One of the perks of being an MP is access to a wonderful private library: the House of Commons Library. I guess it is kind of like the London Library, but open only to MPs and without the membership fee. Part of what the Library offers is a team of experts on a vast range of subjects. These experts produce research papers on subjects like the military balance in southeast Asia and shorter notes on things like biometric passports.
I know from working in Parliament in the past that MPs can ask for the Library to buy books they are interested in reading. So, curious to know which books MPs have been asking us, as taxpayers, to buy for them, I lodged a Freedom of Information Act request. I wanted to know which books have been requested, and which of those requests have been accepted and which turned down.
I got hold of the list last November and at that point the Library had since the 2010 General Election bought, following requests from MPs, almost 150 books at a cost approaching £3,000. Many of the books - like, say, The Afghan Solution - are perfectly understandable purchases. Some books we've bought MPs however are arguably a little less justifiable.
Did we, for example, need to buy this book on seaplanes from the 1920s to the 1950s? Did we need to shell out almost £65 on The Parliamentary Career of Charles De Laet Waldo Sibthorp, 1826-1855? Or what about this (what looks, to me at least, like an insufferably dull autobiography from a cousin of the Queen)?
The UK's national debt reportedly topped £1 trillion in December, and even now the government continues to spend more money each year than it's bringing in. In other words, there's no spare cash, so we're putting these books on the nation's credit card. We're kind of entitled to ask why.
Several of the books - like this one, this one, and this one - have actually been written by current, serving MPs. Although I have no evidence to suggest they might have done so, I wanted to check to see if any of these purchases had followed a request from one of the MPs who'd written the requested book (a nice way to boost sales a little), but the Commons saw fit to refuse to tell me which MPs had requested which books. Apparently, despite asking us as taxpayers to shell out to buy them books they could buy themselves they're entitled to have their names kept secret.
You would have thought with the expenses scandal and all, the Commons would have learnt to be more open. Sadly not as open as I think they should be.
There is nothing wrong with MPs having access to top-notch information and advice on the big - or even small - issues of the day. That's a good thing, and doubly good that the research papers and shorter notes they have access to are also put on the Parliament website for any interested person to read and use.
When it comes to them asking us, as taxpayers, to dip into our pockets to buy them books however, I believe that the criteria for what's bought and what isn't should be tightened up. By my reckoning, 98 per cent of requests by MPs for the taxpayer to buy a new book for the Library were accepted in the period for which I have figures. The inclusion in that of books about seaplanes from almost a century ago, biographies of obscure parliamentarians from previous centuries (especially when that book cost the equivalent of the VAT added to the price of a 42" Panasonic Viera full HD LCD TV), and dreary memoirs of peripheral members of the royal family (okay, I haven't read the book, but I am sure I'd find it dreary) illustrates the need for change.
This information proves two things to me. That whilst the amounts of public expenditure here are small - admittedly, they are tiny - there needs to be much more discipline over discretionary spending of public money, however modest the amount. After all, if you take care of the pennies, the pounds will take care of themselves. There should also be much more openness; why shouldn't we know which MP asked the taxpayer to buy a book on old seaplanes? Why is that MP entitled to have her or his name kept from the public?
Much more needs to be done in this country before openness and transparency are the norm. In the meantime, let's keep up the pressure.