It is always fascinating to read about how other people in our society deal with their working lives. Whether this is a matter of contemporary experiences or historic ones. However some roles or jobs contain both a current and a past element to them. One of these is the House of Lords where Peers get to sit in a historic environment and yet are rewarded in a way that their predecessors would not have been. Any Lord or Lady who turns up to work and signs in is entitled to a daily payment of £300 currently. Some do so and never speak or vote over extensive periods and clearly such behaviour needs to be challenged. However even those who are very active can sometimes make statements that also need to be examined. According to the latest set of expenses claims which date back to January, one Peer attended on 16 days in that month and claimed the full £300 which meant his income from that period of attendance was £4,800 which is not insignificant by most peoples standards.

The Peer in question is Gordon Wasserman who is listed on the latest Beta version of Parliaments website here. Sadly the site gives very little information about him although there is a list of the 3 committees he serves on and an official photograph which people can download. According to Wikipedia “He joined the Home Office as a civil servant in 1967 and worked variously as Economic Adviser, in the Urban Deprivation Unit and as an Assistant Under Secretary of State responsible successively for social policy and policing. In his subsequent private sector career, Wasserman served as a consultant in public sector and police management, particularly in the use of science and technology in policing” He became a Peer in 2011 and is a member of the Conservative Party.

It is widely known that certain members of the House of Lords have in the past signed in and then left the building shortly afterwards confident that in doing so they have not broken the letter of the law or rules and that they have £300 in their pocket. No one would suggest this is the case with Gordon who after all was a Civil Servant for many years. However his speech on the 29th June at 11.07 in the morning began with these 17 words

GW: My Lords, I do not intend to detain the House very long on this glorious Friday morning……

No doubt this was intended as a piece of humour, after all if the Lords are not to be detained for long after 11.07am, unless they began their sitting at about 4am in the morning, their ‘long’ detention would not really mean very much. However one does wonder how many of them would consider a £300 day rate could be justified to end at midday or thereabouts. After all they can attend one of the subsidised restaurants and then have the rest of a sunny day in London town to consider how to spend that days expenses!