State of UK Politics

[Widegoat]

Wow - when I asked that - I though that it would be more that 5k not less!

Viva la revolution.

[EJG1980]

Hmm, cover all bases and call it the "None of the other bastards!" party?

[abigsmurf]

*sigh*

Now the tabloids are going on about his "shocking" pension.

What sort of bastard feels he deserves a pension after working at a place for 30 years...

¬¬

[Soi]

From http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle6323040.ece

"He has been an MP for 30 years so will get the full parliamentary pension, up to £43,177, and his annual Speakers’ pension of half of his salary — a further £38,452 a year. To get such an income on the open market you would need a pension pot worth around £1.2million."

The guy is the first speaker in 300 years to be sacked (yes he resigned, but he would have been sacked if he hadn't) and he leaves with a pension pot of the likes normal people could only dream of. I can imagine that many people think that something is wrong with that.

[Brats]

I don't mind politicians getting a decent pension. As many have said, MPs could earn a lot more than they do in the private sector. It's not a job you do for the money.

But pensions are different. This is the money you have to support you when you stop working. I think it's entirely reasonable that MPs have pensions that support them to the degree that they would have had if they had been in the private sector.

And a pension pot of ?1.2m isn't that massive for someone who looks after their pension. All being well, mine won't be a million miles away from that when I retire.

All this just empahsises the hate for politicians at the moment. I believe that the MPs think we have turned a corner following Harriet Harman's speech yesterday, but I think we're far from that.

Things are so bad that if I lived in Luton, I'd vote for Esther Rantzen. I never thought I'd say that.

[Soi]

I agree with you: MPs should get a decent pension.

The press are making a fuss because of the "extra" £38,452 a year he gets from having been Speaker. (PMs, Lord Chancellors and Speakers get this "extra" amount -regardless of how long they held their post or whether they were sacked at the end of it).

A system where you could be Speaker for 1 day and then (even if sacked the next day) get £38,452 a year when you retire is a terrible system, and one that the press is quite right to make a fuss about.

By the way, according to the TaxPayers’ Alliance, the average private sector worker retires with a pension pot worth just £25,100 or about £1,700 a year. So to the man on the street, his pension is undoubtedly huge.

[saif]

Except, these people are not "average". To be an MP does require a modicum of skill and, before they become one, in most cases, the money is very bad - even worse when you consider the hours.
This fuss will make a weaker parliament and will cause worse government - how much important work has not been done while MPs debate this crap and wait for calls about it from the media?

[El Leone]

Any of you watch Question Time? Twas quite entertianing.

[MisterBubbles]

was reading this last night and it made shocking reading, snouts in the trough 70% of them

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8039273.stm

its like me going into my work and saying im going to buy infamous so i can do a case study on good and evil and claiming it on expenses
all theses feckers giving it was within the rules have no morals, and the rules were made by MP's so fecked up rules.
charlatans they are.

[abigsmurf]

From what I gather, a lot of them were told basically to hand all their receipts to the expenses committee and they'll sort through what can and can't be claimed (hence the packs of crisps appearing).

There are some very dodgy ones but a lot of them were claims that were encouraged and approved and were thought to be fine.

If you were told that your company would cover all your fuel costs and car costs, even for non work related things. Most people would have no problem doing this despite it being incredibly shady (taking money from investors, tax issues etc.).

I don't hold water with all this "MP's should be better than you or I" crap. People (and tabloids) are endlessly flipping between "well, it should be a different standard for MPs" to "They should be treated exactly like the rest of us", often in the same argument.

[MisterBubbles]

well they better be getting treated the same as us claiming money on a mortage that aint real thats fraud and if your local joe done it they'd be locked up for it
and IS it too much to ask that your MP is honest?
If you were told that your company would cover all your fuel costs and car costs, even for non work related things. Most people would have no problem doing this despite it being incredibly shady (taking money from investors, tax issues etc.).

btw they weren't just the people in the audit office were spineless robots who worked for the goverment and probably thought they'd be sacked for saying NO to MP's

[Distant Cousin]

I have a question about the European Elections tomorrow. I figure I may as well ask here rather than start a new thread for it.

I don't really understand how it works; are we voting for someone to represent the whole UK in the European Parliament, or just the area we live in? I'm moving to London in September so it seems a bit pointless if I can't vote for someone who will have some influence there...

[egparadigm]

I have a question about the European Elections tomorrow. I figure I may as well ask here rather than start a new thread for it.

I don't really understand how it works; are we voting for someone to represent the whole UK in the European Parliament, or just the area we live in? I'm moving to London in September so it seems a bit pointless if I can't vote for someone who will have some influence there...

You vote for the region. I live in Somerset, so I vote for the South-West region. It's basically a giant, multi-member constituency.

Wikipedia Article

[EJG1980]

Ah well, that didn't take long did it?

John Bercow orders £20,000 worth of upgrades to the free flat he gets for being speaker. A flat which already had over £700,000 spent on it by the previous speaker. Story on the BBC web site.

Some of it I don't mind, i.e. upgrades to make sure it's safe for his kids. But when the man who was elected as speaker to win back the public trust after the expenses row spends nearly seven grand of public money on a sofa suite... same old, same old.

[saif]

MPs are treated like they are nationalised.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/6015434/Alan-Duncan-MPs-are-treated-like--and-have-to-survive-on-rations.html

You know what, MPs are nationalised. It is a public service.
This is not a backbencher either, he is shadow leader of the commons!
I find it really uncomfortable how dismissive he is of nationalised/ public services.