State Papers – Day One: Memo shows political expenses an age-old problem

COUNCILLORS enjoying junkets at the taxpayers’ expense caused consternation in the cabinet which was concerned at the bad publicity spendthrift local authority members were generating.

“The Department of Finance have repeatedly made the point that foreign travel on the scale being contemplated by some local authorities for 1980 is inconsistent with the undertaking given by their minister in the budget speech,” said a memo in October that year.

The memo was prepared while 105 councillors were in Brighton at a three-day conference hosted by the British National Housing and Town Planning Council, while a further 44 were due to fly out to a week-long event in Jerusalem in November, organised by the International Federation for Housing and Planning.