Talk about low hanging fruit. As Tory leader David Cameron planned his moral-high-ground strategy on the parliamentary expenses scandal last week, one line on the MPs' expenditure sheet caught his eye.
MPs can claim £10,000 a year as a 'communications allowance' in order to correspond with their constituents; such 'communications' take the form of mail-merged letters (style: circa 1990) informing constituents of MPs' clinics and door-dropped newsletters full of bad photos of MPs on their rubber chicken rounds.
At Prime Minister's question time last Tuesday, Cameron ridiculed the literature MPs produced with the allowance.
"Let's be honest taxpayers are effectively paying out thousands of pounds so we can all tell our constituents what a wonderful job we are doing," he said at PM's Question Time. "Isn't this a gigantic waste of money? Scrap the communications allowance now."
The use of leaflets, inserts, door-drops by MPs wouldn't be such an easy target if they were properly used.
It's a shame, because leaflets - handed out or door-dropped - are a potent political marketing tool.
Why, even in President Obama's digital-centric election campaign last year, leaflets (used to full effect, that is) managed to grab national headlines.
Perhaps the fault lies in the relatively miniscule amount granted for MP communications. Compared to the profits being made by ministers and MPs on the sale of
second homes, an allowance of £10,000 is small beer.
I can't help wondering what direct marketing's finest printers would do for MPs' communications, given a decent budget and a meaningful message to deliver.
