| Should MP's Pay Back Excessive Expenses ?
Posted: 6/26/2008 3:22:43 AM | MPs will no longer be able to squander taxpayers' money on furniture and home improvements.
A shake-up of Commons pay and expenses published yesterday will allow them to claim £23,800 a year from the public purse to cover the costs of living near Parliament.
It replaces the additional costs allowance, this year worth £24,006, which can be used to run and furnish a second home.
And it signals the end of the 'John Lewis list', an unofficial guide used by the Parliamentary authorities to determine how much MPs could claim back from the taxpayer for kitting out their second homes.
Ok so now that All MP's expenses are to be published in full every 3 months and all claims are to be audited my question is ......
Should they also be made to show proof of past claims dating back further and where proven to be excessive be made to pay us (the tax payer) the money back ?
After all, if Joe Public takes out a "Crisis Loan" for a desperate situation and has to pay it back then surely an MP whos not in such a desperate situation (in fact proven to squander )should also ? | |
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| Should MP's Pay Back Excessive Expenses ?
Posted: 6/26/2008 3:54:11 AM | The reason it's expensive to live near parliament is, over paid CEO's and overpaid city dealers with huge bonus's. I say, reduce their wages to something like the norm, then it won't be so expensive to live near parliament, then politicians won't have have to put in unrealistic claims for living expenses, or is that an unrealistic solution? | |
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| Should MP's Pay Back Excessive Expenses ?
Posted: 6/26/2008 4:06:47 AM | MPs get paid absolutely bugger all for what they do.
They are also normal people.
And I'm sure any of you that have ever run a business, or filled in a tax form will know, you take liberties. Spending the taxpayers money! | |
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| Should MP's Pay Back Excessive Expenses ?
Posted: 6/26/2008 4:19:23 AM | | Considering they only reside there on average 2-3 days a week whilst they are working maybe thay should share some sort of communial houses/flats to keep their expenses within reasonable limits ? | |
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| Should MP's Pay Back Excessive Expenses ?
Posted: 6/26/2008 4:41:32 AM | | good idea mac, they could convert one of those multi storey blocks in tower hamlets for them, (should get a few hundred of them in there) and charge them rent, nad to help save the planet, they could all cycle to work | |
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| Should MP's Pay Back Excessive Expenses ?
Posted: 6/26/2008 5:15:03 AM | The Goverment should have it's own properties in the area just for this purpose.
And I don't mean ones with swimming pools and "250 pr roll wall papaer. Why do they not have quarters above the offices - similar to grooms living above stables ?
If I was MP I would want any spare cash from donations /wages etc to go to the cause I was fighting, which I would feel so strongly about that it would override my living requirements - I'd fookin sleep in my office if I had to. - I can live on very little.
They should have set menus and housekeeper with a strict budget so they have no choice of how the money is spent if they continue to take the micheal over their expenditure.
Oh yeah I'm currently being chased for a Crisis Loan that I took out when I was 16! - work that one out there wasn't Crisis Loans then   | |
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| Should MP's Pay Back Excessive Expenses ?
Posted: 6/26/2008 5:27:32 AM | Msg 3, I really hope you are taking the piss.
MPs get paid absolutely bugger all for what they do. A little research, turns up "What is the annual salary of an MP?
£61,820 as of 1 November 2007"
(source: http://www.parliament.uk/faq/members_faq_page2.cfm)
Where as the average weekly pay in the UK is around £450 (source: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=285) which works out at around £23500.
So an MP (any MP) gets a salary nearly 3 times the national average. That is hardly Bugger all for doing nothing more than winning a glorified popularity contest.
And I question how "normal" someone that earns over £60k and still needs to claim living expenses really is. | |
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| Should MP's Pay Back Excessive Expenses ?
Posted: 6/26/2008 8:51:28 AM | The idea of them having a block of flats there by parliament as "crash pads" seems perfect. They can all be kitted out the same with one bedroom and a bathroom.
Mind you that would be a bit of a security risk having them all in the same place. So lets lock them all in the tower of London overnight where it is nice and safe and secure 
I'm sure I heard once that the bar in the House of Commons is free to MPs. Was this ever true? And if it was is it still the case? | |
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| Should MP's Pay Back Excessive Expenses ?
Posted: 6/26/2008 9:00:50 AM |
MPs get paid absolutely bugger all for what they do.
Its generally the second or third maybe even fourth jobs 'on the board' of large companys where they make their money, or waiting for gratitude work after they leave office e.g Mr Blair.
OT: Would be nice but no chance, they are above the law. | |
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| Should MP's Pay Back Excessive Expenses ?
Posted: 6/26/2008 9:11:53 AM | The miss-spending of government money - if it was Joe Public would mean a clawback and perhaps custodial sentence- why not the same for MPs
but its a drop in the ocean compared to the Eu gravy train that messrs mandelson (remember the dome) the Kinnocks ( falsely signing registers) and Old TB himself are now enjoying.
why dont MPS have amonthly expenditure meeting with their constituents so that we can agree or deny their excess.
John coniston
No longer using Shakespearian prose in case it may offend | |
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| Should MP's Pay Back Excessive Expenses ?
Posted: 6/27/2008 12:06:42 PM | | The fact that an MP can claim more than the average wage in expences alone is obscene! The fact that the great majority of it doesn't have to be backed up with reciepts is just disgusting! Look at Ed Balls and his wife.... they are able to pay a mortgage on a £650,000 house with expenses, yet there are a lot of people out there who can't afford to rent a pokey little flat! MP's need a dose of reality to see how their constituents live. Put them on a £15,000 wage, paying their own rent and travel to work for a year.... see how they get on! | |
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| Should MP's Pay Back Excessive Expenses ?
Posted: 6/27/2008 2:57:33 PM | Does anyone know how many of the cabinet are millionaires? at a rough guess Id say all of them!!!
final salary pensions as well ..all mps that is!
!d quite happily escort most of them to the guilllotine | |
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| Should MP's Pay Back Excessive Expenses ?
Posted: 6/28/2008 11:33:08 AM | Unfortunately i think they that if they didnt get the extra they do then the standard( hahaha) of MP's in this country would decline.Even those who are politically minded would shun office in favour of more lucrative positions elsewhere.So,for this reason only i would say no dispite it smacking of corruption and deception.
Who wants the house full of 4th rate MP's? | |
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| Should MP's Pay Back Excessive Expenses ?
Posted: 6/28/2008 1:41:41 PM | | The majority of MP's shun their positions for more lucrative salaries anyway. Is there an MP anywhere who treats their already very well paid job as a full time occupation? | |
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| Should MP's Pay Back Excessive Expenses ?
Posted: 6/28/2008 2:41:28 PM | | facking right..they should be made to be paid every single shilling back..and have all there property and cars taken off them ect..just the same same as us...they have been screwing us for years... | |
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| Should MP's Pay Back Excessive Expenses ?
Posted: 6/28/2008 3:09:13 PM |
Unfortunately i think they that if they didnt get the extra they do then the standard( hahaha) of MP's in this country would decline
It is only since MP's wages were increased, to bring them in line with business leaders apparantly, that they have become the self serving bunch of hypocritical scum that they now are. When they used to get much lower wages the job attracted people who actually cared about their constituents rather than those looking for a well paid career .
They should be paid the national average and commute to work just like everybody else does, and get no expenses at all. If they had to live in the real world they might actually understand what it is all about. | |
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| Should MP's Pay Back Excessive Expenses ?
Posted: 6/29/2008 2:36:55 AM | if people become MPs for material gains then surely the standard of the MP is immediately challenged. an MP's salary is already significantly above the national average, so there is no excuse for expenses fraud.
Any auditable blue chip company operate their expense systems by ensuring the company does not get into disrepute with the taxman by means of a "Bills paid" system whereby the employeee must provide receipts for all expenses claimed. It means that there is a readily transparent system that will show up any wrongdoing.
The immediate obvious dishonesty of parliamentry expenses is shown by those MPS who claim expenses to pay a second mortgage- so ultimately the money makes its way into their slimy pockets. also when they sell their property should they return any capital gains to the treasury? it hasn't happened so far! | |
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| Should MP's Pay Back Excessive Expenses ?
Posted: 6/29/2008 2:49:17 AM | Unfortunately i think they that if they didnt get the extra they do then the standard( hahaha) of MP's in this country would decline.Even those who are politically minded would shun office in favour of more lucrative positions elsewhere.So,for this reason only i would say no dispite it smacking of corruption and deception.
Who wants the house full of 4th rate MP's?
Could they get any lower than the bunch of warmongering, theiving, fraudulent bunch of perverts we already have? | |
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| Should MP's Pay Back Excessive Expenses ?
Posted: 7/4/2008 3:05:32 AM | Update ............
MPs defied public anger over their generous regime of taxpayer funded allowances as they threw out a series of reforms designed to restore confidence in the Parliamentary expenses system.
A number of senior cabinet ministers were among the MPs who voted to retain their controversial second homes allowance and the right to choose luxurious household goods from a "John Lewis list".
They also rejected calls for independent scrutiny of their allowances despite a string of damaging scandals over recent alleged abuses of the system.
Their unexpected rejection of a package of reforms means MPs will be able to continue to use a £24,000 a year allowance to claim for furniture, electrical goods, kitchens and bathrooms.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/2242729/MPs-vote-to-keep-'John-Lewis'-expenses-and-let-the-tax-payer-fund-their-furniture.html
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| Should MP's Pay Back Excessive Expenses ?
Posted: 7/4/2008 3:20:19 AM |
Their unexpected rejection of a package of reforms means MPs will be able to continue to use a £24,000 a year allowance to claim for furniture, electrical goods, kitchens and bathrooms.
While the rest of us, struggle, with the rising cost of food, petrol, gas, electric, paying our mortgages, higher tax.. | |
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