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| I know Vince is a boring old windbag, but at least knowing the cameras were likely to catch you, specially as you are dressed like warning flares and we couldnt miss you, you'd think you could have stopped playing on the phones for the duration. Like, I mean, you ARE at work! |
It must be nice for them to be able to sit there in the House of Commons (knowing that in a few years it will be renovated at the cost of something like £2 billion), playing on their phones (check out the two women sitting behind Vince, dressed as if they were off to a garden party (left), and to Tescos (right), paying not a blind bit of attention to what is going on in the House (ie their job, for which they get paid) and knowing that to hell with everyone else who works in the public sector, they are going to get a 12% increase.
Now, for the first time this is NOT at their behest. The right to set their own salaries and pension was taken away from them after they were found to have among their number a very large pack of cheating, thieving, on the make bastards.
But the Independent Parliamentary Standards Committee which got he job of looking after these matters, appears to think that if they are not awarded this money their will simply steal it. The Ipsa chairman Sir Ian Kennedy insisted there was “never a good time” to deal with the issue and warned that avoiding an increase could create another expenses-style crisis as politicians sought to top up their salaries. He seems to think that they are worth it. This will be a mystery to those of us who are watching the country disappear further and further down the drain.
And yes, I've read that they will lose a few perks and have some of their fabulous pension rights removed, but there are many other people in the UK who have lost all kinds of perks since the government and the banks brought the country to its knees 5 years ago. How many of them were compensated with a £10,000 a year pay increase?
So, as I say, congratulations.
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| Loadsamoney Spiv |
But just a wee word of caution. Remember you important people need to work with us ordinary people. You may find that your pay rises of more than many people earn, and twice what you pay pensioners, three times what you pay the unemployed and the sick, don't go down terribly well with us plebs.
If I were an MP, I'd be looking at listing on my website and in my local paper, the charities that will benefit from this unexpected, and completely undeserved windfall.
I'll be happy to list any here too, if any MP wants to get in touch.
'We're all in this together' ...
ReplyDeleteMay I say, in all seriousness, are we f*%k!
Aye, weel said, Dean
DeleteWhile we are talking... what do you think of the area around Faslane being declared an exclave of the UK in the event of independence, and the UK's guarantee of security council seat being preserved only 50 miles from Glasgow... and outside their actual territory?
Not going to happen. If we're independent, Faslane goes, no debate.
DeleteSeems you were right there Dean.
DeleteCamero has rejected it and Darling has made much of this.
I wonder if it was just some unauthorised idiot at the MoD who put that out, or if Hammond and Cameron flew it to see what kind of reaction it would get and then hauled their sails in once they discovered that "fury" was probably the best adjective to describe the feelings.
In my mind's eye I see a semi desert sage brush landscape, the wind id blowing and tumbleweed roll everywhere propelled by the dead tangled weed.
ReplyDeleteIn my mind's ears I hear a Ry Cooder track twanging away.
In my mind's hope I see and hear a phalanx of MPs queuing up to donate their newly found wonga (preferentially no interest rate) to people who deserve it and would have been the donors had they been not so poor and disadvantaged.
Then I wake up with a bad taste in my mouth and need to spit.
We need heads on pikes, that is the only way the rest will learn.
Vivid imagination...
DeleteIn fairness to the MPs, many have said that they don't want the rise, but they would, wouldn't they.
The proof will be the number who donate their rise to charity. When, a couple of years ago they got a £1,000 rise, the two Dundee MPs eschewed it. Jim McGovern said that he would simply not accept it (leaving it in George Osborne's "capable" hands) and Stewart Hosie said he would take the money and donate it to a local charity(which means that it comes to Scotland).
The thing that annoys me about it is that the standards authority seems to think that if we don't give them a rise they will do what they did before when Thatcher stood on their rises (she who had a millionaire husband and therefore didn't need the money), and steal it...
The job is not particularly demanding. They don't have to work out which way to voet; they are told, and most of the work they do for constituents is done by their assistants. They need no qualification at all. Why are they paid £66,000 never mind £76,000?
Of course
Ever been to yer Aunties, when you were young with your Mum and Dad and you were offered the slice of cake?
DeleteYou know you have to refuse politely, despite everybody knowing that is going to you.
You just have to go through the formalities.
Incidentally after the Gotan Project, have you heard of Caro Emerald.
Google her and list some her albums on Spotify or Grooveshark.
Life continues unless we give up?
L U
BtP
IBSU
How is Conan the Faker?
and Wolfie
DeleteId never heard of Caro Emerald, but I'll give her a listen...
DeleteYeah, I take your point about the cake at your aunties. Never really happened to me, but I can imagine it.
Some way it is the wives who are angry that their husbands could earn more in the private sector... although in this day and age I find that slightly patronising. If they want a lot of money, why don't they go out and earn it, and not expect their husbands to do it. Equality works two ways.
Conan was around not long ago... and I think he pops in here from time to time and lurks, ye know...
Wolfie... Not heard from him for ever...
need to proof read before posting..
ReplyDeleteExcuse too frickin hot here for correct spelling and grammer.
34C
Grrrrr. 34 is quite nice. as long as it is dry.
DeleteWhen I was working in Grenoble it was that most days... dry heat though. Very agreeable.
On another topic (OT)
ReplyDeleteHow long before Westmister and LEDEREINE May have the spiffing idea of trying willie Macrae, in absentia, for dangerous driving?
Well why not? It seems like a reasonable thing to do.
DeleteFor anyone who might not know of Mr Macrae, here's a quick piece on his situation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKqWj3emm08
The wives of many long-serving Conservative MPs could trigger a revolt against David Cameron if he tries to force their husbands to give up an increase in parliamentary salaries. The wives feel that their husbands have foregone larger earnings in other careers to stay in Parliament, and now believe a pay rise is fair, one MP said
ReplyDelete“It’s not the members he has to worry about. It’s the wives. A lot of them have put up with a lot, and they’re in no mood to let their other halves pass up a raise.”
Telegraph
Tris
ReplyDeleteThere is lots to not like about this, esp when you consider that public sector workers like myself are on year 4 of a pay freeze which I believe is effectively a 20% wage cut and the 1% allegedly going to come my way will probably be rejected by the Unions and rightfully so. The other thing that annoys me is that IPSA are appointed to their posts by parliament I think on really good wages and is basically just jobs for the boys. Now if members of the public sat on this quango then I could maybe live with it but it's disgusting. These people deserve nothing and the argument that if we don't do this parliament will only be filled with rich people, well actually it mostly is now so no argument there. Just a joke and makes me hate this union even more.
Bruce
Yes I agree Bruce. It doesn't really matter that MPs' pay may have fallen behind what it was. Everyone's pay seems to have done that, apart from Charlie Windsor, his mammy and bankers.
DeleteIt's the deal in a 'fur coat and no knickers' broke country like the UK. We have to spend the money on weapons and fighting wars and giving foreign aid, otherwise we will cease to be an "important" country adn America will get cross with us.
The notion that these people who make such a mess of what they do, should be entitled to a big pay raise, because if we don't give them it, they will steal it... is actually fantastical.
There are precious few of them we would miss if they resigned and took their greedy snouts elsewhere.
And my message to them would be ...if you're not happy with the wages, don't try to steal. If you do we will put you in prison... and remembering that a lad got 6 months for stealing two bottles of water in the London riots, running off with £20,000 of forged expenses would see you spend the rest of your natural in clink, unless you're only 27!
What to do instead is take the Chiltern Hundreds or Northolt Manor or whatever antiquated nonsense you people do when you are resigning, and bugger off.
Do not let the door hit you in the arse as you leave.
You were not liked; you were almost certainly crap at the job, and you will not be missed.