Are MPs paid silly money? I don't think so, says Tory grandee Norman Fowler

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Esteemed: The former 保守的な MP served as Lord （衆議院の）議長 of the upper house from 2016-21

Norman, Lord Fowler was Health 長官 from 1981-87, during Margaret Thatcher's 首相の職, and famously 認可するd a 一連の hard-hitting adverts about the dangers of 援助（する）s, 令状s York Membery.?

A 保守的な MP for 31 years, he went on to serve as party chairman from 1992-94, and Lord （衆議院の）議長 of the upper house from 2016-21.?

After 卒業生（する）ing from Cambridge he worked as a 新聞記者／雑誌記者 on the Oxford Mail, then The Times before becoming an MP.?

Father-of-three Fowler, 86, who has just published his diaries, and his second wife Fiona divide their time between London and the 小島 of Wight.

What did your parents teach you about money?

I was an only child and grew up in Essex. My engineer father Norman, who died 老年の 63, and my teacher mother Kitty, who lived to 92, moved south in search of work in the 1930s.?

They were both careful and 用心深い with money and placed 広大な／多数の／重要な importance on 資格s, although pre-Second World War Essex 郡 会議 had a scandalous 支配する 軍隊ing married women like my mother to give up their 職業s if their husbands were in work too.

Have you ever struggled to make ends 会合，会う?

I've never really been on the 辛勝する／優位 financially but there have been occasions when money was tight. After I'd been selected as the 保守的な PPC for Nottingham South in the late 1960s, I was still working as a 新聞記者／雑誌記者 in London.?

I had to rent a cottage in Nottingham and travel up there a lot, thankfully my 成果／努力s paid off and I was elected MP in 1970.

Have you ever been paid silly money?

No. Are MPs paid silly money? I don't think so, I think they work hard for their money, and in my day they worked even harde r. I've been paid to make the 半端物 speech, but nobody 申し込む／申し出d to 支払う／賃金 me a 広大な sum to do so. Some 政治家，政治屋s earn silly money after quitting 議会, but some 職業s may 衝突 with political 見解（をとる）s.

What was the best year of your 財政上の life?

Probably 1991 or 1992, when I was a backbench MP, and became chairman of a West Midlands newspaper group (publishers of the Birmingham 地位，任命する) which later went public, netting me a tidy sum. That was the first time I didn't have an overdraft.

The most expensive thing you bought for fun?

The safaris I took in the 2000s with my wife Fiona, and Ken Clarke and Leon Brittan and their wives, to Kenya and other parts of Africa for three or four years in a 列／漕ぐ／騒動 ? it was like the 保守的な Party on manoeuvres.?

Each trip cost a five-人物／姿／数字 sum but they were wonderful holidays and we saw some amazing 野性生物. I remember Ken Clarke ? a 広大な／多数の／重要な bird 熱中している人 ? once 説: 'Forget the hippos, look at those lovely little birds over there!'

What is your biggest money mistake?

It's a 投げ上げる／ボディチェックする up between buying an open-最高の，を越す Jag and agreeing to serve as 保守的な Party chairman.

My wife 辞退するd to 運動 the car and my grandchildren couldn't fit in the 支援する. I 拒絶する／低下するd to take a salary as Tory chairman, because the party was going 破産した／（警察が）手入れする ? I spent the next two years working with John Major trying to mend its 財政／金融s, to the detriment of my own. I 疑問 my 調書をとる／予約する will make me much money either, but I enjoyed 令状ing it.

Game driver: Former Tory party chairman Norman Fowler with his PM, Margaret Thatcher

Best money 決定／判定勝ち（する） you have made?

Buying a flat on the 小島 of Wight in the 中央の-1980s because I couldn't afford to take my wife and children to フラン for the school holidays. I 最初 got a two-bed ground 床に打ち倒す flat in Seaview for £30,000. We've since sold it and bought a house and we go there every summer for a couple of months.

Do you have a 年金?

I get a 議会の and a 大臣の 年金, 儀礼 of my years spent as an MP, 大臣, and later, as Lord （衆議院の）議長. I also receive the 明言する／公表する 年金.

Do you own?any 所有物／資産／財産?

Yes, I've got a six-bedroom house in Seaview, 小島 of Wight, which I bought around ten years ago. My wife owns the flat in Fulham where I live when I'm in London.

If you were （ドイツなどの）首相／（大学の）学長 what would you do?

I'd spend more on defence. The 総理大臣 has 発表するd a 上げる of 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2030. I think it should be 3 per cent as soon as possible because if we lose ウクライナ共和国, we'll be losing a very big war.

What is your number one 財政上の 優先?

Not to run out of money before I die, and so far, so good.

• The Best Of Enemies: Diaries 1980-1997 by Norman Fowler (Biteback, £25)