MP's and Expenses

[nursejudy]

"The crisis over parliamentary expenses reached new heights last night as it emerged that HM Revenue and Customs is to investigate whether MPs have deliberately evaded capital gains tax when selling their second homes."

 

"Five Sinn Féin MPs received £500,000 in second homes allowances despite not taking up their seats in the House."

 

the above are quotes from today's Observer

 

How should this mess be resolved,shoud the MP's be paid a sensible salary and no expenses?

 

 

 

what do you think the answer should be?

Edited May 10, 2009 by nursejudy

[Alan Stubbs]

"The crisis over parliamentary expenses reached new heights last night as it emerged that HM Revenue and Customs is to investigate whether MPs have deliberately evaded capital gains tax when selling their second homes."

 

"Five Sinn Féin MPs received £500,000 in second homes allowances despite not taking up their seats in the House."

 

the above are quotes from today's Observer

 

How should this mess be resolved,shoud the MP's be paid a sensible salary and no expenses?

 

 

 

what do you think the answer should be?

I'd be interested to see if there is police investigation for fraud.

[nursejudy]

wonder how many have not claimed,perhaps we should have a poll!!!!

[gozzer]

I've been waiting to see who would start a thread on this.

I must admit, I didn't have you among my top ten candidates Judy.

 

John.

[nursejudy]

Gozzer

 

I have been waiting for this topic to come up!

 

If ordinary people wish to become MP's then there must be some fair system ,to allow them to have accomodation close to Westminster and to maintain their family house,other wise the house of commons will only have people who are wealthy or have a good second salary!!!

[poledark]

Simply paying them a higher salary won't be fair to those who have constituances a long way from London. There has to be a system whereby the extra expenses incurred can be claimed for............................... but of course, there is such a system in place already.

 

Just a pity that this witch hunt ever started, I know there are a very few who have been almost criminally deceitful in their claims, but most work within the rules and guidelines, and they are all getting slurred by "allegations"

 

I only get my info from the TV news, but am astounded how a legitimate claim is described in hysterical terms as if it were a crime, simply because it involves a few thousand pounds.

 

Den

[gozzer]

Simply paying them a higher salary won't be fair to those who have constituances a long way from London. There has to be a system whereby the extra expenses incurred can be claimed for............................... but of course, there is such a system in place already.

 

Just a pity that this witch hunt ever started, I know there are a very few who have been almost criminally deceitful in their claims, but most work within the rules and guidelines, and they are all getting slurred by "allegations"

 

I only get my info from the TV news, but am astounded how a legitimate claim is described in hysterical terms as if it were a crime, simply because it involves a few thousand pounds.

 

Den

 

It's another case of the great British press at work, in their usual way. "If it ain't sensational, then make it sound sensational".

Hopefully the changes being made will help sort it out, and stop some of the more ridiculous sounding claims from being made.

 

John.

 

PS. Sorry Judy I know it's off topic, but talking of sensational reporting of the news.

I saw today that because of the way that the (so called) swine flu as been reported, more than 5% of spam e mails are now offering 'Tamiflu' or similar remedies on the net. And a large number of those are bogus medicines, to boot!

[Guest Rabbit]

"The crisis over parliamentary expenses reached new heights last night as it emerged that HM Revenue and Customs is to investigate whether MPs have deliberately evaded capital gains tax when selling their second homes."

 

"Five Sinn Féin MPs received £500,000 in second homes allowances despite not taking up their seats in the House."

 

the above are quotes from today's Observer

 

How should this mess be resolved,shoud the MP's be paid a sensible salary and no expenses?

 

 

 

what do you think the answer should be?

 

You said it, tat MP's should be paid a fit for purpose salary, which they are not at present, the whole expenses thing is a shambles and their needs to be a complete overhaul of salaries. The more revelations that come to light the less the public actually care I suppose.

[chesters1]

AH the life of an MP ,get paid and then get almost the average wage for a top up ,i wonder how big some house portfolios are all bought by the tax payer.

no need for ANY money on top of their wages no need for higher wages certainly no need for second homes,why because "ordinary" people decide on taking up a job how much travel will be (just from farnham to london its almost 4 grand a year rail fairs how much from brighton?) and make a decision based on these why should an MP be different?

remember turning up at the houses of parliament isnt a 5 day a week its merely obligatory when a vote is needed theres no set number of days involved.

and when your actual number of days you could turn up is 3/4 the number of days "ordinary" people need to work that pay suddenly isnt that bad

aside from "expenses" theres plenty of other perks including "offsite" perks and backhanders with those wishing to bend your ear etc.

paid far to much ,work far to little .the nearest "office" of our local MP only opens when its voting time for the rest of the year its shut.

 

this is the 21st century no-one outside of manual labourers need go anywhere we have conferencing online nowadays so no need for travel ,no need for freebie "factfinding" trips to exotic islands either.

stop feeling sorry for these part time shirkers if they didnt lust power and money (and get it) then they wouldn't do it hopefully it goes further and the higher echelons of the departments are investigated as well

 

as for Dens "few thousand pounds" thats someones entire benefit for a year for being disabled and they live on it! ,Gorden wanted a daily top up that would have been "only" 6 grand? a month ,nice income for most in this country who actually work!

Edited May 11, 2009 by chesters1

[kleinboet]

I an not going to get involved in this shambles, save to say that Labour are saying that the Tories are at it as well! The Tory that claimed for the gardening had it sent back (by Labour) saying that "IT WAS MORALLY WRONG!!!"

 

I think that sums Labour up.