David Cameron speech on cutting the cost of politics

David Cameron speech on cutting the cost of politics; David Cameron speech continues SOT - What about cars? If there is something that really annoys people it's seeing politicians swanning around in chauffeur-driven cars like they're the Royal Family. It's actually not as simple as that. I say this as someone who has a chaffeur driven car. There are times when having a car to hand, getting a minister to a certain place on time, is absolutely vital to our democratic process - for example, to make a vote in the House of Commons, or to meet a foreign dignitary or open a school. But there is no need for 171 of these cars to be on hand for every government minister, every whip, including myself. In these economic times, when everyone is making sacrifices, this number cannot be justified. So the Conservatives will cut the budget for official government cars by a third. If that means fewer cars - and ministers using them more efficiently - then so be it. And if we're going to cut the cost of the cars, let's also start at source and cut the cost of ministers. There are currently 169 government ministerial posts and 3 opposition party posts that receive additional taxpayer funded salaries, on top of the standard MP salary. These ministerial salaries range from 26,624 pounds to 132,923 pounds. It's only right, at a time when the country has to share in financial pain, that they make their sacrifice too. So we will cut all Ministerial salaries - that's the money they get on top of their MPs' salary - by an immediate five percent. This means a pay cut of 6,500 pounds for the Prime Minister and a 4 ,000 pound pay cut for Cabinet Ministers. On top of that, we will freeze those salaries for the lifetime of the next Parliament. That means a further pay cut when inflation is taken into account - and a saving of over a quarter of a million pounds a year for the taxpayer. We'll also make sure those ministers have a direct interest in not letting inflation get out of control again....