Perks of the trade

Apr 6 2008 by Ken Oxley, Sunday Sun

I HAVE never had the pleasure of meeting Ronnie Campbell, pictured below, but the MP for Blyth Valley strikes me as a decent chap, albeit somewhat accident-prone.

So I was flattered that he thought of me this week when he was asked to sign an Early Day Motion taking a swipe at the media.

The document, tabled by Liverpool Walton MP Peter Kilfoyle, effectively calls on journalists to stop banging on about MPs overspending when they themselves enjoy some rather nice perks at the House of Commons.

Apparently, a staggering £8.2m has been spent on the Press Gallery there. What’s more — and this really turns regional jour- nalists such as Yours Truly green with envy — the Press bar is said to enjoy annual subsidies worth £210,000.

Ronnie sent me a copy of the document with my name scrawled on it in large capital letters and the cryptic message “one bad turn deserves another”.

This, presumably, was a reference to a story the Sunday Sun ran about how he accidentally backed National Fetish Day.

It seems he had confused the word “fetish” with “fret”, leading him to confess to a horse fetish.

Ronnie explained: “I thought it would make a good piece for your column seeing as it is always the MPs that get blasted for overspending.”

I can see where he’s coming from . . . sort of. However, this is still Government expenditure, even if it benefits someone else.

And how can it cost more than £8m to renovate the Press gallery anyway? Perhaps they should have got a few more quotes.