Julie Kirkbride MP resigns saying she was just a working mother trying to make childcare work... Apparently

[TheDullWitch]

www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6374856.ece

Can't help feeling she is using the mum ticket so we forget about the ££££ in dodgy travel expenses and second home claiming etc.

[cory]

How come only MPs have these problems?

Other Mums have to pay for their own childcare/live-in nanny arrangements?

How come we can't all claim it back off the tax payer?

And what about male MPs? Do they never need to provide rooms for their nannies? Or do male MPs not have children?

cheap attempt to get herself out of trouble

[BonsoirAnna]

I actually think that the whole hounding of MPs for their expenses has got completely out of hand and, in the case of Julie Kirkbride, has got beyond ridiculous. How is any woman to be an MP when her DH is also fully employed in a job with dodgy hours unless her family helps out? And why shouldn't her family get paid for that help?

[edam]

Why should the taxpayer fund Kirkbride's family? I have to pay for my own childcare AND contribute to hers from my taxes. Outrageous!

If you can get help from your family, good for you, but don't expect taxpayers to subsidise you.

[expatinscotland]

Because no one else's family gets paid for that help via the taxpayer unless their family is a registered childminder and they meet the income requirements for Child Tax Credit, Anna.

That's why.

And she was paid plenty of money to pay for childcare out of her own pocket like anyone else.

Glad to see teh back of her.

She's an insult to government just like all the rest of them.

[edam]

(Cory, male MPs need to provide room for servants, according to that guy in Bournemouth who had us paying for an entire wing of his house devoted to 'staff'. )

[rubyslippers]

she is full of shit

and it is a cheap shot to garner sympathy that is utterly transparent

she has 3 x as much free or hugely subsidised help as most working parents

[BonsoirAnna]

edam - with that attitude, no mothers will be able to be MPs unless their DHs give up work to care for the children and they have a private (probably inherited) income. How would you feel about that?

[cory]

No reason they shouldn't get paid, Anna. But do they have to be paid by the tax payers? And is that what would happen in the case of any other couple that also happened to work long hours but didn't happen to be MPs?

An awful lot of us couldn't do our jobs without paying for childcare. And an awful lot of us have to mortgage our homes to pay for the needs of a growing family. But it comes out of our salaries, we can't run to the taxpayers for help.

[edam]

(She's a Tory, expat, not in the government. This one, at least, no doubt she was heading for the front bench after the next election.)

[BonsoirAnna]

Most people don't have to have two homes. That complicates life hugely for MPs, in addition to the truly dreadful hours.

[edam]

Rubbish, Anna, MPs should pay for their own childcare, just like the rest of us. Unless they qualify for tax credits, like the rest of us.

[expatinscotland]

That's untrue, Anna. They get paid £64,000/pa plus their allowance.

That is far more than thousands of working women in the City with the same childcare issues earn.

If you're in a job and you find you are not being compensating appropriately, then you find another job or retrain for a higher pain job or make lifestyle changes, not steal from your employer with a bunch of b*llocks expense claims.

[cory]

BonsoirAnna on Thu 28-May-09 18:05:29
"edam - with that attitude, no mothers will be able to be MPs unless their DHs give up work to care for the children and they have a private (probably inherited) income."

But how come no mothers will be able to be MPs, when other mothers are evidently still able to hold down other jobs that require paying a nanny? What is so special about an MP?

[whatever1]

plenty of working parents work shifts, unsociable hours

[BonsoirAnna]

Well, I'm a feminist and I really want there to be female, and more importantly mother, MPs, and I want people with real lives ie without a private income to be able to do that job. And, as it is an intensely difficult job for many reasons, I think taxpayers should be supportive.

With the attitudes on this thread it will be impossible for mothers to be MPs; don't say you weren't warned!

[expatinscotland]

sorry, paying.

am ravenous for my takeaway curry!

[cory]

They are allowed to claim for the two homes, Anna. But preferably not twice

[Unicornvomit]

would have been far better and more edifying to keep her mouth firmly closed

lots of people in normal jobs that pay a third of the salary just have to work it out and get on with it

playing the 'i'm just a working mum 'card is facile and opens her up to more ridicule

[expatinscotland]

So you're saying it's not possible for a family to live in London on £64K/annum + allowances (oh, and if the spouse was also working then he had an income as well)?

[BonsoirAnna]

What is so special about an MP?

They live in two places, one of which is London and one of which may be many miles away; and they work deeply unsociable hours.

Very few people let alone women have jobs that are logistically so difficult.

[edam]

I think the expenses scandal may be claiming a disproportionate number of female scalps, which is a shame. But that's because there are so few female MPs anyway, if even one Tory goes it's a bloody disaster for their stats.

[TheDullWitch]

Number of women MPs in British Parliament is about 1 in 5. We have fewer than most European countries including Bulgaria.

Maybe, to get more women into Parl, we need to acknowledge childcare is complicated by families being in constituencies half the week.

Frankly I think all child care should be tax deductible. If I had a "personal assistant" to do my filing, make my tea, as a self employed person I could claim their salary against tax. But I can't claim for person who looks after kids and actually makes it possible for me to work.