Member News
By Nick Assinder - 15th January 2010
Welcome to the New Year and the new battle for the title "Most Despised Profession in Britain".
It was a close run thing last year, with bankers and politicians slogging it out to the last and ending in an exhausted dead heat.
Now, following a refreshing Christmas break, they are back at their desks and apparently champing at the bit.
And we are all on the edge of our seats to see what new strategies the teams will adopt to snatch an early lead.
It started well, with the bankers planning to pay themselves massive new bonuses totalling some £80bn world-wide.
They then followed through with a breathtaking performance by RBS boss Stephen Hester who joked about his own £10m bonus when appearing before the Treasury select committee.
Apparently he plans to take a holiday to celebrate, and confessed even his mother and father believe he is overpaid.
It is probably fair to say his carefully-calculated remarks failed to undermine his otherwise gold medal winning performance.
But, just as it appeared the early stages of the race were in the bag, politicians put in a last minute spurt with Commons leader Harriet Harman, announcing the half-term break would start on 10 February and last until the 22nd.
But she also did her best to throw away the advance by adding: "We work in two places at once. I would not want the Tories to curry favour with those people who would like to imply that when we are not here in this House we are on holiday. That is not the case."
No it certainly is not the case. They are doing what former Liberal leader David Steel once told his party conference to do (almost): "Go back to your constituencies and prepare to be lynched".
The truth is even members of the politicians' team were a bit taken aback by this announcement.
The overwhelming majority of them are indeed hard working and conscientious and fully understand the need to win back public trust after the expenses affair.
But if they are serious about winning this particular gold medal, they had better snap out of it.
And both teams had better beware - it is far too early to write off the traditional holders of the title.
With an election looming, there's plenty of room for journalists to come through the middle and seize back the crown they believe is theirs by right.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd