@justfinefornow - sorry but considering MPs BARELY need to touch their salaries, which are generally far better than many of their constituents will be receiving, due to the expenses corruption I see absolutely NO need for them to have other jobs. They’re being paid by the country to serve the country, if they’re doing other jobs they’re not fully committing to that job.
but the current encumbrance in post I think you meant incumbent but that’s a fabulous malapropist typo!
so we don’t keep having Eton/Oxbridge/isolation from real world prime ministers.
Exactly!
I’m a fan of the last leg and I well remember John bishop being on after having met David Cameron either while or just after he was PM. Bishop is no Tory fan but he made a comment where he noted, from having spoken with Cameron that it wasn’t just that there was a bias from the likes of Cameron towards the poorer members of society, but that it was an experience SO far removed from his own he had absolutely NO understanding or appreciation of it, he was completely clueless as to what life was like for the poorest in society.
I read the other day the flat at 10 Downing Street is taxable, any food sent up from the kitchen is charged IF that’s true which I highly doubt, I very much suspect they simply claim it back via the expenses system.
What does the single claimant do to get paid that amount in UC? considering this is the lowest level that would apply to claimants unemployed without a reason considered acceptable for being so, so they are expected to be actively seeking work and doing all they can to achieve that or they are sanctioned. It’s pretty much expected they spend full time hours on job seeking unless there are mitigating factors.
Considering that there are nowhere near enough jobs for the numbers unemployed even according to the govts own figures (which are heavily massaged!) it’s not easy!
Dd and I were both job hunting at the same time a few years back. Very different cvs of course, not sure if people are aware if they’ve not job searched recently but on the online sites there are counters which show how many applicants per vacancy, at that time it was regularly over 500 for many roles. Bear in mind also the same role would be advertised on several sites. Dd is now job hunting again (different location just started back at uni) and in the current climate applicant numbers are often in excess of 800 per role and even as much as over 1000 per role.
Where I am a major company with a base near us it came to be known before they even advertised that they’d be looking to increase recruitment - the week that gossip got out within 2 days they had over 5000 on spec applications for a handful of vacancies.
There will also be things like claimants having to attend various appointments to get “support” to find work not only from their dwp advisor but other agencies - which aren’t always easy or cheap to get to! Plus they are “encouraged” to apply for jobs they have neither the experience or qualifications in to hit the targets set for both claimant and their advisor, including attending interviews where this is the case which is frankly time wasting and I’m sure makes claimants feel even more shit...
They’re certainly not, as I think some may think, sitting on their backsides doing nothing!
@itsabeautifuldayheyhey - I don’t know any more than anyone else can find out from a little investigation and application of common sense. He’s even been censured for breaking rules on declaring interest stuff - have you forgotten the whole Jennifer arcuri debacle? Which was just one of them? Don’t know carrie’s exact income, nor what money she has from family side of things, but know she too is from a well off family and has an upper management role in a charity so she’s hardly on average wage let alone nmw! I believe she’s on around £55k herself?
It’s not funny at all. High earners are motivated by money so it’s entirely logical they should think that. They (mistakenly) believe the more you pay, the better the performance. I don’t want politicians who worship money. exactly!
@YouWereGr8InLittleMenstruators thanks. No to the best of my knowledge they aren’t prevented from voting on things they have a vested interest in in any meaningful way, interests have to be declared etc but it’s very much lip service plus tons of loopholes.
I’m fine with the nice houses. It must be easier and cheaper for the security services to protect them there and also easier to track who has access to the PM.
actually I would argue that my idea of having them all in one location possibly behind a “fence line” would certainly make the security cheaper and easier! And I don’t see how it makes it easier to track who has access to pm either!
I’d argue that top paid civil servants, CEOs, etc are paid too much, not that other salaries should be inflated. totally agree
Also re footballers etc pay - well that’s plain obscene anyway and means ordinary people have been priced out of attending live sports events, theatre etc
he’s quite conceivably lost the Tories the next election one can only hope - unfortunately I think you’re wrong, thread running elsewhere on this
So many posters saying he doesn’t have housing costs! It would be very silly of him to not maintain a private residence as he has NO job security he could rent out these properties while in office to cover any expenses - not that I believe for a second he actually needs to!
To get the best people for the job we need to break down the barriers much earlier on and encourage opportunities for people outside of old Etonians and public school graduates. totally agree.
While in theory “anyone” can become an Mp who can find the £500 deposit, it requires significant funding and contacts in reality. This needs to be addressed seriously.
I for one am absolutely sick of being governed by people who’ve never done a non-political days work in their lives and have NO CLUE what life is like for the poorest - and arguably the most affected by their actions! - in society!
However, all I've said being said I don't believe this little snippet was released to try and make him look good, even Cummings isn't that stupid! I suspect this was a back stabbing move by one of his "own"