Monday 9 July 2007

Politician with portfolio

I see that there's been a bit of a fuss about an MSP's "property portfolio":
A NEWLY elected SNP MSP runs a huge Edinburgh property portfolio worth more than £2 million, it emerged yesterday.

Stefan Tymkewycz, who was elected for the first time in May as an MSP for the Lothians, declared his empire in the latest register of members' interests, which was published yesterday.

Although we've got plenty of the usual anti-capitalist outrage about an actual businessman being in the Scottish parliament, it's quite reassuring to see that not every commenter shares that view. Even in the Herald there was some support for Mr Tymkewycz.

The real question is this: why shouldn't all politicians be self-supporting? Why should any of them receive a penny from the taxpayer? If they were doing their job properly, politicians would only need to meet for a few days a year and they should all be taxpayers, not tax consumers.

1 comment:

David Farrer said...

Comments made on previous template:

Edinburgh Property
Well, you can see how they amassed so much wealth when a tiny 1 bed basement flat in edinburgh now costs like £100,000.

28 July 2007, 14:42:43 GMT+01:00
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James Higham
...outrage about an actual businessman being in the Scottish parliament... 
 
That's a point I hadn't thought about. Businessmen are precisely whom we want in there and when one gets in, his interests come under scrutiny.

10 July 2007, 04:45:20 GMT+01:00
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Anon A Moss
"He has 15 rental flats in the city, most of which are worth between £100,000 and £150,000" 
 
For Embra property that seems awfy cheap, ken?

9 July 2007, 19:19:25 GMT+01:00