LETTERS
Pity the peers
Sir: Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd points to some of the difficulties experi- enced by our aristocracy ('Ladies in their own tights. . .', 18 August). The financial plight of many of them forced to exist large- ly on the meagre allowances permitted them, is also a matter for general concern.
The facts are simple. Seven hundred and ninety-five hereditary peers are entitled to the following (indexed) daily allowances from the public purse, but to obtain them they have to book in every day at the House of Lords: Overnight allowance £60.00 Daily subsistence allowance £23.00 Daily secretarial allowance £23.00 Railway allowance — 20,000 miles per year.
Car allowance at 35.4 pence per mile. Subsidised food and drink in Parliament. Free postage for 'duty' mail.
Irishmen with Irish peerages, having additional English peerages, even when living in Ireland, can, and do, claim all allowances when visiting London.
Many peers live in or near London, and can 'book in' in minutes, and many choose to have cheap accommodation for long stays in the capital, or stay with friends. Wives, sons, daughters, etc, can act as secretaries, of course, and the family sub- sistence allowance is a help. Mercifully no time has to be spent in the Chamber and, as to be expected, there is no tedious checking of bills in support of allowance claims. But is this a right and proper way for the social and moral leaders of our country to have to exist? Should they have to scurry up to London in this ignominious fashion, like bank clerks and shop assis- tants, and book in as if punching a time clock? Having done so, should they have to accept those meagre sums?
A few disaffected people point out that the all-in daily allowances for a peer add up to three times the weekly old age pension of £46.90, and are prone to argue that the unelected descendants of past leaders civil and military, kings' panders, money len- ders, court prostitutes and successful swindlers have no right to governance over them, and no right to public money, but such people are best ignored.
A proper diffidence prevents the peer- age making their difficulties public, and it is sure that not one in a thousand of the general population realises the financial facts of their situation. Now is the time to publicise the whole matter, to enable justice to be done.
Robert Wythe
10 Manor Close, Walberswick, Suffolk
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