General Chat

Dear All That have replied ,

Apart from the few who talk of train drivers wages , etc,

I THINK THE MAJORITY OF US AGREE,
THEY DO NOT LIVE IN THE WORLD WE HAVE TO !

As one of you said , its their choice of work , so try and be honest even if only a bit ,
THINK OF THOSE YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO BE RE-PRESENTING !

Nolls from Harrogate - I am currently involved in a couple of battles with, lets say the state, so I would not wish to do anything that might come back to bite me on the bum, that aside it would be a pointless exercise.

Porkie_Pie - Roy I agree with your 3 points posted on 2 Jun 2013 @ 20:40

RolloTheRed - I have never been a supporter of keeping The Red Flag Flying, I am against an unelected Upper House but favour an Upper House with a mix of elected and non-elected members, and I think that being an MP should be a full time job. As to the salaries of chief executives in local government and public services such as the NHS the amounts they are paid is staggering and beggar belief.

On the issue of irrational and contradictory decisions, hardly a day passes that I do not read what government is going to do, to sort out this or sort out that, and all we seem to get is a raft of statements and policies in what I call knee jerk responses to whatever the news headline of the day is. To often these policies are nothing more than a re-launch of previous statements and policies that had been shelved in the hope the problems would go away, for example:-

1) Following the brutal murder of Drummer Lee Rigby in Woolwich Teresa May announced she was going to deal with the problems of radicalisation and extremism.

Well surprise surprise - on the 7th June 2011 she made a statement detailing what the government was going to do to tackle these issues. She said in that statement "We must not only arrest and prosecute those who breach the law, but we must stop people being drawn into terrorist-related activity in the first place."

2) In response to the latest scandal, that of taking money to ask questions, Nick Clegg has said that the government will introduce legislation to provide for a register of lobbyists, and to allow the ordinary voter to be able to remove MP's found guilty of misconduct.

Well surprise surprise - in 2010 both David Cameron and Nick Clegg promised in the Coalition agreement to introduce a register of lobbyists, and to introduce legislation to allow for the ordinary voter to be able to remove MP's found guilty of misconduct.

For 40 years I saved & thought I had made provision for my retirement.
Then,over the past 5 years, everything has gone pear shaped, not just for me, but for all pensioners.
I now live on under 700 gdp per month out of which almost 500 goes in rent & bills.
I would love to see the poor underpaid MPs who in part have put me in this situation, live on less than 8.000 per year & pay all their own expenses.

not sure why train drivers would be quoted as a comparison - my son is a train driver and whilst the pay is good they work hard for it - very unsocial hours, running risks of yobs - fellow train driver in hospital as we speak after having a brick lobbed through his windscreen on an HST - and remember, very often they are transporting more passengers than some airlines - have no idea what a pilot earns but I bet it's more than a train driver

3 things come to mind,

1. considering how under paid they say they are I have never heard of one living in poverty after retirement

2, Its their career choice,

3.Do as people have to do in the real world, if they don't like the pay get a job that pays better money

Roy

Whether members of this thread believe it to be so or not the plain fact of life is that for a man, having job and prospects and taken a wife and produced children, such man taking nothing from the state except paying a lot of TAX then any gross salary much south of £ 100K will not allow normal family life in SW London. Away from the metrochops I couldn't see Keith Vaz getting by on that either.

So why don't you just add the following as clause 7 and have done it?

"1. The people's flag is deepest red,
It shrouded oft our martyred dead,
And ere their limbs grew stiff and cold,
Their hearts blood dyed its every fold.

Then raise the scarlet standard high.
Within its shade we'll live and die,
Though cowards flinch and traitors sneer,
We'll keep the red flag flying here.

2. Look round, the Frenchman loves its blaze,
The sturdy German chants its praise,
In Moscow's vaults its hymns are sung
Chicago swells the surging throng. "

MPs are not supposed to be delegates and while representing their constituency are by and large bound to vote in accordance with the Whips. The main exception with disintegrating governments. I suppose it is only a matter of time before outside wearing of y-fronts returns.

Members are not allowed to tell porkies in the House and have been debagged for just that.
Any profit made on 2nd houses is already refunded to HM Treasury - do keep up.

One of the worst things in modern political life is to consider that being an MP is a full time job. Thanks to the salary, which is poor recompense for anybody who really is worth the his salt, we have a parliament more than half full of numskulls. This shows in the abysmal quality of debate, the irrational and contradictory decisions taken and the never ending grubbing for money. More evidence of the lack of brain power in the House is adduced from the large number of people from the Lords which the Govt relies upon. An elected upper house would remove that source of talent as well as a removing a very handy bribe for PMs - the life peerage.

The numskull tendency is more pronounced with the current Opposition.

MPs should not be paid anything at all by the state but should instead rely on their own sweat and support from their constituents, trade unions and interests such as the farmers, businesses and so on.

That is how things used to be and we once had a lot of very sharp minds on both sides of the House. As it is we are on the slippery slope to state funded parties and government by Newsnight ( which is now under the control of Newsnight following the Leveson putsch).

There are rich MPs and poor MPs
There are wise MPs and foolish MPs
There are no wise poor MPs.
If they were the majority then the national anthem would be the above verses.

Why not instead save your ire for the army of grossly over paid local government chief officers and their henchmen?

OFTG I presume you are now going to send the above amendment to Mr. C. or appropriate persons. Would be interesting to hear what they would have to say about it ......In fact go on ..Dare you to!

I would not be a train driver (underground or otherwise) for all the money in the world.

On the underground you would be forever wondering if that person standing near the edge on the station was a jumper. Nothing but nothing in monetary terms could cover that happening. Some drivers can go their whole working life and it never happens, another it can happen once and that is their whole life ruined.

I don't think the current oath that MP's take goes far enough, I believe this is the current oath:-

I swear by Almighty God that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, her heirs and successors, according to law, so help me God.


Maybe, Members of Parliament need a new oath, I wonder how many would swear or affirm to something like this :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

I swear by Almighty God that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to our Sovereign, their heirs and successors, according to law, and I further swear that having read and fully understood the six conditions in the addendum to this oath, that I accept all as being legally binding and that I shall abide by them, so help me God.

Addendum to The Oath of Allegiance:-

1) I will at all times as a serving Member of Parliament act in an honest and proper manner.

2) I agree that whilst I am a serving Member of Parliament I shall not take any other paid employments from any source.

3) I agree that I shall only claim for any legitimate expenses incurred in the performance of my duties as a serving Member of Parliament.

4) I agree that where any expense paid to me as a serving Member of Parliament to cover a second home results in a monetary gain, any such gain will be repaid in full to the relevant parliamentary authority.

5) I agree that at all times as a serving Member of Parliament I shall put the interests of my constituents before my own views and those of any party or organisation I belong to.

6) I agree that if I breach any of the aforementioned conditions, that this could result in me having to forfeit my right to sit in The House of Commons.

Signed ............................. Date ...............

Witnessed ....................... Date ...............

£65 grand,,,,,,,,,,then fuel allowance,then second homes allowance,then hotel paid,then tax allowances for offices and all its equipment ,plus allowance for their surgery rents ,then allowances for for staff,even if they are family members,,,,,,,

£65grand allows them worry free sleep of if its a loaf of bread or a shilling for the metre.......

Oh come on now how do you expect an MP to cope on £65,000 plus expenses and payments as an "advisor" they have mistresses to keep, ducks to house, a nanny, can't be seen in a cheap old car, even have to pay some of their mortgage these days. Give them a break! :-D

Well said SRS it's not about what hours etc they do but the amount of pay they get.

This is enough to live on though IGP!

It's also not really about whether they're well paid or not compared to other professions after all they're the ones that have kept pay for nurses, midwife's, teachers, civil servants, etc etc low because of the current financial situation.

ie if MPs are saying that they cannot afford to live on their income, what does that say about many of us including pensioners, unemployed, those on lower wages who receive considerably less money than they earn.

Didn't they say we're all in this together?

Given what they are expected to do they and the hours they have to put in MP's aren't that well paid at all. Basic pay is around £65,000

By comparison a train driver for National Express East Coast gets £46,000, a Tube Driver £40,000, and for less than 5 days a weeks work.....!

I think most in the real world do nothing else but give food a thought,along with gas ,electricity,water,etc, :-D :-D

Whilst in some way I agree about the pay of all politicians

We must remember that most Top Council Officials and ALL newspaper editors earn more than the Prime Minister.

Food for thought..... ;-)

No matter who we vote for at elections, the Government always wins.

trouble with politicians now is they have never lived in the real world
go to one of the top unis work as an assistant in politics to get their feet under the table then into politics in some guise
maybe if they had to do a normal job for a number of years before being allowed into politics they may start to talk sense

maybe they should join the ques at one of the food bank,s.

Don't think our MPs livings are living in the real world, they should try living on my pension, I see that labour has suspended labour peers Lord Cunningham and Lord Mackenzie from the party pending an investigation into lobbying claims.