MPs LIKELY TO RECEIVE 12%, (£10,000) A YEAR PAY RISE

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!

I'd like to be the first to congratulate the MPs on their massive pay increase, expected to be announced in the near future.

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. 

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.

EXPENSE CLAIMS REAR THEIR UGLY HEADS AGAIN

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? Already? 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 anything 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 showdown... 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!

MPs DON'T WANT TO FUND THE "INDEPENDENT" COMMITTEE THAT TRIES TO STOP THEM FIDDLING....

Well...would you look at the expression on that little piggy’s face.

The angry and defiant look from Mr Woolas, or Wool Ass as I prefer to call him is, it seems, directed at the new parliamentary expenses agency. Perhaps they have refused him his wife’s cosmetics, blouses and underwear on his expenses.

According to the Telegraph, disgruntled MPs have threatened to bring down the new supposedly independent allowances watchdog in protest at being treated like ordinary human beings and not the gods they think they are.

Now when I say it is independent, I use the word loosely because the MPs have to vote for its funding. They have already had some of the rules changed because it took time for them to get their money..... and they are not like ordinary people and have to make arrangements to suit when public bodies mess them around.

So members of the Speaker’s committee refused to sign off on the budget for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) and demanded officials provide new information before they would agreed to fund the body, raising the prospect that it will not be able to continue.

That’s the way to do it guys. I wish I could just refuse to fund the Revenue or Jobcentre Plus or DVLA or TV Licencing.... or whoever happens to be making a mess of my finances this week. Come to that I wish I could stop financing the Royal Bank!

MPs crowded the committee room and shouted and barracked the staff of the IPSA as they answered questions. (It’s nice to know that they can get really worked up about something, isn’t it?) and one was heard to shout “Bastards”, perhaps after a particularly liquid lunch, possibly on expenses, so it’s good to know that our representatives are showing our kids a good example on the behaviour front.

Presumably they will be fighting with equal vigour the next time that one of their constituents gets done over by some public body. Or maybe they’ll just yawn and pass the letter over to some clerk to deal with.

Bob Russell, LibDem, called the organization the most inefficient he had known in 40 years of public office. He should get out more. Really!

Nick Brown, Labour Chief Whip, indicated that there were no satisfied MPs... Well of course there aren’t, you balloon. No one who has had an open cheque book for years and years is ever happy with being kept in check! People like Winterton resigned because of it.

Charles Walker, Conservative, accused IPSA of wasting money after a compliance officer was appointed to investigate questionable claims. Erm, Charlie, don’t we have the same sort of thing on TV Licences, Tax, Social Security? Aren’t there snoopers all over the country making sure that we stump up and don’t cheat? Why would you be different?

On the basis that evidence turned up by the Daily Telegraph showed that over 50% of your number cheated on their expenses and took what was not there (in other parlance stole), I think it’s not unreasonable that you should be treated just like ordinary mortals.

A word of warning: don’t try to mess with this committee you set of conniving, dreary little cheats. We’re angry. You should know that. We haven’t forgotten. We are all suffering hardships to pay back for the incompetences of the last few years. Don’t add insult to our injury by continuing to assume that you are above it all. That would be really foolish.


Pics: Phil Woolas, Joanna Lumley's doormat, a collection of MPs, and Charles Walker who clearly has been off planet over the last year or so... out to lunch maybe (they have long lunch breaks in parliament)?

ONLY BACK A WEEK AND MPS ARE WHINING ABOUT EXPENSES

MPs have again stuck two fingers up to taxpayers, claiming Parliament’s new expenses watchdog is treating them like benefit claimants. I am wondering why they think that they should be treated better than other citizens who are forced to claim benefits because they are ill or can’t find work. Seems that it’s ok for ALL benefit claimants to be assumed to be cheats and thus being treated badly, but MPs mustn't lumped together as expenses cheats, and must be treated better, even if they are.

Anyway our MPs are angry that the new regime requires that, like other people living and working in the country, and indeed working for the government, they are required to have receipts to back their claims, instead of us just taking their word for it. I wonder why we feel disinclined to do that.

There has also been a warning that the expenses watchdog staff will not tolerate abusive or threatening behaviour. Isn’t it an indictment on our parliament that a warning of this type has to go out to our lawmakers, because some, including ministers who are now standing for leadership of the Labour party, did bully staff into paying unjustified amounts?

Some MPs say a reduction in second-home allowances could lead to them staying in one-bedroom flats, forcing them to live apart from their children during the week, like many business people already do, and women MPs have protested that a ban on taking taxis before 11pm could force them to use public transport to get home at night. Men, presumably, have a magic wand that they wave to avoid this.

Labour MP David Winnick (right) said that it was disgraceful that Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) is making members fund essential spending up front, as I have always been expected to do, despite never having had a salary of £65,000, and that staffing budgets have effectively been cut. Well, everyone is having to make cuts and work a bit harder Winnick; why would that not include you?

"The scandal that shamed parliament should never be repeated,” he said. “But this is another type of scandal.” No it’s not, you nelly. It’s what everyone is going through, and you brought it on yourselves in any case.

The rules come into force for this new Parliamentary session. The watchdog will pay salaries at the end of the month and the first expenses from June.

One of the most important changes is that MPs cannot any longer buy homes, claim back the mortgage interest, make improvements at our expense, and pocket vast profits when the properties are sold. Instead they can claim up to £1,450 a month in rent.

It seems to me that they learned almost nothing from last year. Perhaps the fact that so few of them have been punished in any real way has something to do with this. The older ones have retired, some having to pay back expenses overcharged, some not having to pay them back at all. Only four hapless and expendable Labour MPs and one Tory Peer have appeared in court over the cheating. Many of them have been returned to their seats by their grateful voters, including an MP who is about to appear in court charged with expenses fraud.

The IPSA have said rules were intended to restore public confidence in the MPs’ expenses system, but it would consider changes. It apparently is listening to feedback from MPs and the public on the rules.

So, if anyone from the IPSA is reading this blog, this taxpayer would like to say that he doesn’t want vindictiveness but he expects the new authority to safeguard the public’s money. Everyone is having to make do with less; everyone is working harder. MPs must not be any different from anyone else. Gone should be the days of their assuming some sort of superiority over the common herd.