theguardian Diary claimed on Tuesday that frivolous (and, indeed, non-frivolous) Early Day Motions each cost the taxpayer £290.
Wasn’t a larger figure than this – four figures, I think – quoted in the past? Surely the actual unit cost can’t be that high? If this is calculated by dividing the total cost of running the system by the number of EDMs, it’s quite possible that by proposing more EDMs, MPs actually serve to reduce this figure further (with the total cost increasing, but rising more slowly than the current average a time) and if they restrained themselves the average cost per EDM would actually go up even if the overall costs fell.
Well, the main problem with saying that ‘putting down that EDM/asking that question cost £X’ is that it confuses the marginal cost of asking one extra question with the average cost of asking all questions, so whatever figure gets quoted, it’s likely wrong unless someone’s done some very detailed research.