MP's Expenses and Political Apathy.

[woolybanana]

He can probably afford it.

 

[Edward Trunk]

If they actually did the job they were voted in to do then I wouldn't care how much they were paid. I'd even pay for John Prescott's next lavatory seat myself. They're supposed to hold the government of the day rigorously to account, scrutinise proposed legislation carefully, and vote according to their good judgement and their consciences. All this they owe to their constituents. The corruption of political life, which turns most of them into lobby fodder, is far more serious than their financial fiddles.

[powerdesal]

I'm really glad that this thread was started, it's reminded me that I haven't submitted my expenses for about 6 weeks, I must have at least Euro 60 worth of petrol to get back by now.

[woolybanana]

On the Gulf that means how many miles?

[mint]

[quote user="DerekJ"][quote user="Will"]

One answer is to have a better system for remuneration of MPs, with a salary more related to that of a director of a large corporation, for example, and a tighter expenses policy.

[/quote]

Will, I don't know what level of renumeration you are thinking of? However, in my view, very few MPs appear to have any particular skill or ability and carry very little responsibility. They aren't measured on what they deliver and I suspect very few would survive for long in senior positions in large (sucessful) corporations.
[/quote]

I so agree.  BTW, I bet that if you halved all MP pay, there'd still be at least 10 candidates to every vacancy.

You don't need to pay these very average people more than pretty average pay.

[woolybanana]

Quiet sweets or we shall investigate how you got your moat cleared!!

[powerdesal]

[quote user="woolybanana"]On the Gulf that means how many miles?[/quote]

About a 1000 ish, who counts ?[:P]

[Russethouse]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8047005.stm

Yes, the penny has dropped !!!!!

[woolybanana]

Perhaps she will try and claim the repaid taxes against her expenses!!!!!!

[AnOther]

What a shabby charade they are playing now, see how they squirm.

Shameless and disgusting.

[Russethouse]

The Hazel Blears thing really wound me up, surely she didn't need a chrystal ball to see how the public would view taking advantage of the 2nd home allowance and the Inland Revenue regulations that way. If her judgement is so poor one has to question if she should be an MP at all ( I know she is not the only one by far)

[woolybanana]

she has no consciousness of the "public"

[Russethouse]

Then she is the wrong job [:@]

 

[mint]

Why aren't the constituents chucking bricks or worse through her windows or something?  Isn't that what they did to that bank chappie, Unwin, who was retired with a huge pension pot?

[Gardian]

[quote user="Gluestick"]

They are to a man and woman with very few exceptions a bunch of self-serving devious lying cheating amoral and thoroughly venal incompetent wasters: and would, I suggest, be hard pushed to gain useful real employment outside estate agency or flipping burgers.

[/quote]

Don't hold back Gluestick - say what you mean! [:D]

In my earlier years, I had occasion to come across one or two of the above. Never a truer word spoken and it is to my regret that I had forgotten those encounters. 

I've been waiting for a list, not of the bad guys, but of those who (perhaps) haven't been taking advantage. Three names were mentioned today: can't remember who.  God help us; surely there are more than three?

[Weedon]

[quote user="sweet 17"]Why aren't the constituents chucking bricks or worse through her windows or something?  Isn't that what they did to that bank chappie, Unwin, who was retired with a huge pension pot?[/quote]

Thanks sweet, that brought a real smile to my chubby little cheeks. But Professor Stanley Unwin, as far as I know, wasn't ever a banker, it was Goodwin.[:-))] 

Now what really makes my blood boil is that, for example, did anybody see Alan Duncan being interviewed on Monday evening. He kept saying over and over again, "The system is rotten and needs changing, it's not the rules it's the system and it's rotten!" I bet you never heard him saying that every time he had his snout buried in the trough.

Give me strength! How can the likes of him have the sheer audacity to make it sound like it wasn't his doing.  These are the brains for gods sake, making crucial decisions on how to run a country.  At least he will do in the near future....god help us all!  I know I keep saying god, but we can only hope for the best now.

I don't even want to dwell on the fact that a female MP needed to claim on a second home of her partner miles away in Southampton, in order to do her job properly. 

Inevitably there will be a change of government and Cameron will be the next leader.  Why is it that every time I see him on the TV it makes me think of raclet cheese....shiny, perfectly formed but bland and without any substance.

 

 

[Benjamin]

[quote user="woolybanana"]she has no consciousness of the "public"[/quote]

I posted the following on 25/04 in the "Gurkhas" Thread.

This Government seems so totally out of step with most peoples' feelings.

They don't change do they?

[just john]

[quote user="Weedon"]

 Inevitably there will be a change of government and Cameron will be the next leader.  Why is it that every time I see him on the TV it makes me think of raclet cheese....shiny, perfectly formed but bland and without any substance.

[/quote]

As for Gorgon, well, he reminds me of fetid blue cheese, straight in the bin job[+o(]; I wonder what kind of cheese Tony was getting from  la fromagerie

If History repeats itself then the silent majority will as you say Weedon get shot of this lot and the only alternative is probably the pendulum of Dave; what point dumbed down education education eduation, if it leads you to the dole and living with mum[:)]; apart from Dave who else would make a fist of this poison chalice?, certainly not the chaos Norman "semi-house-trained polecat" Tebbit recommended. Whoever it is , I suspect that it will come with Cheesestrings.[:D]

 

[Quillan]

I see its the Lib Dem's turn today.

I think the saying of the year has to be "I only acted within the rules" and variants thereof. It reminds me of the WW2 excuse of 'only following orders'.

I agree with the Speaker calling in the police but not to find 'the leak' but to examine all MP's expenses and to discover if they have done anything illegal. If so they should be thrown out and banned from politics for life. Also, if not already doing so, I think the Inland Revenue or whatever they are called these days should go through all their expenses. If the MP's say they get the expenses as a perk because they get a low wage then its a perk in kind just like ordinary people having company cars and phones and therefore taxable. And to think these self righteous idiots were whinging about bank workers bonus's a few months back, they pale in to insignificance compared to what these people have screwed out of 'Jo Public' over the years.

Talk on News Night about how people will vote (BNP, Green Party etc) or will they bother to vote at all. From the bit I saw it looks like many just won't bother after this. At the moment I would find it very difficult to decide who to vote for, my faith in British politics has almost been destroyed completely.

[Bob T]

This reminds me of my time in the RAF. I had bought my first house and was short of money. The RAF posted me to a squadron which carried out aircraft repairs all over Britain. We were sent away on a Monday morning for a job that could last 6 weeks. We all used our own cars at our expense as most of us wanted to get home at weekends - at our expense.

We were then charged for food and accommodation while away because that was what the rules said.

What a different world the rest of us live in!

[powerdesal]

The problem is that if the public become so pi**ed off with politicians that the majority dont bother to vote, someone still gets into power on a very small turnout. Those who do bother to vote will inevitably be the die-hard supporters of whatever party or those supporting minority parties who will inevitably be pretty useless at forming a Govt.

Such a Govt cannot be representative or effective, so what then? Anarchy?

[Russethouse]

I'm not sure that's right, I know my OH is changing allegiance this time. It's not only this debacle which is party wide, but things like  the 10p tax band, the Gurkha's etc......the economy (and it's not the down turn itself but Gordon's attitude to it )

Share the doubts about Cameron though.....

[woolybanana]

Well, I havent voted in UK since the year dot but viewed from the outside, the current lot seem to have created chaos right across the board: education is a mess; the probation service crumbling; public debt is out of control; taxes are through the roof; social security is unreformed; UK has become a little pimple on the edge of Europe...............................

Time for a change then, though Cameron does not inspire, but then someone without bling might mature into a really good leader.

[Clarkkent]

[quote user="Quillan"]

Talk on News Night about how people will vote (BNP, Green Party etc) or will they bother to vote at all. From the bit I saw it looks like many just won't bother after this. At the moment I would find it very difficult to decide who to vote for, my faith in British politics has almost been destroyed completely.

[/quote]

Good Heavens. What a lot of intemperate invective coming from people who longer live in Britain.

Shouldn't you be concentrating your guns on a system where, before stepping down, a president ensured legislation which would protect him from the threat of imprisonment for his own corrupt activities? Don't you remember the election between "the Nazi and the crook"?

EDIT

What idiocy determines that the name of an interwar German political organisation which begins with "N", ends in "i". and has "z" and "a" in the middle should be treated as an obscenity?

[woolybanana]

Fair point Ck. I do normally avoid commenting on UK politics as I have no real perspective and havent had for a good 15 years or more, if ever.