Squandered.......

[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.

[polly]

The problem with MP's is nto their salaries, their homes, or their pensions.
The major problem we have in this country is that most MP's are aligned and controlled by a major political party. in other words they are career MP's and they belong to the party not to their electorate.

Get rid of the career MP's (virtually impossible with our system) bring in MP's who really live in their constituencies and who trully represent their home towns and all the rest will work itself out.
The same is also true at council level

however, one thing we should not do is reduce the number of MP's, this will only give them larger constituencies and less time for local work (trust me I live in Blackburn I know how imp0ortant it is that a MP has time for his/her constituents)

[andrewb]

Originally Posted by Busman747

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.

I think the relentless assault on MP's by the press recently isn't very productive. If people are genuinely fiddling expenses, then fine, but the media make such a deal of it that people think they're all at it. The vast majority of MP's don't go into it for the money, they could be earning a lot more in the private sector.

Busman who is your employer? I might be wrong but I thought you had to be given holidays plus holiday pay for all bank holidays including being paid a normal wage on bank holidays if you have to work.

One person to represent 68,000 people doesn't seem enough to me! If MP's didn't have staff I'd be calling for more of them not less.

Our system is much cheaper than the US, despite as you say, us having some 200 more elected representatives and some 700 more members of the other house.

I have to agree with you on wage increases. It should be an independent body who decides how much they deserve, not the MP's themselves.

I hope David Davis wins the Haltemprice and Howden by election, highlighting the problems with an ever intrusive state.

[derekgas]

It is my opinion that we need more mp's like this, I think many go into politics with good ideas, and end up having to toe the line to stay in a job, the perks are the incentives to 'drop' some of thier good ideas and do what many other mp's do, cream it!

[WillowTheWhisp]

This morning I was thinking about this and "Yes Minister" came to mind - remember how he was full of ideas for change and knew exactly what needed to be done - until he came up against the brick wall of bureaucracy and the civil service?

I think we need more people with the courage of their convictions who can stand up and say "enough is enough" things need to change.

[jaysay]

When you think that Greg represents around 60,000 people, which is about the norm, I'll bet he thinks he could do with a leg up not heaping more representation on him by say merging with Rossendale. On the whole I think MPs give good value for money, the press do seem to go OTT sometimes when it comes to slagging of parliament. People always think that MPs have an easy life when they see the ommons Chamber with very few people taking part, but most of the work an MP does is on in th Chamber but in committee and of course the constituncy.

[Wynonie Harris]

Originally Posted by andrewb

I hope David Davis wins the Haltemprice and Howden by election, highlighting the problems with an ever intrusive state.

I don't, I would love to see his self-indulgent little stunt backfire on him. Everyone knows perfectly well about the controversy over the 42-days rule, so Davis is doing nothing but pandering to his own ego and wasting the taxpayers' money in the process.

As for his colleagues in the Commons, yes, there does seem to be a large proportion of them who have their snouts firmly in the trough. Their latest little wheeze over declaring their London homes as their family home is a prime example of this. Having said that, I'm sure there are MPs who don't put their own self-interest first and, to be fair, Greg Pope seems to be one of them.

However, what stopped me in my tracks was David Craig's assertation that 84% of the laws that govern us are now emanate from the EU. If this is true, then a large part of our MPs' workload has been lifted from their shoulders and their renumeration should reflect that fact. However, even more important than this, it would seem to signal the end of the UK as an independent, sovereign nation!

[Margaret Pilkington]

The Wintertons spring to mind......they are both MP's and they have claimed money to which they were not entitled. They claim that it was an error....if they make this kind of error shouldn't we question their ability to represent their constituents.
And if one of us claimed something in 'error' wouldn't we be expected to pay the money back?.....but these honourable members can keep the thousands that they weren't entitled to.

[jambutty]

Businesses are down sizing left, right and centre. Both houses of Parliament should follow suit.

If MP’s really did represent their constituents in Parliament and were not hog tied by party politics, their constituents would not be seeking so many meetings with their MP.

[Less]

Originally Posted by jambutty

Businesses are down sizing left, right and centre. Both houses of Parliament should follow suit.

Excuse me? Businesses are down sizing, yes I'll go along with that, we've had the boom here comes the bust.


If the whole of Accrington becomes unemployed there are still going to be the same number of constituents that will need to be represented for the area, unless you have a drastic solution that will 'finally' solve it for us.

[wadey]

It would be simple to say that NOBODY should be allowed to contest a seat unless they had lived there for a minimum of 5 years. Why local parties adopt candidates with no interest in the seat whatsoever amazes me.

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

The Wintertons spring to mind......they are both MP's and they have claimed money to which they were not entitled. They claim that it was an error....if they make this kind of error shouldn't we question their ability to represent their constituents.
And if one of us claimed something in 'error' wouldn't we be expected to pay the money back?.....but these honourable members can keep the thousands that they weren't entitled to.

Don't forget the Ball's Margaret, I mean Ed and the lovely Evete Cooper that is, just like the Wintertons onl the BBC don't make a song and dance about them

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by wadey

It would be simple to say that NOBODY should be allowed to contest a seat unless they had lived there for a minimum of 5 years. Why local parties adopt candidates with no interest in the seat whatsoever amazes me.

Can't agree more wadey, I seem to remember that Greg said he was going to move back into Hyndburn if elected, that was 15 years ago.

[jambutty]

Originally Posted by wadey

It would be simple to say that NOBODY should be allowed to contest a seat unless they had lived there for a minimum of 5 years. Why local parties adopt candidates with no interest in the seat whatsoever amazes me.

Oh! How I agree with you.

I would extend that to Local Authority Councillors and also County Council Councillors, where Councillors must have lived in the ward/district that they intend to represent for 3 years.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Originally Posted by jaysay

Don't forget the Ball's Margaret, I mean Ed and the lovely Evete Cooper that is, just like the Wintertons onl the BBC don't make a song and dance about them

Jaysay, they only sprang to mind because they are the latest in a list of too many.
I wish more of these people had to live on a basic state pension for......let's say a month...just so that they could get a taste of the real world.
They don't know what hard work is.