I had a good idea this week.
I do not get many, so pay attention.
I was listening on the radio to doctors complaining – there’s a shock – about hospital performance targets.
Apparently working hard to hit some targets prevents them doing a proper job elsewhere, probably in their private practice.
Anyway this follows on from schoolteachers complaining last week about targets in school causing them too much work.
Thank God I am in a trade not a profession, or I would be moaning all the time.
I digress. These targets are set by MPs, many of whom have not been behaving very well lately and not performing at their best.
So my good idea is that MPs should be given performance targets and a chunk of their salary should depend upon them hitting them.
Some might say all of their salary but then we would have MPs starving in the street and I am sure we would not want to see that.
These targets could include ability to fill in forms properly, especially expenses forms and declaration of interest forms.
Failure would mean that not only do they not get some of their salary but also none of their expenses.
High attendance at the House of Commons, and in particular in the Chamber itself should be one of their targets.
Backbenchers are often moaning that ministers do not put themselves up for proper scrutiny but whenever I see Parliament on TV, with the obvious exception of Prime Minister’s Question Time, there are rarely more than 20 MPs in the Chamber and some of them are asleep.
Telling the truth might be another performance target, along with answering the question they have been asked.
I am sure there are many other targets that MPs could be set, such as replying to letters, visiting their constituencies and sticking to their election pledges.
Such a scheme need not only apply to MPs but councillors as well, who are pretty well paid these days. Some councillors work their socks off and others are seen less often than a sunny day in Manchester.
Politicians must believe in targets as they are constantly setting them, so I cannot see any reason why they should complain.
What’s sauce for the institutions run by Parliament ought to be sauce for the Parliamentarians.
I believe others should take up this idea and make it happen, so that if we ever have such a useless and corrupt bunch of MPs again, we will at least be comforted by the fact we did not have to pay them.
- IS it me or has the price of wine gone up quite a lot lately? I confess to being more of a beer man but the present Mrs Lowe likes a glass of wine and I sometimes, to be sociable, join her.
Our wine-drinking friends do look down on us a bit, as we are not fond of oaky wines or New World wines but enjoy a bit of French, especially Beaujolais, which is scorned by those with finer tastes.
Anyway, the price of it seems to have risen quite a lot lately.
We may of course be imagining it, as we neither count our pennies or our pounds but French red appears to be soaring, at least in Tesco.
Of course we did have wine shops, such as Victoria Wines and Threshers with which to compare and contrast but Bedford is now at the mercy of the supermarket.
We could give it up, make our own or go on a booze run but the thought of any of them is enough to drive me to drink.
I suppose, we should just be grateful we are not cider drinkers.