How big is the Westminster gravy train?

[Jasandjules]

I read the other day that they are reducing the ambit of the regulations surrounding expenses so that they no longer get inconvenienced by having to explain their expense claims, they will just get paid.

The sooner MPs are jailed for Fraud the same way an MoP would be if they did this in their job, the better.

[Deva Link]

john_r said:

"cyclists get 20p a mile"

20p per mile for what exactly?!


RESETTLEMENT ALLOWANCE
Paid to MPs who lose their seat or stand down at a general election - it is based on their age and length of service and amounts to between 50% and 100% of their annual salary.

WHAT?! They get voted out because they're st at their job (i.e. they get fired) and then get between 50% and 100% of their ANNUAL salary effectively as a redundancy payment?! Yet anyone else gets made redundant (incl civil servants) they get about £250 for every whole year they've worked at the business... That is fking disgraceful.

I think that has been toned down a bit now.

Mandleson got a £1M payoff package when he left his EU job to move back to a UK job (even though he was only there 4yrs, left early and the EU had to pay to replace him).

[cornishgirl]

Deva Link said:

john_r said:

"cyclists get 20p a mile"

20p per mile for what exactly?!


RESETTLEMENT ALLOWANCE
Paid to MPs who lose their seat or stand down at a general election - it is based on their age and length of service and amounts to between 50% and 100% of their annual salary.

WHAT?! They get voted out because they're st at their job (i.e. they get fired) and then get between 50% and 100% of their ANNUAL salary effectively as a redundancy payment?! Yet anyone else gets made redundant (incl civil servants) they get about £250 for every whole year they've worked at the business... That is fking disgraceful.

I think that has been toned down a bit now.

Mandleson got a £1M payoff package when he left his EU job to move back to a UK job (even though he was only there 4yrs, left early and the EU had to pay to replace him).

I think the EU had quite a good deal there to enable them to get rid of Mandy.

[Hammerwerfer]

We are, at least theoretically, the EU.

[Digga]

One of the fundamental issues is that almost no one who's involved in 'the system' has any understanding of 'small businesess'. The government, opposition, The Bank of england, the FSA, local authorities, you name it, they are all populated by insitutionalised individuals who, if in the remote chance that they have ever worked in the private sector, then it will likely have been a large corporation.

Having rules to help MPs fill out expense claims easliy and expecting small businesses and sole traders to put up with the same red tape is hypocrasy on a vast scale. Pissing money up the wall without ever having a thought as to where it came from in the first place is negligent almost to the point of criminality, but it happens every day.

To an extent all voters and political parties are all guilty of allowing this to happen and of not keeping MPs honest.

[RJJ]

Have been reading the various articles in the press and watched the news coverage.

I don't care how many blue movies her husband watched or any of her other expenses. What I do object to is claiming for them unfairly and the utter audacity that no one would ever notice. I also find it hard that a lot of the electorate have no issue with this as it was only 2 movies.

For wakeup!!! MP's have been claiming unfairly for years. You talk about corruption in third world countries, just look at Westminister, they are no better. Our money, yes you Labour voters, yours and ours is being wasted day by day to lavish a nice lifestyle and retirement for this lot.

I work bloody hard, pay my tax, am not a burden on the state like a lot of labour supporters are, but I don't go round asking my accountant to fiddle the books. What do you think HMRC are going to do to us if we claimed wrongfully then said sorry, pay the money back it's ok. NO they want the money back together with interest owed then they are going to fully investigate you and get back whatever they feel you should have not claimed.

Do you think this lot in Westminister are going to have a difficult retirement, do you think fuel poverty will affect them, do you even think the credit crunch is affecting them. The answer is NO, your money, my money has given them immunity to most aspect's of life, while we the electorate will suffer and work harder and pay more taxes because of Gordon and his cabinet.

That's the good thing about a socialist government, they think its their right us lot should support them and foot the bill! and for the biggie the welfare state.

Hope all you who voted Labour and keep defendng them are proud!!

Edited by RJJ on Monday 30th March 15:40

[Brown and Boris]

hornetrider said:

senninha1994 said:

About as large as the local councillor gravy train.

Quite. Pretty sure I read somewhere that the largest councils cost more to us than our EU costs.

And remember folks, everyone paid out of the public purse is paid for by the ever shrinking private sector.

But if the public sector employees ( al 5.4M of them) are paying tax at 20 odd %, and NI, and car tax, VAT of purchases blah, blah, blah isn't it just one big incestuous money fk?

[Fittster]

MPs are to be given the chance to edit receipts submitted as part of their expenses claims before they are made public in the summer, it emerged today.

They will be given their receipts later this week and will have one month to go through the paperwork and black out any details that identify suppliers, as well as any items on bills not paid for by the taxpayer.

The House of Commons made the ability to delete the information a condition of their agreement to the publication of receipts backing their expence claims.


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/art...

[The jiffle king]

Just Seen Matthew Parris on Sky news. He said that MP's salaries were average!! Not sure how average he meant, but he said that MP's were told to use the allowences to make up their salaries to an acceptable level...

This system will need to be taken to task and it's an outrage that we are paying for it... again I'll be writing to my MP....

T-J-K

[groucho]

SubRosa said:

This whole MP's allowances and expenses debacle is totally outrageous. Just had a look at this http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7840678.stm unbelieveable

If the MP's etc can claim for all this, why can't every other legitimate hard working business in the country? No, they have to have detailed receipts for just about all expenses incurred!

All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others - Orwell, never a truer word spoken.

Entertainment centre and new fireplace as well. Just heard it on the news.

[Deva Link]

groucho said:

Just heard it on the news.

..don't know if it shown elsewhere, but on the BBC film clip at lunchtime of Ms Smith being driven away from her house, the escorting RangeRover came very close to hitting a cyclist, and he managed to get between the two vehicles.

[thinfourth2]

The jiffle king said:

Just Seen Matthew Parris on Sky news. He said that MP's salaries were average!! Not sure how average he meant, but he said that MP's were told to use the allowences to make up their salaries to an acceptable level...

This system will need to be taken to task and it's an outrage that we are paying for it... again I'll be writing to my MP....

T-J-K

As a lowlife scumball who is on 24K a year i hope that mans dies a very horrible and slow death with lots and lots of pain

Average salary on what fking planet does that fking live on he must view people like myself with abject fking horror that we actually have the right to vote for them I fking hate these self serving out of touch trough pigs I want the lot of the fking asshole shot at dawn brought back to life and shot again total abject fking assholes

[pikey]

I think the problem is they're not paid enough.

Bring the salaries up to a reasonable level for the job and remove the allowances, cap the expenses.

[Fatboy]

pikey said:

I think the problem is they're not paid enough.

Bring the salaries up to a reasonable level for the job and remove the allowances, cap the expenses.

They are paid more than enough for their abilities. How many MP's could realistically hold down a job paying the level they are on now?

[pikey]

Base salary is ridiculously low for the equivalent job they'd be in in industry

[smifffymoto]

pikey said:

Base salary is ridiculously low for the equivalent job they'd be in in industry

That's the problem,most of them are unemployable out in the real world.They come from trade union/local government backgrounds

[esselte]

pikey said:

Base salary is ridiculously low for the equivalent job they'd be in in industry

Would they get thr equivalent job in industry though? What would the equivalent job of an MP be?

[Skywalker]

There are no qualifications required to be an MP IIRC.

You need to have no ability other than to be annointed to represent a give party in a constituency and then you just need to hoodwink the public. If you are lucky you are guaranteed to get voted in as your 'subjects' will vote no other way.

I doubt many would be able to earn that cash if they were employed in 'normal' jobs rather that fulching their ways into the ruling elite (complete with associated sycophants).

They earn more than many professional public servants (nurses, teachers, firefighters etc) could ever hope to earn as their 'basic' and then they have the gall to run their system to grease their own pockets and employ their family members with us footing the bill too.

Completely disgraceful!!

[Skywalker]

Oh. And to answer the OP - I believe the amount of £93M pa is being bandied around as to the size of the gravy train.

[sadoksevoli]

Jesus Christ - hark at all of you - not like it's not all been bleeding obvious for years: MPs, senior Civil Servants, the retired judges who get a nice line of work (yep, the Saville Inquiry is still ongoing, still not published a thing apart from accounts of what it's cost us), the Labour client state (the South East of England Development Agency employs 370 people ffs, or it did until it had its budget cut - what on earth were they all doing? And it's been running since 1999). MPs are only doing what everyone else does. Yes they're all hypocrites, and quite a few unemployable in the real world, but they get voted in, they live in their own little worldof petty politics and we pay. But it has to take fake, puerile,hysterical outrage spun by the crappy mainstream media to get all of you going... a couple more weeks and most of you can go bury your heads in the sand again once it gets boring, or you need to read the detail to get it and it leaves the front pages. They've been getting away with it for years, do you really think anything will really change?