UK X: Who Wants To Live Forever

[wakka]

I agree.

The majority of full time employers will not permit you to have other jobs on the side, and the opportunities for conflict of interest and abuse of position are obvious.

It's another example of how we let MPs get away with murder for no goddamn reason.

[QualityChimp]

It's easy to complain about MPs' wages, but I firmly believe they should be paid a decent wage.
You want to lure the best people to the role and you want to minimise the temptation to work for other businesses at the same time.

The issue is that they get a wage well above the national average (£86,584 vs £29,600), plus expenses, including paying their own staff AND have a 2nd/3rd job.

Every job in the UK that pays less than an MP’s £82,000 salary
MPs pay rise row: How much do politicians earn compared to other jobs and average UK salary?
(A year or two old links, but still relevant except MPs had another 2.9% pay rise)

However, like I said, it's more the confusion that they're being paid to have a political platform that I question.

[Asura]

The majority of full time employers

This is the thing; MPs should be held to those sorts of standard.

Every issue raised, every motion pursued, should require a ticket, with a workflow, that logs every single hand it's gone through. You get involved, you put your name against it, etched figuratively in stone and providing a full record. You want to paint a slogan on the side of a bus? The writer, the person who bought the paint, all these things should be known and publicly indexed.

The commons should be a house of glass. No backroom deals, whips or enforcers.

It's easy to complain about MPs' wages, but I firmly believe they should be paid a decent wage.

I'm not debating that, though - I think they should too. MPs are usually going to be highly educated people who could earn more in other contexts or lines of work. But I don't think they should have another job on top.

[QualityChimp]

I did say that too!
I think we're all in agreement and only politicians raking in the ca$h would argue.

Like I say, the main point was that I understand it's within the rules to get a second job (and agree some MPs push those boundaries), why is it OK to be a political TV presenter?

Would it be OK to also be in the police?
Could they be a teacher, especially politics or history?

It feels that not only have they got second jobs, but they have ones with a conflict of interest with the country's:
43 Lords have financial interests in fossil fuel industry
Private Healthcare Politicians
Calls for lobbying crackdown after we expose £13m ‘backdoor’ to MPs

[Neon Ignition]

They should be paid high enough to reflect the importance of the role they are doing but low enough to put off all the toffs

[MartyG]

Would it be OK to also be in the police?

You cannot be in the Police Force and be an MP at the same time.

I don't have an issue with MPs having second jobs, so long as it's not an interference or conflict with their primary role as an MP, and those incomes are properly declared.

There is no legal restriction on having two jobs for anyone - I've done plenty of freelance work outside of my main role.

[QualityChimp]

You cannot be in the Police Force and be an MP at the same time.

Exactly - that would be a conflict of interests.
Why are some of these other roles perfectly fine?

[MartyG]

Because they're not a conflict of interest?

[Lebowski]

Because they're not a conflict of interest?

Being in a position to massively benefit financially from the laws and policy's your creating is a direct conflict of interest, was it just a happy coincidence that Brexit champions like Mogg where directly involved in making massive sums of money over Brexits outcome?

All the web of money around the vip fast lanes was also just a happy coincidence too was it? why was Matt Hancock securing work for four separate firms? and why did, Michael Gove, Penny Mordaunt and Esther McVey recommended firms? is it because like it has been proved like in Mordaunts case that they financially gained from these arrangements.

[Asura]

Being in a position to massively benefit financially from the laws and policy's your creating is a direct conflict of interest, was it just a happy coincidence that Brexit champions like Mogg where directly involved in making massive sums of money over Brexits outcome?

All the web of money around the vip fast lanes was also just a happy coincidence too was it? why was Matt Hancock securing work for four separate firms? and why did, Michael Gove, Penny Mordaunt and Esther McVey recommended firms? is it because like it has been proved like in Mordaunts case that they financially gained from these arrangements.

This is why MPs would, honestly, be happy to divide up their jobs from their MP work, if they were honest (Narrator: "They're not.").

MPs are going to be businesspeople, heads of companies (former in most cases), doctors, people like that. Their lives are complicated and they will have attachments to businesses, and that's not, in and of itself, a bad thing, provided it's used to serve the public good. This admittedly is why I eye all the "MP is connected to health company" stories with some cynicism because I suspect, for many MPs, they're connected to practically every major firm in the UK.

I'm not wealthy, but I have a stocks-and-shares savings account, which I entrust to a bank to manage to try and maximise my interest. I can find out who they're investing it in (I chose to elect a plan that does not allow them to invest in weaponry or military contractors) but I'd be lying if I said I knew where every penny was being invested. I probably have "connections" to GlaxoSmithKline.

[Protocol Penguin]

Being in a position to massively benefit financially from the laws and policy's your creating is a direct conflict of interest, was it just a happy coincidence that Brexit champions like Mogg where directly involved in making massive sums of money over Brexits outcome?

All the web of money around the vip fast lanes was also just a happy coincidence too was it? why was Matt Hancock securing work for four separate firms? and why did, Michael Gove, Penny Mordaunt and Esther McVey recommended firms? is it because like it has been proved like in Mordaunts case that they financially gained from these arrangements.

Best argument to stop MPs having second jobs in order to line their own pockets. They’ll always be as openly corrupt as the law allows them to be.

[MartyG]

If you have a pension fund, and you've not personally changed it from defaults, chances are you've got investments in dodgy goings on, or at the very least, have some investments in major corporations and energy & fossil fuel companies - why? Because they stand to increase your pension pot.

The last thing we need is a parliament filled with career politicians who've never seen or smelt anything outside of Westminister. Experience outside of The Sports and Social club in the HoC isn't a bad thing.

If you don't pay people for doing the job they're doing, even if they're millionaires - it's not going to stop them being corrupt in that position now, is it? In fact, I'd suggest it's a greater incentive to do so, after all, they're not being paid.

[Lebowski]

If you have a pension fund, and you've not personally changed it from defaults, chances are you've got investments in dodgy goings on, or at the very least, have some investments in major corporations and energy & fossil fuel companies - why? Because they stand to increase your pension pot.

The last thing we need is a parliament filled with career politicians who've never seen or smelt anything outside of Westminister. Experience outside of The Sports and Social club in the HoC isn't a bad thing.

If you don't pay people for doing the job they're doing, even if they're millionaires - it's not going to stop them being corrupt in that position now, is it? In fact, I'd suggest it's a greater incentive to do so, after all, they're not being paid.

Nobody saying that they shouldn't be paid well what the issue is is that we have far to many politicians doing things that's in their own personal financial interest. The systems in place to stop this have been eroded and subverted to such a degree that its just expected that our current goverment aren't working for the UK anymore but working for themselves.

"Torys gonna Tory" is said with a shrug while the country's living standards are slowly eroded and our public services and infrastructure is brought to its knee's.

[MartyG]

Nobody saying that they shouldn't be paid well.

Ahem ...

Means test their salaries as well! Multi-millionaires shouldn’t be paid anything out of the public purse.

[wakka]

I don't see any benefit to the public in allowing MPs to have second jobs. They are amply paid and enjoy a prestigious, influential position to boot.

A lack of second job doesn't imply that they need to be career politicians who have only worked in Westminster. If I get a new job in a new field I don't generally keep doing my old one on the side.