General Election in 2013?

rynnor

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The Govt have started spending their warchest on capital spending they hope will get them re-elected and the coalition is looking shakier by the day - so much for 5 year terms...
 

Mabs

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who gives a shit really ?
its not going to improve anything, its like a stick/carrot approach offering elections
 

Raven

Happy Shopper Ray Mears
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Makes no difference who is in they are all as corrupt/incompetent as the other crowd. Voting for an independent or spoiling my ballot form next time.
 

Poag

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There was a segment on Radio 1 last week about youngster engagement with politics.

Three great comments that came out of it and left the MPs delivering stupid sound bytes:-
Girl - The expenses scandle, if I had done that I'd be out of a job and in jail and would probably never work again
MP - Some people did got to jail, but we feel (gonna summerise as i forget the exact wording) that we are not totally to blame, the public have kept MP pay very low (£60k+).


Boy - Why should we vote for a party? They are all the same, just have a different colour logo....and only two can really win.
MP - Umm... (was a lib dem)


Presenter - Your breaking to go on a 2 month break from parliament, is anyone else here going on a 2 month holiday?
MP- Its not a holiday, we still work in our constituency's
Boy - I've never seen an MP anywhere in our constituency when its not campaign season, and even then..the cameras turn up maybe 30 mins before the MP, MP delivers some sound bytes and then leaves after some photos. Whole thing over in about 45 mins.
Presenter - Also, I recall from 2009 that over half of Parliament went on official holidays for a month after parliament broke.
MP - Well, we deserve holidays as well.


Height of the crisis and off they go :p Yes the pay must be terrible, ahving to support those second homes on a single sala....oh no they get expenses for that, all that costly trav...no they get that too. Hmmm.
 

Chilly

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MP pay is a very, very tricky. You want to pay them enough so they don't engage in too much corruption but you don't want to pay them so much that it becomes an industry purely based on the salary. £60-70k seems reasonable - and compared to what similar people in the private sector would be on it's a pittance. But the other perks make up for it, I reckon.

Also, the date of the next general election has already been announced. David Cameron announced it just after he formed the coalition. It's the 7th of May 2015.
 

Poag

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Maybe, about pay. Just saying "You didn't pay us enough so we stole it, but its your fault so we dont have to got o jail" is a bit much :p
 

rynnor

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Also, the date of the next general election has already been announced. David Cameron announced it just after he formed the coalition. It's the 7th of May 2015.

One vote of no confidence and that dates gone.
 

Raven

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They get paid plenty. On top of that pay they get reasonable expenses, including living and travel expenses, along with working expenses. I don't begrudge them genuine expenses, for them to run the country they need them.

They mis-claimed their expenses, buying shiny things and claiming for homes that didn't exist.

Even if that didn't happen, it's pretty clear that they are all deceitful shitheals. None of them have any real interest in serving the public, they all (all parties) only care about what they can make out of it, back handers from the banks, future jobs etc.

Someone once said that the best leader is the one that doesn't want to lead (or some such)

I say power makes people cunts.
 

cHodAX

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They get paid plenty. On top of that pay they get reasonable expenses, including living and travel expenses, along with working expenses. I don't begrudge them genuine expenses, for them to run the country they need them.

Isn't £300 a day living expense totally out of touch with reality though?
 

old.Tohtori

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That quote just makes me think this;

1209539939_Teabag_GIF-T.gif
 

Bigmac

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Fire the lot of em and rebuild the government with people who mean what they say and dont get stupid bonuses and expenses.
 

Aoami

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£300 a day is ridiculous, i lived off £50 a week for 2 years when i was a student!
 

dysfunction

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Most conservative MPs are millionaires anyway so they need expenses to clean their moats and avoid paying tax
 

Tom

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People forget that MPs' expenses include running a constituency office. Although the ones caught flipping should be in prison IMO.
 

Bigmac

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If you're travelling up and down the country a lot, you could easily hit that figure.

I still don't see why MPs should get expenses, I mean you dont see everyone else getting paid to travel etc. They should reduce/remove their expenses and make em pay their own way like the rest of us.
 
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dysfunction

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Bigmac said:
I still don't see why MPs should get expenses, I mean you dont see everyone else getting paid to travel etc. They should reduce/remove their expenses and make em pay their own way like the rest of us.

So if work asked you to go on a business trip you would pay for it or the company?
 

cHodAX

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And the £400 a month they are allowed to claim for food shopping without having to submit receipts?

Why are we paying them a big salary, a big fat index linked pension, expenses and a food allowance?
 

Bigmac

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I should have worded this better. I meant they should be given enough to get from A to B along with their meals and a hotel room if needs be and thats it. If the £300 a day mentioned earlier in this thread is true then its beyond stupid, money can be better spent elsewhere.
 

DaGaffer

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See lots of people busy not living in the real world again. I wouldn't work in London for 60 grand, not a fucking chance. And 300 quid a day isn't that big a deal; you take three people out for lunch and that's gone.

I have a pretty low opinion of all politicians frankly, but if you compare the UK to other countries, our politicians are relatively cheap to run (about 8th in Europe, and politicians in a lot of Asian countries get paid loads more).

What you have to look it is the opportunity cost and benefits of being a politician; for example, something like 20% of MPs are qualified barristers. So they're giving up up a salary that can go anywhere from 250K up to nearly 1M for the best paid legal aid barrister, never mind private work. Now there are certainly long-term benefits to being a politician (like ending up as a non-exec director on several company boards for example), but that could be decades down the line.

If MPs are caught with their hand in the cookie jar, throw the book at them, but moaning about their current expense levels is trivial stuff.
 

old.user4556

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I wouldn't work in London for less than £100k a year personally.
 

Poag

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I started working in London 8 years ago on 22k. It was tough but liveable, houseshare which i'd never do again.
 

DaGaffer

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When I first moved to London I struggled on 25 grand - seventeen years ago! I honestly don't know how you'd do it on that kind of money now; frankly you'd probably be better off on the dole.
 

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