Martin Schulz, the president of the European Parliament, has been accused of extravagance for his private office of 35 and two official cars.
Mr Schulz, a German socialist whose position is akin to that of John Bercow, the Commons Speaker, has a private office that includes a speech writer, two personal drivers, four foreign affairs advisers and a personal usher – a tailcoated aide who helps him to receive guests and briefs him on events.
The report “questions the availability of two service cars for the President of Parliament”. Separate statistics show the Parliament spent €6.9 million on transport last year, including maintaining a fleet of cars and even bicycles to ferry MEPs and senior officials around Brussels and Strasbourg. A source close to Mr Schulz said his office was smaller than his predecessors, and said the two cars were needed because it would not be possible to have only one driver while at the same time following laws on rest time.
No, it’s two cars with a driver each.
And what’s the betting that no one at all can see the connection between those requirements for rest time and the ever higher costs of doing anything in Europe?
“And what’s the betting that no one at all can see the connection between those requirements for rest time and the ever higher costs of doing anything in Europe?”
Although for that point to bite you need to find people who both criticise the requirement for the speaker to have two drivers, and praise the EU and its ‘protections’.
Otherwise it seems a bit strawman-y. The source seems to present the reason for the two drivers as a fair one. Though I don’t see why they can’t share a car.
The issue here isn’t that drivers need rest time. They do, at some point, and it’s conceivable that the Speaker’s hours would not be compatible with those of one FTE irrespective of what spanners have been thrown in by labour laws. The issue is that one politician has two dedicated drivers to himself, rather than there being a pooling arrangement of some sort.
EU rules aren’t responsible for this. EU people are.
Is this the same Tim Worstall that defended the BBC’s (rather higher) taxi and limousine costs?
Besides, there really is nothing to see here. €6.9 mil is around €10,000 per MEP. My annual transport bill is more than that. It actually looks pretty reasonable given the monthly Hajj between Brussels and Strasbourg.
Big. Given the monthly haj… Talk about shooting yourselfself inthe foot – why haj? Cause they’re cunts.
Why two drivers? Why doesn’t the useless fascist cunt schulz just work 8 hours a day? Nobody could give a fuck either way. He adds no value whatsoever.
Why do they go fucking strasburg?
To make fench socalusts happy – who would actually choose to fork out a hundred quid a year in extra taxes just to pay for those cunts???