Mark Menzies MP campaign funds
Discussion
EddieSteadyGo said:
sugerbear said:
I will ask the Tory supporters again - Did Mark Menzies pay income tax on the £14,000 money he took from his donations fund?
Dan Neidle gives an answer to your question. Dan is a tax expert (who also likes to pass himself off as "independent" but he is actually a life-long Labour party member and supporter). He says not taxable. However, that does NOT make what Menzies did right (if the allegations true). He could well have broken other laws. This only relates to the tax question.https://twitter.com/DanNeidle/status/1780942633319...
Edited by EddieSteadyGo on Thursday 18th April 20:00
b
hstewie said:
hstewie said: Sorry but I disagree.
If a store worker or a care worker on minimum wage behaved the way many of this lot do you wouldn't say that.
Yes, it is one of the best ways to get better employees at any end of the market (but not the only one in this case - I wouldn't want a job where my employers and colleagues call me scum and I get constant death threats). Pay peanuts, get monkeys.If a store worker or a care worker on minimum wage behaved the way many of this lot do you wouldn't say that.
It's hard to know what to say to someone who thinks that offering more money won't make a job more desirable or that more desirable jobs get more good candidates or that more good candidates means it isn't easier to get better people at the end of it.
EddieSteadyGo said:
isaldiri said:
I was disagreeing with the 'if you wish to' bit as well actually and not anything about whether it would happen....
plenty of MPs manage to combine 'normal' jobs along with that £85k stipend. Add in copious expenses and ability to hire family members as, the total monetary value (even ignoring the greasing of palms for contacts and jobs later) is well in the region of what higher earning, professionally experienced and competent chaps are getting.
And even if you did attract that segment of people, by the time they get through the selection process to get to being chosen as an MP, they would have turned into the very same cynically self serving, grasping and vainglorious bunch as now. Just being paid twice as much....
I think this is too cynical. plenty of MPs manage to combine 'normal' jobs along with that £85k stipend. Add in copious expenses and ability to hire family members as, the total monetary value (even ignoring the greasing of palms for contacts and jobs later) is well in the region of what higher earning, professionally experienced and competent chaps are getting.
And even if you did attract that segment of people, by the time they get through the selection process to get to being chosen as an MP, they would have turned into the very same cynically self serving, grasping and vainglorious bunch as now. Just being paid twice as much....
I was in my late thirties when I was considering it. The pay was one factor for me deciding against it. It was already going to be a pay cut despite the 'perks' you mention. And I see expenses as reimbursement for money spent doing a job, rather than hidden remuneration. And taking another job at the same time always seemed like a piss-take, rather than something which would be necessary to pay the bills. And you might be able to employ your partner in a low-level clerical work job, but they would also then need to do that low-level clerical work job. Many people with decent careers will also have partners with their own professional career who wouldn't be interested in an 'office manager' role (effectively a glorified secretary).
.
Same with the SNPs new intake and same with most of the "red wall" areas.
London is admittedly a different beast...
XCP said:
Earthdweller said:
S600BSB said:
Surely this is one for the police to investigate - bad people, drugs, extortion etc etc. Odd that it has been known about for a few months and they aren’t already conducting an investigation.
For the Police to be involved you need a victim and a complainant No victim, no crime
They don’t magically suddenly become involved
Other offences such as assault, theft, deception, rape etc a person is required as a victim
Then some offences are absolute in that you either did it or didn’t such as speeding etc and don’t require a victim
Evanivitch said:
Mr Penguin said:
Most MPs struggle to get jobs afterwards unless they already had careers that they can return to.
Is there any evidence of that? https://inews.co.uk/news/media/liz-truss-real-reas...
I'm sure there'll be a lot more evidence around Easter next year
ATG said:
Give the poor fellow a break. It was just a misunderstanding with one of his lady friends after he forgot the safety word.
"I've been a bad boy."
Wallop.
"Yes, you've been a very bad boy."
She kept role playing, he thought she really wasn't letting him go. He starts offering her cash. She keeps saying "naughty boy" ... wallop. She's surprised and somewhat alarmed when other people seem to be joining in the fun and actually turn up with cash, but she's a pro so remains in character.
It could so, so easily happen to any of us.
It is the conservative way "I've been a bad boy."
Wallop.
"Yes, you've been a very bad boy."
She kept role playing, he thought she really wasn't letting him go. He starts offering her cash. She keeps saying "naughty boy" ... wallop. She's surprised and somewhat alarmed when other people seem to be joining in the fun and actually turn up with cash, but she's a pro so remains in character.
It could so, so easily happen to any of us.
EddieSteadyGo said:
isaldiri said:
I was disagreeing with the 'if you wish to' bit as well actually and not anything about whether it would happen....
plenty of MPs manage to combine 'normal' jobs along with that £85k stipend. Add in copious expenses and ability to hire family members as, the total monetary value (even ignoring the greasing of palms for contacts and jobs later) is well in the region of what higher earning, professionally experienced and competent chaps are getting.
And even if you did attract that segment of people, by the time they get through the selection process to get to being chosen as an MP, they would have turned into the very same cynically self serving, grasping and vainglorious bunch as now. Just being paid twice as much....
I think this is too cynical. plenty of MPs manage to combine 'normal' jobs along with that £85k stipend. Add in copious expenses and ability to hire family members as, the total monetary value (even ignoring the greasing of palms for contacts and jobs later) is well in the region of what higher earning, professionally experienced and competent chaps are getting.
And even if you did attract that segment of people, by the time they get through the selection process to get to being chosen as an MP, they would have turned into the very same cynically self serving, grasping and vainglorious bunch as now. Just being paid twice as much....
I was in my late thirties when I was considering it. The pay was one factor for me deciding against it. It was already going to be a pay cut despite the 'perks' you mention. And I see expenses as reimbursement for money spent doing a job, rather than hidden remuneration. And taking another job at the same time always seemed like a piss-take, rather than something which would be necessary to pay the bills. And you might be able to employ your partner in a low-level clerical work job, but they would also then need to do that low-level clerical work job. Many people with decent careers will also have partners with their own professional career who wouldn't be interested in an 'office manager' role (effectively a glorified secretary).
And let's say you dedicate your best earning years in your 40's to being an MP. There is a good chance your party won't be in government whilst you are an MP. And so that means, even the most talented MPs will never make it into government. So good luck trying to sell yourself afterwards as a 'consultant'. And you can lose your 'job' of course ever 4-5 years, regardless of whether or not you personally have done a good job.
Plus you get all the haters, the people who think you are 'on the take', who think its fair game to insult you (or worse).
Having said all of that, increasing the pay isn't the main solution to solving the quality of MPs as it still leaves all the other stuff which makes the job toxic imho.
) as what's the maximum you can extract out of politics.Look at how and what MPs actually have done. Stuff shoved through expenses has shown themselves to be far more reimbursement of what needed to be spent (nevermind that people are going to be much more relaxed about spending on stuff you can expense to your employer rather than paying for it yourself) nevermind some of the more egregious pisstakes that the MPs have tried to censor. And then there's the whole second home allowance thing which pretty much everyone exploits to the full. Quite a lot of MPs do have second jobs of all types if they are able to swing it with their employers and it certainly is not because they need to but because they can. Hiring family members simply has also seemed like a way to simply be shoving money at them for someone who might otherwise not be employed as its not just partners but grown up children looking for work have also been rather helpfully drafted in.
Also, it's not just a case of attracting as you say people approaching their best earning years to drop that for politics as most of those people who craved being an MP will have been politically involved for ages and positioning to climb up the greasy pole of politics as unless you are a 'famous' someone or have extraordinarily good contacts with the party grandees, no one at age 40 is just being dropped into being an MP.
Let me turn the question around to you - what salary and expenses would an MP have had to be getting such that you would have gone ahead in your late thirties? 150k base plus whatever? 200k?
Activist that he called asking for the money is not pleased
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68851004
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68851004
smn159 said:
Activist that he called asking for the money is not pleased
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68851004
Hmmm I have a theory about women that dye their hair silly colourshttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68851004
z4RRSchris said:
I thought i had heard this story before, about the MP locked in a brothel with no clothes at 4am, calling others for cash. but i must have been mistaken.
I recall that, so did a search - The Mail helpfully provides a report from over a year ago of the alleged incident, which apparently happened towards the end of BJs premiership - so some time ago. If this is the same case as Mr Menzies, it's been well suppressed - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11928613/...abzmike said:
z4RRSchris said:
I thought i had heard this story before, about the MP locked in a brothel with no clothes at 4am, calling others for cash. but i must have been mistaken.
I recall that, so did a search - The Mail helpfully provides a report from over a year ago of the alleged incident, which apparently happened towards the end of BJs premiership - so some time ago. If this is the same case as Mr Menzies, it's been well suppressed - https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11928613/...zeb said:
He’s actually my local mp and could never be described as ‘popular’. I can only hope they choose someone else who’s got his mind on the job and not his pants. Not holding my breath as the Tory majority here they don’t count, they just weigh it!
My local MP also, agree as to his 'popularity'.The general consensus around thse parts (from what I can gather) is that if he wants to have his bum fun then fine, but pay for it from his own pocket.
MPs and prominent public figures have, throughout history, been 'caught out' doing things they should not have been doing or gaining notoriety for some action or words.
However, the complete lack of moral backbone (i.e. to resign when you are faced with this sort of action becoming public - or heaven forbid, being honest in the face of being caught) is staggering.
fk me, but the UK is rapidly becoming a mirror for behaviours I would have previously attributed to certain South American, African or Asian countries (not all, of course, but some).
That we still seemingly (under the PM) act as though we consistently hold ourselves to higher standards and then constantly fail to, is both eye-opening and depressing.
However, the complete lack of moral backbone (i.e. to resign when you are faced with this sort of action becoming public - or heaven forbid, being honest in the face of being caught) is staggering.
f
k me, but the UK is rapidly becoming a mirror for behaviours I would have previously attributed to certain South American, African or Asian countries (not all, of course, but some).That we still seemingly (under the PM) act as though we consistently hold ourselves to higher standards and then constantly fail to, is both eye-opening and depressing.
Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff