TILTING AT WINDMILLS: HOW MUCH?

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

HOW MUCH?

It has been revealed that the Chief Minister of Gibraltar earns just under £100,000 per year.

Each of the Rock’s MPs in the new Parliament that has replaced the House of Assembly receives £26,042 per annum.

The Chief Minister receives £26,042 as an MP plus an additional £71,179 for his head of government role, making a total of £97,221 per annum.

Ministers, i.e. all the MPs on the governing GSD benches, now earn in excess of £74,000.

That may sound a lot but the Chief Minister, the Minister of Justice Daniel Feetham and opposition shadow minister Fabian Picardo are just three of the top lawyers in Gibraltar’s Parliament. As their fee for taking a client’s phone call is probably around £26,000 you might consider they come at a cheap price.

Chief Minister Peter Caruana certainly thinks so. He told Gibraltar’s Parliament: “I think the Chief Minister's salary represents excellent value for money for the taxpayers of Gibraltar.”

Well he was hardly likely to say "I think you are all being ripped off", was he?

Of course it is for the people of Gibraltar to say whether they think their politicians are value for money or not. However they do preside over 30,000 people and a vibrant economy.

Now take the mayor of Gaucín Francisco Ruíz. He is proposing that he should be paid 64,719 euros a year for running a small village.

The Partido Popular councillor took over the post with the support of the Partido Andalucista in September after a vote of no-confidence in socialist mayor Teodoro de Molino.

For his part De Molino says this figure is ridiculous for a village with 1,732 residents.

Indeed it is – but if Caruana and his gang get whiff of it they might consider they come at too cheap a price and then they’ll want a pay rise too!

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TILTING AT WINDMILLS

Sancho Panza is much less learned but a good deal saner than his master.

"At this point they came in sight of thirty or forty windmills that are on that plain.

"Fortune," said Don Quixote to his squire, as soon as he had seen them, "is arranging matters for us better than we could have hoped. Look there, friend Sancho Panza, where thirty or more monstrous giants rise up, all of whom I mean to engage in battle and slay, and with whose spoils we shall begin to make our fortunes. For this is righteous warfare, and it is God's good service to sweep so evil a breed from off the face of the earth."

"What giants?" said Sancho Panza.

"Those you see there," answered his master, "with the long arms, and some have them nearly two leagues long."

"Look, your worship,'' said Sancho. "What we see there are not giants but windmills, and what seem to be their arms are the vanes that turned by the wind make the millstone go."

"It is easy to see," replied Don Quixote, "that you are not used to this business of adventures. Those are giants, and if you are afraid, away with you out of here and betake yourself to prayer, while I engage them in fierce and unequal combat."”