Labour secures employment

The Government’s Culture secretary has been accused by the opposition of appointing Labour supporters to the board of the Big Lottery Fund, and thereby ensuring that Lottery money is used to support projects endorsed by the Labour party.

When the names of the people on the Big Lottery Fund board were made public in 2004 their political party affiliation was not on the Board Member’s declaration of interests. The interim board did have 17 members, but that has now shrunk to 12, with five being members of the Labour party. The other seven are from all walks of life, and claim no political party affiliation, but that hasn’t stopped Ed Vaizey, the shadow Arts Minister, from stating that membership of the Labour party seems to be a pre-requisite for finding a job on a government-sponsored quango. But who can blame them? For eight days work a month Big Lottery Fund members can claim £24,000 a year for working eight days a month, or £208 per day for two or three days work a month.

The Big Lottery Fund has about £630 million a year to distribute and has to “take account of “ the views of the Government’s Culture Secretary. In May the Government scrapped plans to use Lottery money for public services, rather than good causes, when they threw out a request from the Culture Department that the Big Lottery Fund should comply with directions from the culture secretary. At the moment the Culture Secretary is Tessa Jowell and she is no stranger to jibes from the shadow bench accusing her of cronyism. The Conservatives are also not happy with recent lottery funding for projects such as IT Training for teachers (£238 million) or a pilot study giving Free Fruit for Schoolchildren (£42 million).

So, if you fancy a well-paid job e.g. Chief Executive of Ofcom (salary £440,000) or Chairman of Sport England (part time at £32,000), join the Labour party.

- 7/12/06