MP,s refuse pay rise

ademort

Here in the Netherlands the members of parliament have voted to cancel a proposed pay rise of 10% due to the credit crisis and hopefully set an example to workers right accross the board. Just cannot imagine the powers that be in the house of commons or house of lords voting to do the same can you Ademort

top_bhoy

ademort wrote:

Just cannot imagine the powers that be in the house of commons or house of lords voting to do the same can you Ademort

I can, 10% is insufficient.....they'll be looking for 20% + more expenses

tlw1

They won't mind a pay freeze, its not where they earn the cash - its in the expenses!

chuckcork

matthew h wrote:

They won't mind a pay freeze, its not where they earn the cash - its in the expenses!

Most of them have jobs outside as well, don't they? If not, certainly get reimbursed well enough for being on committees etc, and think of the pension for life, ability to claim expenses for that long trip to work (includes those inside the M25 doesn't it?) and so on.

Of course if everyone else was allowed to do the same the country would be bankrupted, OK, more bankrupted, so just as well then that none of the oiks, i.e.you and me, can do so.

By comparison though the British haven't got it the best of the crowd. The Irish with a country that is smaller than say, Germany, see themselves as doing such a difficult job the irish PM is paid way better than his German counterpart. Its tough, it is, being an Irish politician.

Frank the tank

Ther should be a notice over the entrance to the houses of parliament reading:-

"Do as we say, not as we do". :evil:

OffTheBackAdam

10% pay rise?
For doing what?
80% of laws implemented in the UK are directives from Europe, I can't see Holland being any different to that.
Never mind a pay freeze (That'll never happen here!) we should be chucking most of them out.

teagar

OffTheBackAdam wrote:

10% pay rise?
For doing what?
80% of laws implemented in the UK are directives from Europe, I can't see Holland being any different to that.
Never mind a pay freeze (That'll never happen here!) we should be chucking most of them out.

And replace MPs with what exacly?

chuckcork

teagar wrote:

OffTheBackAdam wrote:

10% pay rise?
For doing what?
80% of laws implemented in the UK are directives from Europe, I can't see Holland being any different to that.
Never mind a pay freeze (That'll never happen here!) we should be chucking most of them out.

And replace MPs with what exacly?

MP's are already supplanted, to a frightening degree, by Lords appointed by the government of the day. If they screw up, they have no worries about being unelected, and certainly cannot be chucked out. They are, to paraphrase a former Australian PM, "unrepresentative swill", though of course rather better dressed than the Australian Senate (do they still wear coronets when invested with their titles? I have no idea.)

How many other modern democracies have such a system that rewards the unelected cronies of the rulers of the day with such power and privilege and invests them with the right to make laws and regulations that affect us all?

They shouldn't be taking a pay cut, they should be removed altogether, and the institution they are a part of reformed completely.

Now, can we debate something sensible like yeast based spreads? Vegemite for me!

teagar

The commons is an awful lot more powerful than the house of lords.

Go check out the Act of Parliament or the Salisbury convention. The house of lords can't do an awful lot, beside delaying a few policies a fair bit.