March of the Technocrats: Italy’s Mario Monti’s Ministers

Mario Monti is on the March

The members of Mario Monti's new government for Italy were revealed today.  Conspicuous by their absence from the Monti cabinet were politicians from the defunct Berlusconi government, although a couple of Monti's ministers have shown themselves in the past to be somewhat Silvio Berlusconi … [Read more...]

The Crippling Cost of Politics to Italy

cost-question-mark

Italian business association Confcommercio recently carried out some research into just how much Italy's politicians cost Italians.  The answer is that Italy's politicians cost around €152 per capita or €352 per family unit.According to Confcommercio, there are 154,000 national and local … [Read more...]

Italy’s Politicians Love iPads

A Lega Nord Politician Spending his Time Wisely

I got sent a few photographs of Italy's politicians the other day. Don't worry, they are not bunga bunga party antics! What the photographs do show though is that Italy's very well paid politicians don't seem to do much work when they are in parliament, but boy, do they love iPads!iPads are … [Read more...]

Banning Lawyers from Italy’s Parliament

Antonio di Pietro

Whilst scanning the news, as I do, I noticed that Italian Values IDV party leader and staunch opponent of Silvio Berlusconi, Antonio Di Pietro has placed a bill before Italy's parliament which would ban practising lawyers, such as Berlusconi attorneys Ghedini and Longo from taking up seats in … [Read more...]

Francesco Cossiga Understood Italy

Francesco Cossiga, President of Italy 1985 - 1992

For those who did not know, Francesco Cossiga, who died yesterday, was an Italian politician and one time President of Italy.  Cossiga hailed from Sardinia, was a fan of John Le Carre, and had earned himself the nickname "the pickaxe", owing to his outspoken criticism of other Italian … [Read more...]