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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to suggest that a condition of employment as a MP should be a week living as a member of the working poor, or the unemployed or the squeezed middle before being allowed to make policies that affect th

111 replies

LackaDAISYcal · 19/03/2013 07:54

Fucking fed up to the back teeth of being shat on from a great height by a bunch of twats who have no idea how the majority of the electorate actually live. The way things are going, we will lose our house as it's getting harder to meet our mortgage repayments every month.

OP posts:
Original poster
LackaDAISYcal · 19/03/2013 07:56

oops, title too long Blush

should read policies that affect the majority of the electorate.

and an MP obv!

OP posts:
OhDearieDearieMe · 19/03/2013 07:56

It's a fair idea - I do hope you'd advocate it for ALL members and not just those of a government persuasion? Seems to me not a single one of them has a clue and it matters not which party they represent.

wonderingsoul · 19/03/2013 07:58

it would have to be a month to get any where near the feeling of depression, how desperate you get. how betrodden you feel.

good idea. id like to see it just for shits and giggle really.

Inseywinseyupthespout · 19/03/2013 08:01

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

mummymeister · 19/03/2013 08:01

if you hate the people in power so much and dont think they represent your views then you should stand for office yourself. the reason these "bunch of twats" are in power is because they are the only people that put themselves forward. too many people moan about it but arent prepared to stand themselves and make a difference. Local elections coming up OP so i assume that you are standing for your parish / town council? and please no excuses, we are all busy, with busy working lives, and kids and elderly parents etc. Its our democracy we get the people in power that can be bothered and if you cant be bothered then dont whinge about it.

OTTMummA · 19/03/2013 08:02

YABVVU,,

A week! Pfft! Maybe 6 months, preferably a year, that should earn them some compassion.

GrowSomeCress · 19/03/2013 08:03

In that case, shall we also have only those who are/were really wealthy making tax policies that affect the really wealthy?

Or children making policies which affect children?

Wheresmycaffeinedrip · 19/03/2013 08:03

I agree. !!! But I doubt they would last five minutes

HeySoulSister · 19/03/2013 08:05

Why are your mortgage payments the fault of MP's?

NewFerry · 19/03/2013 08:05

I dont think anyone should be allowed to stand until they have done a proper job either, rather than PPE at uni, followed by a stint in some ministers office, or a govt paid quango, before being parachuted into a safe seat.

Original poster
LackaDAISYcal · 19/03/2013 08:05

Oh of course mummymeister...independant rosettes at the ready Hmm

OP posts:
Original poster
LackaDAISYcal · 19/03/2013 08:08

My mortgage isn;t the govts responsibility, obviously, but the policies that are being intridcued re childcare and child benefits are making it harder every month for us to live the way we used to. We are not the only family in this position. And this govt is out of touch with their core elctorate. They ahve no idea how the normal people live. All I am suggesting is that they live as an ordinary family to get a flavour of it before making policies that affect them.

Anyhoo, Rant over, need to get my children to school and then go to work!

OP posts:
mummymeister · 19/03/2013 08:10

Lackadaisycal. i am a parish councillor there are 10 of us we meet once a month and are the first point of call for planning applications etc. i dont stand under any banner or party, just my own name. There are several thousand people in my parish all of whom whinge and moan about planning decisions, lack of play parks, dog mess, i could go on. yet we will struggle to find 10 people to do this - 1 evening a month. too many people sit around moaning about "them" and the decisions that "they" make. if you dont like it stop whinging and do something about it

Original poster
LackaDAISYcal · 19/03/2013 08:11

and mummymeister, afaik we are still allowed freedom of speech in our democracy, which gives me the right to whinge about a government I didn't vote for if I like, thanks!

OP posts:
Original poster
LackaDAISYcal · 19/03/2013 08:12

No parish council here to talk about dog mess, and I am not talking about local issues, nice though it would be to sort out the pavements round here too.

OP posts:
mummymeister · 19/03/2013 08:12

of course you can moan - and then tomorrow what will have changed after your moan. absolutely nothing.

Startail · 19/03/2013 08:13

YANBU
They should also try and get and keep a job, living an a rural area, with no public transport and no wage coming in to get a car.

They should try to find some where affordable to rent and discover there is no where.

Then they should be forced with no car, no bus without a 3 mile walk and no bus fare to get to the job centre 13 miles away.

We had one 5 miles away, which was cyclable, if you took your life in your hands, but it closed.

threebats · 19/03/2013 08:17

Remember Neil Kinnock? He was from a working class background and worked his way up from the bottom...
David Cameron Nick Clegg - born with silver spoons in their mouths.

I know everybody has differing opinions on politics and that's as it should be.

But I know who would understand my problems if I had to sit down with the three men above...

Domjolly · 19/03/2013 08:18

YANBU!
Really pisses me off that they all sit in their shiny houses , talking about their private school education & how they will make the country a better place whilst their top rate nannies watch over their kids .

"We are all in this together ..."

ARE WE FECK!!!

ahhhhh the politics of envy, love it as least these people pay in to our society with there private schools and lrivate helath care usually have less need for police and ss they put in more than they take not the like the other lot ho take more than they put it

might also wanna remind those who moan on anout tory toffs the labour lot are hardly slumming ot but you all convently forget that was it not diann abott who but her sone is plush private school and not gordan brown who wents to sctolands answer to EATON

lurkedtoolong · 19/03/2013 08:18

Lots of MPs have had "normal" jobs or lives before entering parliament. Lots have struggled with their mortgages.

Just because the boys at the top wouldn't know one end of the supermarket trolley from the other doesn't mean the other 600 odd are the same.

Trills · 19/03/2013 08:19

YABU

"A week living as XXX" is a stupid stunt and a waste of time.

I would rather have my MP doing his or her actual job.

Domjolly · 19/03/2013 08:21

I know thrills my local doctor has just become mp and to suggest at some point we wasnt a student doctor on no money or didnt have to do shopping os absured

FasterStronger · 19/03/2013 08:24

I would like a rule that before someone complains about something, that effects them personally, they consider could they take responsibility for themselves?

rather than the endless something should be done meaning someone else should do something as I don't want to change.

AKissIsNotAContract · 19/03/2013 08:25

I agree with mummymeister.

And Gordon Brown came from a working class background and did not go to a fee paying school.

Iggly · 19/03/2013 08:27

They should at least talk to the people affected.

Some things seem very well on paper when looking at the overall but they forget that these things impact on people. Individuals, families, children etc etc. the human and common sense element is missing.