Kitchen Garden Forum

As I was reading the latest round of revelations in the 'expenses' saga, I started to wonder, are there any politicians out there who do have any scruples

I would love to see a list of MPs who quite clearly haven't abused the system. And when I say who haven't abused the system, I don't mean whether or not their claims were 'within the rules', - I mean those whose claims are reasonable according to common sense and every-day moral values!

Surely there must be some who haven't abused the system. In my eyes, they deserve to be recognised. It would be good to know who we could put our faith in to run the country in the future!

Sorry to rant, but I feel better now I've got that off my chest

Dear Caz

Add up the number of MPs who have been outed (if you can be bothered ) and subtract that from 646 (the total number of MPs) and you have the beginnings of an answer.

Dear Seedling, i always try and have a very positive attitude to most things but, i think there would be very few.

Dear OH

Be positive (as usual ) and do the sums.

And HERE'S the full list for 2007-8.

alan refail wrote:Dear Caz

Add up the number of MPs who have been outed (if you can be bothered ) and subtract that from 646 (the total number of MPs) and you have the beginnings of an answer.

Hi Alan
You're right - that would give me the 'beginnings' of an answer, but to be honest, I don't know exactly how many MPs have been outed to date, and how many more are waiting in the wings.

In the meantime, it is all too easy to assume - wrongly, no doubt - that they are all as bad as each other. I'm a bit lazy when it comes to doing the maths, and am hoping that sooner or later the newspapers, who we know can be trusted to tell us the absolute truth (tongue very much in cheek) , will tell us who the 'honest' ones are

Dear Caz, let alone me gettng the maths right, i can't even get your name right, i put Seedling.

Looking at the figures Alan put up, it looks as if they are a needy lot.

Dear OH
I'll let you off the name - I've been called worse things

You've hit the nail on the head with the word 'needy' (or did you mean 'greedy'?) - many of them are claiming nearly three times more in Second Home Allowance than me and my oh have to cover our entire living expenses - rent, rates, food, taxes etc.

I have very little sympathy for them but you have to remember they are effectively self employed and this is how many of that group behave anyway. Most income surveys show many of the self employed to earn less than salaried people, which I think is hard to believe, and on top of that the tax system serves them very generously by allowing a long period to pay up tax offset by a raft of "expenses". The system is so generous it even keeps numerous accountants in work avoiding liabilities.

I generally have no time for Ann Widdecombe and the rest of her party, but she did speak sense today when she warned:

“We don’t want to go back to the days when the only people who can afford to sit in parliament are the privately wealthy or the Trade Union supported.”

If we want to be governed, let it not be by the Tory landed gentry and/or the far left

Hi Geoff
Sorry, but I'll have to take issue with you on that.
I'm self employed, and believe me, there are many like me who live on incomes that are way below those of people living entirely on benefits!

Many of us have very irregular income and if we don't work, we don't get paid - no paid holidays, virtually no sick pay. In my case ( I give French / Spanish lessons), I don't get paid if my students are ill, on holiday or simply don't feel like turning up! Many other self employed people have outdoor jobs that are weather-dependant, and can't work if it's windy or raining! People also make the mistake of looking at what people in such jobs charge per hour, not realising that up to half their working day has to be spent on jobs that no one pays for directly.

I know that there are also many well-paid self-employed people, and they will do all they can to keep their tax payments to a minimum, but many of us are just ordinary people struggling to earn enough to live on! We wouldn't dream of milking the system like so many of these well-paid MPs.

I'm self employed too, and i do smile to myself when someone tells me they have two weeks of their six weeks of holiday left, to try and fit in before March or they will lose it.
I then realize how lucky i am to be self empoled, we just don't have those worries.

Then,self-employed or not,there is the generous redundancy payments when voted out of office,plus the over-generous pensions for which they voted for against the wishes of the Great British Public whose pensions had just been ripped off by the then Chancellor,Gordon Brown.
The expenses row reared it"s ugly head here in Wales with our A.M"s carrying on in the same vein as our M.P"s including one who claimed for a second home in Cardiff and he lived 20 miles away in the Vale of Glamorgan!!And his boss claimed for an i-pod!! So,no difference if you are an M.P. in Westminster or an A.M. in Cardiff. Bent as butchers hooks-until they are caught out and blame the system which, once again,they evolved and voted in.

caz wrote:Hi Geoff
Sorry, but I'll have to take issue with you on that.
I'm self employed, and believe me, there are many like me who live on incomes that are way below those of people living entirely on benefits!

Many of us have very irregular income and if we don't work, we don't get paid - no paid holidays, virtually no sick pay. In my case ( I give French / Spanish lessons), I don't get paid if my students are ill, on holiday or simply don't feel like turning up! Many other self employed people have outdoor jobs that are weather-dependant, and can't work if it's windy or raining! People also make the mistake of looking at what people in such jobs charge per hour, not realising that up to half their working day has to be spent on jobs that no one pays for directly.

I know that there are also many well-paid self-employed people, and they will do all they can to keep their tax payments to a minimum, but many of us are just ordinary people struggling to earn enough to live on! We wouldn't dream of milking the system like so many of these well-paid MPs.

Here Here. I'm self employed too and as you say it's not as glamorous or as lucrative as some people make out and there is the fact that every expense has to come out of your own pocket.

What really riles me about the MP expenses saga is that they are getting money for things which some of us have to save a long time to get. Have any of you in the salaried ranks ever asked your employer to pay for your lounge to be decorated? or a new carpet? These are things we have to save for sometimes for a lot of years before we can afford so what gives the MP's the right to get one fund to do one house and then 'switch' houses and get the same amount again to do up the other house

It was on the telly the other night saying there was 4 MPs who had not claimed any exspenses but i didn,t take notice of their names, but I was surprised there was even 4. What annoys my dad apart from the exspenses farce is the way they passed the law that no one is alowed to smoke where they work apart from themselves in the houses of parliment.