Ed Milliband's Presidential-Style Entourage Trip To Israel And West Bank.

[anotheoldgit]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2608699/Revolt-Ed-Milibands-20k-bill-army-aides-trip-Middle-East.html

£20,000 of public money taking a 12-strong delegation on jolly to Israel and West Bank, money well spent?

But apart from that can anyone tell me why these Party leaders have to take their spouses along with them? it is them who are elected not their other halves.

Business men or women don't take their partners when on business trips and neither do the armed forces when they are away for six months.

[Gromit]

In 2008 when David Cameron was Leader of the Oppistion he took a trip to Turkey. Sunday Mirror 4th August 2008.

// SUNBATHING on a £21,000 a week yacht, waited on by an army of staff, this is the holiday Tory leader David Cameron would prefer that you DIDN'T see. 

Mr Cameron and his family joined 74 friends on seven traditional "gulet" boats for a week-long tour of the Turkish Riviera which ended yesterday. 

Each of the double-masted wooden vessels - with 20ft high white sails - has its own personal chef, captain and two crew hands. 

It was Mr Cameron's second holiday within a month, but, unlike the first, he didn't invite the Press along. Three weeks ago the Tory leader and wife Samantha posed for official pictures as he holidayed with his family on a humble bucket-and-spade beach in Cornwall. 

With the credit crunch biting, he portrayed himself as a stay-at-home politician in touch with the electorate. 

His photo-calls and interviews led even his most loyal Tory newspapers to mock his opportunism. 

But there was no fanfare at all for his decadent week-long tour off Turkey's south-west coast. 

Mr Cameron, 41, flew to Turkey last Saturday, where the former PR executive took advantage of its closeness to the conflict in Georgia and used a private plane for a quick photocall with the Georgian president in Tbilisi. 

But by Sunday morning he, Samantha, 37, and their children had joined the sailing party off the Fethiye peninsula to celebrate the 60th birthday of his mother-in-law Viscountess Astor. 

The total cost of hiring the seven gulets was an estimated £150,000. //

http://www.thefreelibrary.com/IT+STICKS+IN+THE+GULET%3B+EXCLUSIVE+THE+HOL+CAMERON+DIDN'T+WANT+YOU+TO...-a0183582487

[Gromit]

Or if you prefer a Daily Mail link....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1048655/Cameron-luxury-yacht-holiday-Turkish-Riviera--just-weeks-bucket-spade-holiday-Cornwall.html

[naomi24]

Gromit, What does all of that have to do with this thread? As far as I can tell it was a private party paid for privately.

[Gromit]

// Milliband took 10 aides plus his wife, another prime example of Labour's overspending. //

It is not overspending though is it. He gets £140K to perform his Leader of the Opposition duties. He uses £20K, so that leaves him with £120K left. Where is the overspend?