23/02/2015
So all this "influence" isn't about how many votes we have in the Council of Ministers, or whether we are in the EEA or EU. If we want EU regulation changed, all we have to do is drop a few quid to
Jack Straw and he'll sort it.
As for Sir Malcolm Rifkind, after him having described himself as "self employed", despite being paid £67,000 a year by the taxpayer for his work as an MP, we also learn that he has a lot of "free time". We trust that he will have even more free time after the next election.
One interesting aspect of this new scandal, though, is that both men were invited to discuss a financial relationship with a fictitious company called PMR, supposedly a communications agency based in Hong Kong.
Anyone with any savvy will know that any company claiming to be a "communications agency" will have a web presence. Search for PMR, though, and you will not turn up anything that looks like a Hong Kong-based communications company. And that alone should have had alarm bells ringing.
However, I doubt whether either Straw or Rifkind are computer literate, which means they are cut off from a major source of information. They are, therefore, less well-informed than many ordinary members of the public. And Straw wanted £5,000-a-day for his services.
These people inhabit a different planet from the rest of us. And yet, they have "prestige". In fact, they're not worth the price of used toilet paper.
