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  1. Wealth
May 2, 2012

Why are MPs getting iPads?

By Spear's

How deeply aggravating that MPs are to receive iPads at the taxpayer’s expense

How deeply aggravating that MPs are to receive iPads at the taxpayer’s expense.

What happened to austerity, double-dip recession and 8% unemployment? If we’re all in this together then I want one too!

But seriously, what’s the problem with the computers that they’re using now? For starters, they’re less mobile and therefore less likely to pose a security risk when left on a train.

Moreover, they’re better priced. Good laptops cost half that of £650 iPads and that’s before you’ve even considered the ongoing phone plan.

The reality is that touch screens aren’t good for sticky fingers. And as many have suggested, faster communication in Westminster would perhaps be better achieved through fewer MPs.

It’s just so regrettable that this isn’t an isolated incident. In February, £400,000 was spent on fig trees in Portcullis House and, worse, MPs bars and restaurants cost taxpayers £5 million every year.

What of the one honourable man in Sodom and Gomorrah? Well, keeper of Parliamentary standards, John Bercow, isn’t exactly squeaky clean himself: the Telegraph alleged in 2009 that he spent £45,000 re-decorating his grace-and-favour apartment.

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The entire situation is even more farcical given recent events. Only yesterday, the Culture, Media and Sport Committee decreed that Rupert Murdoch was not a fit person to run an international company.

How the Australian must be laughing now. The iPad policy is but another example that many MPs are unfit to run the country.

Personally, I hope the media magnate calls them to account at the next election. If he does so with the same vigour that they have pursued him then the electorate can only win.

Read more by Freddy Barker

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