[Busman747]

I was reading an excerpt from a book called “Squandered” by David Craig who is presently standing as a candidate in the Haltemprice & Howdwen by-election and found that not only did I agree with everything that he said, but that a sense of outrage surfaced that has been quietly simmering under the surface for some time.

We have been drip fed stories of our MP’s creaming off huge amounts of money to line their own pockets by using their expenses to pay and decorate their “second home” ( buying only the best of course,) The latest exposé is that perhaps hundreds of MP’s are registering their second home which being in London has in most cases, a greater value than their family home with Inland Revenue as their 1st. Home. This enables them to sell the London abode at a later date without having to pay any capital gains tax saving them many thousands of pounds.

Paying their family members for secretarial duties, gardeners, baby sitters, eating out at the best restaurants, even their own private bar and restaurant at the House of Commons is reputed to be cheaper than any place that we have access to. On top of that, they have the comfort of knowing that their pension will be greater than most people in normal life earn. According to Mr. Craig, if WE chose to receive a similar pension to an MP, we would have to make a yearly investment of £50,000 (close on £1000-00 per WEEK!)

How many days holiday do you have each year? Personally, I am entitled to the minimum which this year is 24 days INCLUDING BANK HOLIDAYS!! (That’s 4 additional days from 2007) In comparison, MP’s are entitled to 90 paid days per annum and tried to vote themselves a further 12 days last year.

David Craig questions the number of MP’s that are presently elected to govern us, at present, 646 plus 129 members of the Scottish Parliament, 60 Welsh Assembly members, 108 members of the Legislative Assembly in Northern Ireland and 78 members of the European Parliament. Thats 1,021 politicians to represent the interests of fewer than 70 million people, that’s one for every 68,000 citizens. On top of that, there are of course hundreds of members in the House of Lords claiming expenses just for the privilege of dossing down for a couple of days each week!

To put it in a nut shell, the cost to us for our MP’s is £366,000,000 per year, that’s £4,000.00 per MP per DAY that he or she works!! And where they used to make the laws that govern our country, most are now made in the E.U. (84%) NOT in our parliament!

David Craig is standing, not to jump on the gravy train, but as a platform to highlight the greed and laziness of the MP’s that presently represent us. (He promises to donate 50% of his income to charities and he will still be well paid for his job) His objective is to reduce the number of MP’s to half of the present number – and why not?

How does it compare with the U.S.A? There are just 435 Members of Congress, that’s one for every 680,000 citizens.

At the moment everyone in the country is feeling the pinch, companies are looking at ways to trim their costs, wage earners are trying to keep their heads above water as Mortgage payments rise, fuel costs go through the roof, supermarket prices soar, wages remain stagnant........... unless you’re an MP! In the last 5 years, their salary + expenses has gone up by 64%

Am I alone (apart from David Craig) in thinking that politicians, labour or conservative no longer have the interests of their constituents at heart and that the agenda of budding politicians is to rape the country and get what they can? I am starting a poll with this and would genuinely like the opinions of ALL on the accyweb and especially those with political aspirations.

I hope that the people of Haltemprice and Howdwen vote him in, it would be interesting to see what waves he could start. If he was a candidate for this area, I would certainly vote to give him his platform! I have no idea whether he is Conservative, Labour, Lib Dems or Independant..........I don't care! He is the first person that I have empathy with with the exception of BNT. (Who are right in much that they say...but have an underlying agenda)

Thank you for reading though this.