When a former finance minister in an African country gets a plum job just after leaving office, the word ‘corruption’ is bound to be in the headlines. But when George Osborne takes a salary of £650,000 a year for working less than one day a week, the press are more circumspect.
The only reason George Osborne’s salary is in the public domain is because he is still a sitting MP. So he has to declare all his additional sources of income on the register of MP’s interests. Other former Chancellors retire from political office to enjoy their payback from their capitalist masters discretely. Not so Mr Osborne. He is so arrogant and greedy he wants to hang on to his £75,000 a year MP’s salary too.
Does anyone in public life spring to his defence? The silence is deafening.
Osborne claims he will work 48 days a year for BlackRock, the world’s biggest fund manager. Work is a euphemism for what he will be doing for BlackRock. The fund oversees over £4 trillion of investments, and has a vested interest in knowing what governments are planning to do. But why pay so much money to a has-been? Perhaps they want to send out a signal to his successor, Philip Hammond. Play nicely, Philip, and you will be rewarded in the afterlife – meaning life afterholding high political office. And the message is also going out to finance ministers and political leaders across the capitalist world.
When the press jumps on every hint of self-enrichment by political leaders abroad, the British ruling class do precisely the same. In most cases they are subtle. The process of cashing in once you have spent years in public office serving your capitalist rulers is less obvious in the west. But it is no different in essence. There are no poor ex-Prime Ministers, and no poor ex-Chancellors. They are well rewarded for their service. And they know which side their bread is buttered on even before they take on high office.