They really make you laugh do MPs, don't they?
Conservative Roger Gale has said that Ian Kennedy, chairman of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) should consider resigning. He said that the organization is not working and those responsible have got to be replaced.
The Liberal Democrat Conservative Bob Russell has called the organization the worst he has dealt with and described it as ‘not fit for purpose’ (an expression a bit close to home in the mouth of a Libdem, actually in the mouth of an MP).
Amazing! IPSA was put in place only a year ago, by MPs, and it’s not fit for purpose? Alread
y? Well I never.
But the funniest comment came from David Winnick, a member of the equally amusing Labour Party who said: ''The patience of MPs has reached such a state that inevitably there will be changes.'' Goodness, we simply can’t have the patience of MPs being stretched. Whatever next? We’ll be asking them to turn up for work and do what we pay them to do instead of writing books and going on tours, sitting on company boards, practising law, appearing on tv quiz and reality shows, etc.
Ian Kennedy made it absolutely clear he was going nowhere. With the kind of common sense that you rarely hear from people in public life he pointed out that some MPs were finding it difficult to adjust to independent regulation of their expenses claims (having been used to getting whatever they asked for regardless of what they were due).
He said that IPSA was doing the job it was set up to do and there was no way that he would consider fundamental changes to the system of
expenses claims that is now in place. He added that the idea of resigning had not occurred to him.
Nor should it.
IPSA may not be running as smoothly as everyone would want, but that’s the way things are when they are set up initially. Every one of us in this badly organized country has to put up with poorly administered, underfunded facilities, waiting in queues, being overlooked, having mistakes made in payments, lack of information, misinformation. Dealing with anyone or anyth
ing in “authority” is likely to cause heart attacks and nervous breakdowns.
MPs appear to think that they should be exempt from the hell that they have wished on the rest of us.
Well, does anyone think that they should be?
The prime minister seems to have a weird idea about what the word “independent” means. He promised his backbenchers that if the organization had not made fundamental changes by April something would be done. By whom, Dave? You? How independent would that be, seeing that you’re an MP yourself.
Given what Ian Kennedy has said, it looks like there will be a sh
owdown... and of course the prime minister will win in the short term because he is the prime minister. But in the long term it’s just another nail in these people’s coffins.
When we complain about something set up by parliament being unfit for purpose, nothing happens; when they complain that they can’t claim travel expenses for their children, Cameron changes the rules... Tut tut, bad move. Whatever happened to us all being in it together?
Ian Kennedy reminded us today that it is the public who pay these expenses. Cameron would do well to remember that he can’t hope to get away with using our money to bribe his backbenchers!
Conservative Roger Gale has said that Ian Kennedy, chairman of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) should consider resigning. He said that the organization is not working and those responsible have got to be replaced.
The Liberal Democrat Conservative Bob Russell has called the organization the worst he has dealt with and described it as ‘not fit for purpose’ (an expression a bit close to home in the mouth of a Libdem, actually in the mouth of an MP).
Amazing! IPSA was put in place only a year ago, by MPs, and it’s not fit for purpose? Alread
y? Well I never.But the funniest comment came from David Winnick, a member of the equally amusing Labour Party who said: ''The patience of MPs has reached such a state that inevitably there will be changes.'' Goodness, we simply can’t have the patience of MPs being stretched. Whatever next? We’ll be asking them to turn up for work and do what we pay them to do instead of writing books and going on tours, sitting on company boards, practising law, appearing on tv quiz and reality shows, etc.
Ian Kennedy made it absolutely clear he was going nowhere. With the kind of common sense that you rarely hear from people in public life he pointed out that some MPs were finding it difficult to adjust to independent regulation of their expenses claims (having been used to getting whatever they asked for regardless of what they were due).
He said that IPSA was doing the job it was set up to do and there was no way that he would consider fundamental changes to the system of
expenses claims that is now in place. He added that the idea of resigning had not occurred to him.Nor should it.
IPSA may not be running as smoothly as everyone would want, but that’s the way things are when they are set up initially. Every one of us in this badly organized country has to put up with poorly administered, underfunded facilities, waiting in queues, being overlooked, having mistakes made in payments, lack of information, misinformation. Dealing with anyone or anyth
ing in “authority” is likely to cause heart attacks and nervous breakdowns.MPs appear to think that they should be exempt from the hell that they have wished on the rest of us.
Well, does anyone think that they should be?
The prime minister seems to have a weird idea about what the word “independent” means. He promised his backbenchers that if the organization had not made fundamental changes by April something would be done. By whom, Dave? You? How independent would that be, seeing that you’re an MP yourself.
Given what Ian Kennedy has said, it looks like there will be a sh
owdown... and of course the prime minister will win in the short term because he is the prime minister. But in the long term it’s just another nail in these people’s coffins.When we complain about something set up by parliament being unfit for purpose, nothing happens; when they complain that they can’t claim travel expenses for their children, Cameron changes the rules... Tut tut, bad move. Whatever happened to us all being in it together?
Ian Kennedy reminded us today that it is the public who pay these expenses. Cameron would do well to remember that he can’t hope to get away with using our money to bribe his backbenchers!
If they are not happy with their treats then resign as the pool of unemployed is growing and they would be quite happy to take a job.
ReplyDeleteTimes are hard and money is losing its value daily because of misadminstation from Westmidden for decades and didn't start in the US alone it was aided and abetted by London.
Listened to this earlier maybe the public should get some.
Yep... I wouldn't mind a job with no boss, no hours and no targets, massicve holidays, loads of junkets, safe for the next 4.5 years, fabulous pension, 3 times average salary, unbelievable redundancy package, no qualifications required, invitations to all sorts of places, subsidised Hogmanay party paid for by you mugs and that daft patsy running around trying to passify his greedy backbenchers by promising that they can go back to the good old days now that this silly old election nonsense is out of the way.
ReplyDeleteThey want for nothing and now they want us to pay for their kids on the train or plane or whatever.. You know what guys, you get about 6 times the minimum wage that you think is quite good enough for people who work in shops and the like, PAY FOR YOUR OWN SODDING KIDS.
Ah but one has to have 'no conscience' 'willing to suck up' 'tell lies' 'be complicit' sounds like scum of the earth!
ReplyDeleteI could act like that for 5 years for these terms and conditions.... maybe...
ReplyDeleteActually maybe I'd be able to do some good!!!!!
Novel idea?
I <3 u guiz
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, these people are generally so privileged to begin with that they don't understand the concept of money, or don't care about it. The idea that they can't just throw our money at a personal problem to make it go away must be disconcerting, because they might have to resign themselves to getting a naff little yacht instead of that private jet they were saving up for. (Funny story - a rich, Tory-voting friend I once had was looking upset, when prompted as to what was wrong, he tearfully looked in my eyes and said, 'my dad, he says we have to sell the boat!' I was taken aback at such greed, but I said, 'oh yea, that sucks...' to which he informed me, 'I mean it's to buy a BIGGER boat, but you know, it's just the principle, why can't we have BOTH?')
Laz,
ReplyDeleteHave a care. Your friend was hurting.
One gets very attached to one's boat (never call it a yacht, it's terribly common. Just like a castle or a palace is always a "house" [or hiese if you're royal]).
One remembers that it was the only time one saw tears in the eyes of her majesty, when one saw her saying goodbye to her boat... after that nasty mr Major said he wouldn't pay for a refit, and the Queen, who unlike her eledst son is a bit careful with her dosh, said that she wasn't shelling out either.
A propos of that... did you know that Charlie boy has 145 personal staff, including 3 butlers?
How can you even HAVE 145 staff? Do these people not enjoy doing things for themselves? If someone gave me a cook I would be enraged, I love cooking. If someone was doing my washing, I would feel awkward...
ReplyDeleteWith regard to the House of Commons, I produce the following evidence from Hansard. The descent to its present level of corruption and uselessness started in 1971 when parliamentarians were being frantically wined and dined on luxurious trips to see the wonders of what we then called "The Common Market". They also had ample chance to compare their fairly Spartan lot with the the far higher perks, privileges and pay of their continental colleagues. So they started to make themselves a great deal more comfortable.
ReplyDeleteHere is what the prescient statesman, the late, great Enoch Powell said about it.
"My evidence was against any increase in remuneration or any increase in allowances of any kind and to the effect that the facilities available to members were already larger than conduced to the best possible discharge of their duties...These motions will contribute to bring about a marked alteration of the status of hon. members of this House. I have deliberately chosen the expression "contribute to bring about" for when there is a trend or tendency it is rarely possible to point to one event and say, "That event and that decision was decisive: everything after it was different from what came before"....
...The change which will come about as a result of this alteration in our status - because of our becoming increasingly assimilated to full-time, pensioned employees - is that those who have the voice to say whether we shall or shall not be candidates of our party at a General Election gain a great accession of power over the individual and, thereby, indirectly, over this House".
ENOCH WAS RIGHT.
Quoted from Hansard by Stuart Wheeler in his book "A Crisis of Trust" (published by the Bruges Group)
Yes Laz... imagine someone else washing your dirsy underwear and stuff... I'd hate that.
ReplyDeleteMind I'd let someone do the ironing :¬)
There you are then Mr S. The more I read and the more I learn, the more it seems to me that if the English could just be left alone without foreigners interfering then everything would be hunky dory. It's all the fault of the rotten Yoropeans, just like the blessed and sainted Margaret Hilda said it was !!!;¬) (Didn't you love that false posh accent that she aquired?)
ReplyDeleteI think MPs should work for the average wage. They should be accorded no privilege that is not to do directly with their work. If they are found to have accepted any privilege they should be fined.
Now, you can say that that would mean we wouldn't get the best people... and then you look at the shit that we have representing us right now, and you think.... So?
What we would get is people who actually want to do the job for the doing of it.
The average wage is a hell of a lot more than most people in Dundee have ever earned or ever will earn for working a bloody sight harder than any of that thieving lot ever have.
BTW, I probably disagreed with a lot, nay most of what old Enoch said, being a trendy old lefty myslef, but I loved his correct grammar. Did you know that he disciplined himself to think always in Latin and translate into English before he spoke. That way he never made an error in his grammar.
It's a pity they stopped teaching Latin I say, when I hear the horrific grammar of even the likes of Eton boy!