MP and their expenses?

Question

It seems MP's can claim expenses for just about everything - paying nannys, second homes, food etc, do you suppose this is why no MP is worrying the PM to do something about petrol prices - they just claim it all back? and do we accept that MP's don't earn enough to pay for everything themselves?

Answer 1

It has finally dawned on the electorate!Just why these manipulating cretins fight tooth and nail to get into the 'Crooked House'(The House of Commons)Money!And Power!!They take the money out of the poor pensioner and the one parent family!The very people they ought to represent!It comes to something when the poor of the country have to subsidise these MPs !Shame on them!!

Answer 2

I do think it's odd that an MP can pay somebody else to do part of the job he/she has been elected to do - research, answering the phone to, or letters from constituents, taking surgeries etc - but cannot claim expenses for paying someone to do work they are not able to do, ie child minding, when they are busy doing the job we elected them to do at Westminster.

I want my MP to read and answer my letters, and to see me when I need to talk to him/her face to face. And I don't want his/her kids distracting him/her, or me when that's happening!

Answer 3

Power corrupts!

Roll on the next general election, this mob have been in way too long, they have become arrogant and are totally out of touch with the real World.

Perhaps if they voted themselves a pay cut they would understand our pain and represent us better. What's the odds of that?

Answer 4

The rules are that they can only claim expenses incurred in constituency business.  That can include the cost of maintaining a second home so you have one in the constituency and one near parliament.  Some of the expenses claimed just go to show that once you've got your snout in the trough, you take everything you can.

The generous expenses paid to MPs date back to the days when they didn't get a salary and it took 3 days to get from Bristol to London - or 4 from Edinburgh.  It all needs to be brought up-to-date.  However, the total of salary and expenses that UK MPs get is tiny compared to legislators in most other Western countries.  People who want us to be more like the US need to check how much Congressmen get paid.

The reason no-one is doing anything about petrol prices is that high fuel costs are grudgingly accepted by a majority of the country as a way of reducing our dependence on oil.  Most of what we buy has been transported thousands of miles.  If transport costs rise, we might have an incentive to grow and make things locally.

Now for the reality check.  If we stopped MPs expenses and put them all on minimum wage, and then knocked the saving off petrol prices, we're talking about a fraction of a penny a litre.  Mind you, that doesn't mean it's not a good idea.

Answer 5

Once the cat was out of the bag as it were, the House of Commons acted swiftly to stop the Common People finding out more about what their MPs were doing in terms of their expenses.

The Speaker of the House of Commons went to the High Court to slap an injuction on any further public debate into the issue.

We now have a situation where MPs are to get an extra £50,000 a year to cover their expenses and that this money will form part of their Parliamentary Salaries and will not therefore be recorded as 'expenses'.

Once elected, MPs and MEPs etc., can do pretty much what they like and they do.  They do not have to consult with the people who elected them.

Indeed, once elected an MP does not even have to go to the House of Commons and register (swear in) his/her membership etc.

It is far worse than most people know.

Politics in UK is all about self-serving and grabbing as much as possible and staying on the gravy train as it races ahead.

Thankfully, the game is up and already we have seen a massive swing away from Labour.  If the result of the recent local and London Assembly elections were scaled up to a national (general) election, then the Tories would have had a 300 seat majority over Labout in the Commons.

The Tories even managed to win a byelection.  This is the first time they have managed to do so since c1982 - blimey!

The above victory at a byelection for the Tories tells you everything you want to know.

We've got to wait now until 2010.

No matter who we elect, we will be faced with the same problems and corruptions.

Like Oscar Wilde said, "I can resist everything except temptation".

So the reality is that the people who we elect are exactly like ourselves and a lot of the talk about 'expenses' and so forth, may be being generated out of envy rather than high moral attitudes.

I remain. . . .

Yours most disrespectfully etc

Your MP

Answer 6

The simple answer is for all MP's from outside London to be given a flat in the Westminster area, there must be sufficient, and they live there. Then all they need will possibly be expenses for food and one secretary. Much cheaper for us as these spendthrifts use the money for housing to make even more out of us, an probably tax free too.

Answer 7

They should be bound by the same rules they seek to bind others by - any MP breaking these rules should be subject to the same censure.  

Any MP that does should realise that they are risking their seat.

Answer 8

no, the problem is that theyve been using their expenses in the wrong way and the system has to change.

the money is meant to be used because they have to have two homes due to the fact that they have to have a home in their area and in london.

i think the fact that some claim for money to plant plants is out of order, but then to use the money to pay for mortgages is not.

it just needs to be a lot stricter on the way they deal with it.

and they need to do something about petrol prices, but its hard to change them with oil so high across the world anyway.

Answer 9

wow good question!!!!! they never think they only do! what about food prices going up because of petrol prices and diesel prices cause delivery charges to go up, give them a honest wage and they would be honest MP's  they lie all the time we need a new breed of government to get this country back on its feet. lets get the raving monster loony party in lol.

  I liked the labour party before the media started attacking blare now they are just here to tax us till we have no free money to enjoy life

Answer 10

Well of course Ministers get official cars anyway....it is becoming more and more of a scandal...and of course a precedent has now been set with the MEP having to resign over the matter, so any others caught will also have to resign so there will be nobody left in the end.....which will be no sad loss.