howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#1
Guest 745- Registered: 27 Mar 2012
- Posts: 3,370
#2
That's jacks knighthood postponed
Paul Watkins- Location: Dover
- Registered: 9 Nov 2011
- Posts: 2,226
#3
More likely peerage Keith , he could had a knighthood a decade ago for time served.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#4
It does beg the question of whether MP's should be allowed second jobs, after all £67,000 for a job that requires no qualifications is a decent wedge. Straw admits to getting paid another £.60,000 to influence an EU law that favoured his paymasters.
Both claim that they have broken no rules, if this is the case then the rules need changing.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#5
Watched the programme and both came across as self serving money mad spivs despite them already being wealthy with massive pensions lined up. Transpires that the commons finishes its work on Thursday and doesn't start again until Monday lunchtime leaving plenty of time for members to do other work. When businesses go on short time staff get laid off or have pay cuts, why is it different for MP's?
Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,931
#6
" When businesses go on short time staff get laid off or have pay cuts, why is it different for MP's?"
That is an easy one Howard, it is because the MPs make the rules about how and when they work.
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I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
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Guest 1694- Registered: 24 Feb 2016
- Posts: 1,087
#7
Parliament generally sits Monday-Thursday, with some Fridays programmed in. The Thursday finish and Monday lunch time start is designed to allow MPs from all corners of the country to make their way back to their constituencies on Thursday night/Friday morning to continue doing their work on Friday and Saturday visiting with their constituents, holding their constituency surgery, attending community meetings, dealing with local issues at source, attending local schools to answer questions from school children, supporting local events, etc and so on. They are definitely not on short time working. Sunday is supposed to be set aside, but many continue working on that day too. Then Sunday evening and Monday morning is to allow MPs from all of the country's constituencies to travel back to Westminster in time for the first sitting of the House.
I think I might be a bit peeved if I lived in one of our remoter constituencies and couldn't get hold of my MP during Parliamentary 'term' time because she/he had no chance to get back to my area, or if I knew that my MP was missing important debates/votes/committee time to represent my community's interests at Parliament because they were travelling to/from my constituency whilst the House was in session.
In terms of their normal workload, it really doesn't matter what party they are a member of, I know (from having badgered both of them about the issues closest to my own heart) that both of our most recent MPs have started their work on our behalf well before most of us are on our way to our own jobs in the morning and are not finished in the evening until well after the end of most people's working day and have done so, either at Westminster when Parliament is sitting, or in the constituency when it is not, at least six days of every week for much of the year with breaks only when they have physically gone away on holiday.
From last night's programme I can only conclude that operating from a safe seat is very different from operating out of a marginal such as Dover and Deal, because none of the Dover and Deal MPs that I have known personally (Peter Rees, Gwyn Prosser and Charlie Elphicke) has ever seemed to have had the sort of free time mentioned in the programme - perhaps the constituents of these safe seats are the ones who most need to sit up and take note, because they are the ones who are being neglected and taken for granted.
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
#8
Rifkind has even more free time on his hands now, a sad end for a politician that was previously highly respected. Red Ed wants MP's banned from holding other jobs but a lot of MP's consider £67 grand a year to be a pittance.
Guest 745- Registered: 27 Mar 2012
- Posts: 3,370
#9
The sad thing for our uk political system is
Nobody is a bit surprised or shocked by their behaviour.
