Storming the beaches in style.
Troughing is not an exclusively English Parliamentarian pursuit after all.
The German Social Democrat (”we speak for the poor and the vulnerable”) Health Minister, Ulla Schmidt, has been caught out arranging for her S-Class armoured chauffeur driven Mercedes to drive some 2,000 kilometers to Spain ahead of her arrival – presumably to put the towels out on the ‘roasting racks’ of Southern Spain in good time.
But when the €100,000 Euro car was stolen last week from the Spanish resort of Denia, some 80 kilometers north of Alicante, the case became a public relations debacle. According to German police, the car was recovered in Spain on Tuesday evening. The theft has prompted uncomfortable questions about why Schmidt needed her limousine during her vacation, especially since the German embassy in Madrid could presumably have arranged transport for her official engagements there.
On Wednesday, further details of the theft emerged. It turns out Schmidt’s driver was drugged by thieves on the night the car was stolen. “Evidence suggests that the perpetrators pried open a ventilation duct and drugged the driver in order to enter the room and take the keys to the car and his personal belongings.”
The German Taxpayer’s Association, a non-profit watchdog group, has demanded a full accounting of costs incurred. According to their estimates, the health minister’s vacation cost taxpayers more than €10,000 euro.
“The minister is explaining things bit by bit, and each time things look worse and worse for her.”
Schmidt’s case hasn’t been helped by the minor nature of her official engagements. It’s not as if she’s meeting King Juan Carlos, after all. The only visits that have come to light so far haven’t exactly required long-distance journeys — she attended a reception given by the mayor of Denia, the village where she is staying, and she held a talk to 250 German pensioners in a public hall in the town of Els Poblets, just eight kilometres from Denia, on Monday night.
Did her armored limousine really have to drive all the way from Germany for that?
According to the Telegraph this morning, the battle of the beach loungers has been won – by the Germans; they can now pre-book them for a mere €2.60 before they even leave home.
Business daily Financial Times Deutschland commented on Monday: “What will stick is the message that an SPD minister who speaks up for the poor and the weak in her speeches has herself driven around in an armored S-class vehicle while on vacation. You can’t get much further removed from the people than that.”
……Now where were we? What are our British MPs up to on holiday? Anybody spotted one yet?
-
1
July 30, 2009 at 9:45 am -
No I haven’t. Nor would I announce it if I had. This red top fascination with MPs holidays and bare chested photos is gutter low.
Lets leave them for their holidays hey. -
2
July 30, 2009 at 10:44 am -
I thought this was a recess for our politicians, not a holiday, so presumably they’ll be doing some work……………….sans armoured limousine’s I hope.
-
3
July 30, 2009 at 12:21 pm -
RodgerDodger, they are on holiday till october, i’m not waiting that long till i can once again verbally abuse them !!!
I am cheered to see that politicians the world over are living the cliche,
they are just like Evelyn Waugh characters from Vile Bodies, behaving like spoilt aristo’s.
Vile, vile . . . . -
4
July 30, 2009 at 1:35 pm -
5
July 30, 2009 at 2:48 pm -
Did she pay a flying visit to Guernica?
-
6
July 30, 2009 at 5:00 pm -
RodgerDodger appears to enjoy avoiding the ‘real’ issues – there’s no redtop fascination here – we are the paymasters wanting clean accounts from our servants!!
Re. the story, funny because I today heard of a disabled person losing £50 per week disability benefit because they’ve moved home and now share accommodation rather than live alone – their disablities haven’t changed, they have now been made dependant on housemates without their questioning or consent so the state can save £50 pw presumably to pay for the national debt or MPs expenses
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }