European Parliament iPad for MP's

The European parliament plans to give the iPad to its MP’s. They love a freebie in the European Parliament and it seems the technology department there have decided to give all 736 of the members an iPad. The HP notebooks that they had didn’t go down too well for them and there could be a few advantages for the bureau that run the tech department in the Euro Union Parliament as well as for the MP’s. The iPad is a much better device and save the techs from the support problems that are created with viruses that plagues the Windows powered netbooks they had before. Could save money for the government body.

The European parliament’s bureau, its administrative office, has earmarked £4.3m for an “IT mobility project”. With much of the software being delivered via the internet, services deployment and set up will be taken care of easier. I do like the idea that the politicians do have some decent hardware and software to work with, and it will be nice that they can play a game or two if they get bored in the middle of some long speeches by the other members.

The parliament’s German secretary-general, Klaus Welle who is known as an enthusiast for the iPhone, already a popular Apple product. Marta Andreasen, the UKIP member who sits on the budget committee, said: “We were told the iPads would actually cut costs as they are not expensive and that we would be able to stay connected while outside the office or on holidays, but many of the older MEPs don’t even know how to use the internet properly. “I am against that because it seems completely unnecessary, especially when European taxpayers are facing such difficult times.”

Phill McCavity wrote: I’m glad, on the eve of huge cuts to British spending, that we can find grace to subsidise the perks of the worthless parasites.

A parliament spokeswoman denied that there were plans to obtain iPads for MEPs in the “immediate future” and said she was not familiar with the bureau initiative.

Who is going to pay for these iPads?