Darling paid £170,000 for speaking events Wednesday 4 December 2013 Herald Better Together chairman Alistair Darling has been paid more than £170,000 for a series of speeches in the past year, official records show. The former Chancellor received more than £30,000 for addressing two meetings in a single day in May. His most recent paid speaking engagement was at the end of last month, when he was paid £10,200 for speaking at an event organised by Menzies Accountants. In September he received £7650 for speaking at an event organised by Ashurst LLP. He has also spoken at events organised by the banking giants JP Morgan and Bank of America and accountancy firm PricewaterhouseCooper. One event took place in Monaco. The Edinburgh South West MP is in demand for his insight into how the Treasury dealt with days and months around the global financial crisis in 2008. His book on the subject, titled Back From the Brink: 1000 Days at Number 11, was published in 2011. Mr Darling is represented by the same after dinner speaking company as the comedian Jimmy Carr and the BBC Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman. The Labour MP has led Better Together, the campaign for a No vote at the independence referendum, for more than a year. The position is unpaid. All of the speaking payments were declared in the House of Commons register of members financial interests. iain Lawson, Paisley And for some the campaign just gets better and better. A wee cheque here and a wee cheque there, here a cheque, there a cheque, everywhere a cheque cheque! Would it be proper to ask just how much of largesse Mr Darling has donated to Better Together? Yes it would as Better Together are required by law to declare any large donations and name the donor and so far Mr Darlings name has failed to appear. They cant have spent the money from their other dubious donors yet. It must be comforting for Mr Darling to know his future is not dependent on the outcome of the result of the referendum like the rest of us. He is going to be a winner win or lose the referendum. It seems Better Together is not a mass movement but is certainly better for its leader!
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 06:15:20 +0000
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