More research needed
SIR JOHN Banham thinks that Members of Parliament lack the money they need for their work. The Confederation of British Industry's former director-general, now prescribing for The Anatomy of Change (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £20), deprecates the deluge of new rules and wishes they would stir their stumps and stop it. He complains that an MP's allowance for sec- retarial and research support is 'only £40,000 a year' — plus, of course, office space, free postage, and all the facilities of the Palace of Westminster. In a less shel- tered world, £40,000 a year tax-free would go quite a long way to cover what most self- employed people have to provide for them- selves. Still, you see why so many MPs like to do their own research in close co-opera- tion with their secretaries.
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