Mandelson in line for EU pay-out

[dipsydoodle]

Business Secretary Peter Mandelson is set to receive a pay-out after resigning from the European Commission to rejoin the cabinet.

He will continue to receive taxpayer-funded EU pay worth £234,000 over three years - in addition to his annual ministerial salary of £104,386.

The Conservatives said the details of the "golden goodbye" would anger voters in the UK.

Mr Mandelson will be ennobled on Monday to allow him to return to the cabinet.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7666482.stm

We'll at least he shouldn't need to lie on mortgage applications any more. :sarcasm:

The scandals that brought Peter Mandelson down twice before :

In his first incarnation, as Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, he lasted less than five months in 1998.

He was undone on that occasion by the revelation that he had bought a fashionable home in Notting Hill, with the help of an interest-free £373,000 loan from his millionaire ministerial colleague Geoffrey Robinson.

When Mr Mandelson filled in a Britannia Building Society mortgage form to buy the house in 1996 he had failed to mention the loan. Nor did it appear on his entry in the Commons Register of Interests.

After joining the Cabinet he also did not bring the loan to the attention of his Permanent Secretary, even though Mr Robinson's business links were at that time under investigation by Mr Mandelson's own department.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/labour/3130348/The-scandals-that-brought-Peter-Mandelson-down-twice-before.html

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Conservative spokesman is right - I am annoyed

Everyone else who resigns from a job just waves goodbye. Why the hell should Mandelson get paid for giving up?

He's a quitter. Despite what he said when he was re-elected in Hartlepool in 2001.

[dipsydoodle]

2. Baroness Mandelson joins the Lords

:rofl: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7666482.stm

It's so tragic that Peter Cook is longer with us : he'd have had a field day

[muriel_volestrangler]

3. Lord Mandelson stripped of anti-corruption role

The new Business Secretary's portfolio will not include the job of the Government's Anti-Corruption Champion, despite Lord Mandelson's predecessor John Hutton holding the brief.

Instead, Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, was given the title. Mr Straw confirmed that the position is a "personal appointment" of the Prime Minister.
...
Nick Herbert, the Shadow Justice Secretary, said: "We're being told that it's all sweetness and light between Gordon Brown and Lord Mandelson, but for some inexplicable reason the Prime Minister has decided not to trust his new Business Secretary with an anti-corruption portfolio held by the previous incumbent.

"Surely the former European Commissioner is qualified for the job?"

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/3204578/Lord-Mandelson-stripped-of-anti-corruption-role.html

Well, yes, you can see there'd be one or two potential embarrassments with Mandelson being in charge of that sort of thing ...

[Nihil]

4. You know it's bad when politicians recognise the hypocrisy!

Mind you, the existence of the post of "Anti-Corruption Champion" in the
UK government (no matter who's in power) is one hell of a bitter joke isn't it?

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Maybe they could outsource it to the Saudi Royal Family

and BAE and Mark Thatcher could take a commission on it ...