Snazy

Voted to ban second home allowance for outer London, and to disclose secondary incomes.
Its a start I guess.

scoobynutta555

Can't wait to see what they've already claimed when it's all published.

Snazy

If we get full disclosure I might cry !

Centralised employment of MP's staff though. All now to be employed by the House.

DCI Gene Hunt

Robbing *****....

Snazy

Many are claiming something like 24k annually as 20 miles appears too much. Shocking, but definatly one of the things that needs taking care of.

The homes are not being banned. The payments for them are

On the face of it, these are 3 areas that needed harsh action so well done finally to the MP's for making the right vote. Now lets see what underhanded tricks they can pull from the hat.

Receipts for ALL claims too now so I hear.
Imagine walking into your boss daily and claiming £20 but not having a receipt!

tanyatriangles

iTrader: (2)

Funny how Labour Mps have suddenly grown consciences just a year or so before most of them will lose their seats...........

Snazy

I was saying the same thing last week. Amazing how they are cutting away all the perks they have given themselves over the last X years.

Making sure the next gov are shat on properly lol

Politics eh! Bolotics more like!

Scoobychick

iTrader: (1)

Too little, too late.

Snazy

Definatly but they are just doing the spiteful older sister thing now.
"if I cant have it, no one can" and making sure there are very few perks to be had when they all get kicked out of their second houses.

I wonder whats gonna happen to all the things we have bought them for their second homes. Will there be a Labour Bankrupt stock sale when they all move out. Cheap furniture, TV's and kitchen equipment ?

Snazy

Never know, once all this goes through, we might be lucky and they could call it a day, call an election and **** off!

davyboy

Again, another good idea happens under a labour goverment.

Well done labour. This is not a new issue.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Oh well, businesses/employees/employers have had to account for their expenses for, well, much longer than Labour have been in power.

And woe betide anyone should the inland revenue find out you've been fiddling expenses on your own business

pwhittle

I like that one. hopefully now they's get the £15k pa that council admin staff get, and have to go through equal ops recruitment.

Leslie

I reckon we have to wait to see the small print of the final "solution" after the enquiry.

Just like any of their budgets for the last 12 years!

Les

Snazy

Totally agree Les, as I said, lets wait and see what underhanded things they have planned.
The polls are against them at the mo, but should something dramatic happen over the next year, like Brown quit, a new direction be taken, and Labour "save the world" like Brown wanted to , then im sure they have made some clauses in there somewhere JUST in case they all get to keep their second homes.

I love the suggestion of the employees earning a basic wage, and it being open to recruitment from all areas.

pwhittle

Spot on
there's been loads of 'this needs to be reviewed' quotes now it's headline news, but they've been happy to cream it off for years.
Maybe it should be applied retrospectively, after all, they agree it needs revising...
the rest of the public sector gets to use second-hand stationery, and bus everywhere - cos driving gives the wrong message (like 'I'd like to get to my meeting on time, without waiting for an hour, and smelling of p!ss').
And in what sort of democracy do people get to vote on their' own bl**dy pay deals?!!!


(Just lost 5% of my salary due to so called 'equal pay' rules (my female colleagues lost more!), so I'm rather aggrieved!)

Leslie

Much more of his failures and I think Flash will be due for a visit by the men in grey suits!

Les

Martin2005

As much as I agree things needed to change, I think in your usual zeal to put the boot into the government you have forgotten that this is not a government policy, this is an issue for MPs and decided upon by MPs (madly enough).

So the fact that Labour will lose power soon is completely irrelevant to this issue.

Facts people... FACTS

Snazy

Yes and no....

Labour hold the house majority....
The leader just called a vote, and the majority voted for these changes..

I agree the fact that ALL MP's have a say in their rises etc, but the fact still stands that after years of rule they have finally decided action needs taking, the house majority has spoken...... coincidently towards what appears to be the end of their power in the house.

So however you look at it, you have to admit the timing is good.

Martin2005

I think the PM would rather this issue would just go away. I would imagine what with everything else going wrong the last thing he needs is MP screwing around with expenses.

As far as I can tell this wasn't a 'whipped' vote so the fact that Labour have a majority doesn't come into it.

I agree that if the government really wanted to do something about this then they would of done it earlier. But I think the problem is that without the public outcry MPs would never of voted for change and the government get defeated and embarrassed.

The way he's handled this has just been incompetent. I think the way to deal with this from his perspective was to start sacking ministers Smith and McNulty should be long gone by now. Set an example, draw the line etc etc, but he just can't be decisive.

Snazy

Totally agree about the action mate. Should have happened straight away.

His big problem is, following the scandle he makes a statement saying its all very wrong, and needs sorting, but after identifying there are issues with the MP's taking the pee, but then does nothing about it (as you say)

I think the majority bit comes into it, with far more Labour MP's inclined to vote away the "rights" as a lot feel they are about to lose them.
Like the spoilt sibling, if I cant have it, no one can.

Leslie

Isn't that what they do-or should about all those decisions? ie to vote on it in Parliament!

Even if they did say that the Parliamentary vote was not necessarily binding on them! So the Commons have no right of say then?

Les