If £14,789.90 is the answer, then what is the question?
Do you know? Probably not unless you follow my blog but you ought to know what it is, since your taxes pay for it. In actual fact it's the expenses that Peter Hain claimed towards his heating oil and electricity just in the last four financial years up to the end of March 2014. It's a mammoth sum and one that makes him close to the highest claiming MP in Parliament with respect to these.
It's an average figure of £3,697 per annum, and it breaks down to £71.11 per week, every week for those four years. That's what we paid Peter Hain to keep cosy in his countryside retreat and to cook his bloody tuna!
The average dual fuel figure for that period is of the order of £1300 per year (slightly less actually) depending whose figures you use. So Hain claims about 3X your average figure. But the average house is occupied throughout the year. By definition Hain's cannot be, because under the MPs' rules his second home (in Aberdulais) should be the one he spends least time in so by simple reasoning he should be in Aberdulais less than half the time. And in that average house there are statistically more than two people - it's actually 2.4. But not in Hain's house (unless we count the tourists he has staying there) as there is supposedly only him and his wife.
Look at your own bills for these periods. I wouldn't mind betting most of us will be very close to that average figure. In my own case we are under the average, because unlike Hain we have to pay our bills ourselves. So we have taken all the advised steps to minimise wasted energy, carrying out works entirely at our own expense to do so. We have changed older, less efficient windows, insulated walls and loft, and put in a new boiler. With energy costs as they are, even with these measures we have to be very careful with the gas heating. And we don't have an Aga but I find our food tastes perfectly OK done in a simple electric oven or on an induction hob (they are brilliant, believe me). We've never been seduced by the claptrap about Aga cookers that has obviously taken in Mr and Mrs Hain, though I have to confess I have yet to sample marinated Tuna cooked to Mr Hain's special recipe!
What a contrast we and millions of others are to those MPs like Hain who claim their energy bills on expenses and who therefore can be extravagant with their use of it. And there's a further kick in the guts for all of us too. For not only is the average person as poor as a church mouse in comparison to an MP but we are then made even poorer by having to pay for their wasteful use of energy out of our taxes. We shiver and fear the arrival of the next bill, and at the same time are made poorer by paying out of our income tax for them to keep warm.
Hain is always quick to play up his own green credentials and some years ago took advantage of a grant for installing photovoltaic panels on his second home, paying £8,000 of his own money but getting works carried out to the value of £16,000. So the taxpayer actually paid 50% of the cost of these works. No doubt he would have been one of the early entrants into this scheme (an Ed Miliband creation so I believe) and got the highest feed-in tariff offered at the time, thereby giving him an excellent return on his money. And it's still giving him a healthy payback presumably. Just to rub salt into the wound, every one of us who pays an electricity bill pays a loading on it towards these "green" initiatives. So effectively we all get poorer yet again, while the people like Hain who could afford the bucks to install such systems in the early days - well, they get richer. By a considerable amount. What irony! And what an excellent Socialist principle to boot.
As outlined above, his green credentials also extend to using an oil fired Aga to cook - surely one of the most inefficient, wasteful, expensive ways you could choose.
My blog of 11 November dealt with the new Labour Party proposals to deal with making the heating and insulation of homes more efficient. Having Hain champion these proposals, as he is now doing on his website and on Facebook, is like having Prince Charles and the other Royals throw their weight behind various wildlife protection initiatives, at the same time supporting the hunting of foxes and the annual birdshoot at their various estates. You may be impressed that someone of importance seems to be taking an interest in your problems, but there's something not quite right, is there?
When you have the above facts laid in front of you and see a man who last year earned ("earned" being used rather tongue in cheek) way over £100K, yet still claimed these outrageous sums for his energy costs, you can't help but think a number of things.
How can his claims possibly be that much in any case?
How can he have the nerve to make public statements about energy efficiency and fuel poverty in his community?
How can he be such a breathtaking hypocrite?
Don't bother to answer the above for me - I've read his autobiography so I've a pretty good understanding about what makes the man tick.
Next week I hope to have an interesting snippet for you about one of Hain's part time activities outside of the world of Westminster. In the meantime, I leave you with an excerpt from Robert Burns' "To a Louse":
"O would some power the giftie gie us to see ourselves as others see us."
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STOP PRESS
IPSA records published on 13 November 2014 show Hain is still at it. In April 2014 he was paid a further £916.65 for heating oil. Records are only up to date to July 2014 at the moment so there's lots still to come. That takes him up to over £15.7K - and counting.
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