To sit there as a privileged MP...and to sneer and laugh at people that have to use food banks and have to buy discount food is in my opinion inexcusable.
Such condescending attitudes are disgusting.
Maybe a better attitude may be " there but for the grace of GOD go I !!
tbh listening to they way they act during PMQ's they all sound like a rabble of 12yr olds, not one of them behaves in a responsible grown up manner, they are supposed to be governing the country not sounding like a school playground hissy fit.
to be honest the desire to become an mp should discount anyone from becoming one.
I suspect this is a much less biased report of the same debate
thing is they all know the 2 party system will protect them and look how they use the 'ukip' fear factor on the public to stop people voting for them..
i dont agree with a few ukip policies but everytime i see farage on question time or hear him on the radio he seems the only one who spells out things in black and white and that sends shivers across the tory and labour mobs. they shout him down because he is telling it how it is and is a direct threat to their job secruity.
which is why your seeing parties now adopting some ukip policies and claiming it to be their own as a form of vote stealing.
mp's still bend the rules when it comes to claiming expenses (uk and euro) and will get a massive pay rise which is awarded by themselves.
with this lot i would like to see a north korea style of purging then perhaps they would be in fear of their lives and do a better job instead of turing up just to claim £300 a day.
call me heartless but mp's do not care about us the public and i would not batter an eyelid if something nasty happened to them.
thieves should have hands removed. and what are mp's?
The mooted MPs pay rise was not voted for by MPs themselves. It's now done by IPSA, the parliamentary watchdog. Also, the £300 per day expenses is for the House of Lords, not the Commons.
Personally, I think Lord Hanningfield has been made a scape-goat in a no news to report to sell newspapers week leading up to the Christmas break.
He has been demonised unnecessarily. A working Peer can only receive payment if he walks through to the chamber and the clerk notes his attendance. There is seemingly no other mechanism for remunerating them. He may well have spent hours at home working on papers but can only receive his stipend if he passes through to the chamber. It's the system; it's not that he is taking the piss such as has been suggested.
On the other hand, take the arrangements in the 'Other Place", the House of Commons.
MP's get a salary whatever they do (or not do in a lot of cases). Take the Right Honourable Member of Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath for example. He has hardly been to Westminster, let alone take his place in the Chamber since he lost the last GE yet he gets paid for swanning around the world earning fortunes like his predecessor (except of course, that his predecessor had the good grace to stand down as an MP leaving him free to do as he wished and let someone else represent his constituents properly).
Surely the Press should give as much attention to GB (who, to be fair is also doing nothing illegal - just morally wrong) as they have to Baron Hanningfield. He's done his bird and is acting quite lawfully, so leave him alone.
As for Farage.... I remember a fresh faced Cameron being paid similar compliments as to his media skills when he was in Opposition. Maybe it just proves the point - power corrupts and that absolute power corrupts absolutely. If (heaven forbid) Farage were ever to win an election, it would not be long before his not inconsiderate nose hits the edge of the trough as he adjusts himself to drink deeply...
G,
re Lord Hanningfield, hardly a scapegoat.
In just five years he spent £287,000 on his council corporate credit card whilst leader of Essex County Council.
Indeed Essex County Council have previously said that Hanningfield owes them £50,000 out of the £287,000 he spent on the credit card.
The council said he was “refusing to co-operate” with their request that he pay back the huge sum of money.
The probe into his council expenses was launched after he was released from jail in 2011 for fiddling his parliamentary expenses.(On 5 February 2010 it was announced that Hanningfield would be charged with offences under section 17 of the Theft Act 1968 relating to false accounting for claims for overnight accommodation. He immediately resigned as Opposition Spokesperson for Communities, Local Government and for Transport. Later on that day, he resigned as leader of Essex County Council and David Cameron withdrew the party whip)
In September 2012 Hanningfield was ordered to repay a further £37,000 covering a 6 year period of expenses, under the Proceeds of Crime Act. Hanningfield stated he would have to raise a mortgage to pay this, and take up after-dinner speaking and attend the House of Lords more often, earning the £300 daily attendance fee, to repay the mortgage