General Chat

It appears that the MP, the "Right Honourable Stephen Dorrell" is coming under pressure for accepting the position as a Health Policy Consultant with the accountancy firm KPMG.

It has ben reported that he is starting his new, three days a week job, with KPMG on Monday, this means that until the general election on the 7th May 2015 he will be both an MP and a Health Policy Consultant to the accountancy firm KPMG who are considering bidding for a £1 billion deal to manage the NHS patient’s medical records system.

I wonder if the Right Honourable gentleman considers that doing this is an honourable thing for him to do?

Dermot - those words cross my mind every time, politicians of all persuasions, open their mouths :-)

‘Oh, what a tangled web we weave
When first we practise to deceive!’

Sir Walter Scott (1771 - 1832).

Call me cynical, but I find it interesting, that Stephen Dorrell announced this just weeks after there were reports alleging, that there were 24 MP's and Peers, who backed the Health & Social Care Act 2012, that have links to 15 private healthcare companies that have won numerous NHS contracts worth several billion pounds and that there are more in the pipeline up for grabs ;-)

I kind of sensed a rat leaving a sinking ship.

Moving aside when the time is opportune to ensure he has a job when he is not re-elected.

After all, there might be a lot of Tory MPs looking for work come the day.

Those of us with snow-white temples & relying on hipflasks to get us through cold days plus long lonely evenings as the easterly wind blows down the chimneys into living rooms, have much lower income expectations.

I try not to begrudge anyone's good fortune, no matter how much it really hurts inside.

Conservative MP Stephen Dorrell, who served as the Secretary of State for Health from 5th July 1995 to 2nd May 1997 in John Major's government, is to stand down in May 2015 after 35 years in parliament.

He also served as the Chairman of the House of Commons - Health Select Committee between 2010 ans 2014, he resigned as chairman of that committee in June this year, he is reported as saying that his reason for resigning from the committee was because he wanted to contribute to debate on the health service in the run-up to the 2015 election from a less overtly political position.

The reason he has given for stepping down as an MP is that, he has accepted a postion as a Health Policy Consultant with accountancy firm KPMG, and that the position with KPMG - would be incompatible with his role as an MP.

I wonder in his role as a Health Policy Consultant with KPMG - if he will be advising their clients on what lucrative parts of the NHS they should grab - with his political CV he should know ;-)