More bullshit from Yanukovych

http://foreignnotes.blogspot.com/

Moron Yanukovych claims that: "In no country in Europe, in no country in the world can you do this [i.e. be a parliamentary representative and simultaneously hold another job]

He made this idiotic statement today when unconvincingly trying to justify the disgraceful politically motivated treatment meted out to Yulia Tymoshenko's legal advisor, Serhiy Vlasenko, who was absurdly deprived of his seat in the Verhovna Rada by a law court ruling.

What Yanukovych said was complete bullshit. For his information:

"Almost 20% of [British] MPs are earning supplementary incomes through second jobs, with some earning hundreds of thousands of pounds through external positions. The 'Sun on Sunday' reports that Parliament's register of interest shows 119 MPs have jobs outside of Parliament, and that Geoffrey Cox – Conservative MP for Torridge and West Devon – has earned £560,000 since through his work as a barrister since December.

Only 315 out of 650 MPs registered no external income" [Source]

And

"Dozens of MPs are boosting their taxpayer-funded salaries by tens of thousands of pounds by taking second jobs...new analysis found that as well as drawing their MPs salary of £65,738, many are juggling their political work with jobs in careers such as law, consulting and business and making up to 13 times their annual pay." [Source]

If an MP's second job does not detract from his or her prime duty as an MP there is no problem, provided that the second job bears no relation to the MP's political influence on political decision-making.

All British MPs have to declare their outside financial interests in official registers of interests that are available for public scrutiny, e.g. by journalists.

In Great Britain, Vlasenko's behaviour would be deemed perfectly acceptable – especially as he claims he is receiving no payment for his services as Tymoshenko's legal defender.