Bryn Trefil
|
Kinnock ‘rewarded for not backing miners’ strike’ | Quote: | THE furore over Neil and Glenys Kinnock’s alleged£10m earnings from Europe showed no signs of abating yesterday, as political opponents said the revelations would sicken ordinary voters.
Former Tower Colliery boss Tyrone O’Sullivan expressed his disgust over the findings, saying it was Lord Kinnock’s reward for failing to support the miners during the 1984 strike.
And former deputy Labour leader of Liverpool City Council Derek Hatton said nobody should be surprised by the findings, as Lord Kinnock had set the party on the road to embracing Thatcherism.
But Labour MP for Anglesey Albert Owen said the couple had been singled out as an act of “spite” and were simply paid the going rate for their jobs.
Campaign group Open Europe said Lord Kinnock earned £1.85m, while his wife, from Anglesey, collected £775,000 as an MEP.
Allowances for Mrs Kinnock’s staff and office costs ran to £2.9m, while Lord Kinnock, 67, was also entitled to a £64,564 entertainment allowance.
Further between them they have a total of five publicly-funded pensions worth £4.4m, which will allow them to retire on £183,000.
Mr O’Sullivan, 63, said: “It’s absolutely crazy money and nobody in society deserves that.
“It’s the kind of thing that makes ordinary people sick.”
Lord Kinnock was made the UK’s European Commissioner by the then Tory Prime Minister John Major in 1995 and served until 2004.
His 64-year-old wife is standing down as an MEP. Prime Minster Gordon Brown has appointed her Minister for Europe and she will be given a life peerage.
Former National Union of Mineworkers branch secretary Mr O’Sullivan, who led a workers’ buyout of Tower Colliery in the Cynon Valley, added: “I’ve got no criticism of Glenys, she’s a first-class politician and she was elected.
“But Neil was put there and it was his present for not supporting the miners.”
Mr Hatton, 61, who was expelled from the Labour Party over his membership of the left-wing Militant tendency in 1986 when Lord Kinnock was leader, said: “Is anybody surprised by this?
“He (Lord Kinnock) paved the way for Tony Blair, who simply carried on in the way that Thatcher had carried on.
“He created the launch pad for the greedy and selfish society and nobody should be surprised that he has done the same.”
But Mr Owen said Lord Kinnock, from Tredegar, was a key figure in the party’s modern history, who paved the way for three election victories under Tony Blair.
He said: “Their compensation package is based on years of service and age, as is the case for everybody in the private and public sectors.
“The political shift under Lord Kinnock was necessary otherwise we would never have got back into office.”
|
http://tinylink.com/?HS0RqmoVTl
£64,564 entertainment allowance. between them they have a total of five publicly-funded pensions worth £4.4m, which will allow them to retire on £183,000.
Mr O’Sullivan, 63, said: “It’s absolutely crazy money and nobody in society deserves that.
Well said a well paid clown, it really does make me sick just how much they and their ilk have been ripping us off and continuing to do so 
|
hedleymccarthy
|
Hear, hear, Tyrone
|
Saeson
|
The shocked reactions just go to show how little most people know about the EU. The Kinnocks have made no more than many other MEP`s.
Anyway it`s all peanuts if compared to the cost of the monthly circus when the EU moves from Brussels to Strasbourg for a week as they have done for years, all to keep the French happy.
|
The Abrogator
|
Nice work if you can get it. 
|
jools
|
I havn't followed the link, but does it mention how much their offspring have also made out of the gravy train ?
|
|
|
|