleagues and committee chairmen (and woman that is his Parliamentary companion and wife…).
The basic equation goes: £64,000 a year salary as an MP or £43,000 as an MLA. Plus of course, expenses for offices, etc.
But it would be churlish – and in fairness probably wrong – to say that any of our politicians would be make a choice based on money.
Instead we have a proposal that would change the faces at the top table at Stormont, strengthen the DUP’s representation at Westminster (the MPs would be able to go to the Commons more than two days a week) and new blood could be introduced.
And only the most cynical of observers would say that the announcement from the First Minister comes as a result of an impending report to Parliament that is expected to condemn double jobbing.
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