Monday 2 June 2003

This is how the ruling class behaves

Glasgow Labour councillor Hanzala Malik has invested £27.000 in a flat that he intends to rent out as an investment. More will be spent on upgrading the property. Good for him we might think - another budding capitalist. But what about this:
However, when it is leased out, Mr Malik and his wife Haleema, 40, who is also a Glasgow Labour councillor, will be occupying a state-subsidised house in Northpark Street, in Mrs Malik's ward of Firhill.

The couple pay about £200 a month, or half the market rate, for the modern three-bedroom terraced house, which has a front and back garden.

The home is rented from Queen's Cross Housing Association, which has more than 600 people on its waiting list.

The two councillors get £30,000 a year in allowances and Mrs Malik has another job that also looks likely to be paid by the taxpayer. Their subsidised home costs the rest of us another £2,400 annually. It looks like they consume over £50,000 of taxpayers' money every year. No wonder they can afford to invest in property.

Malik says that he can't afford to buy a property big enough for himself. On fifty grand a year! Pull the other one. Labour should throw them out.