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Original poster

To have gone off Stephen Fry?

87 replies

Fairynufff · 13/05/2009 18:44

Everyone I have spoken to is absolutely outraged at the whole MP's expenses debacle but (wealthy tv presenter) Stephen Fry thinks we're all being petty by claiming the issue is "unimportant" and a "tedious, bourgeois obsession"...

OP posts:
Rollmops · 13/05/2009 19:25

dorisbonkers, charming and ever so clever comment. The Great Unwashed thank you.[rolls eyes]

StripeyKnickersSpottySocks · 13/05/2009 19:25

Oh and Stephen Fry is out of touch. It probably doesn't bother him as much as most people 'cos he's minted himself.

charitygirl · 13/05/2009 19:28

I like SF, but dorisbonkers is definitely on to something...

I do think the fact that is 'easy to understand' news with a voyeuristic twist accounts for some of its omnipresence.

StripeyOss · 13/05/2009 19:29

Thing is, if someone hadnt revealed it.. would any of you who're up in arms have known? would you have noticed? Do you personally police what every bit of your money gets spent on by them?

No, you dont.

And its not about the principal of the thing, they're politicians, they dont have principles.

If you want to get in a bitch about what our money is going on perhaps instead of picking on the politicians we should look at the royal family or the civil service or CSA and Social services who waste millions of pounds of our money every year.

This vilification has turned into pointless scapegoating.. personally , i dont see the point in apologies, they aren't going to do anything.

Voltaire · 13/05/2009 19:29

I'm not over-excited or outraged by the exes scandal. I am amused by it. I like the claims for the moat maintenance and the loo brush the best. But it's time they sorted this out once and for all. We need to pay MPs a competitive commercial wage - their wages are currently insufficient.

It would be a disaster if all we can attract in future are candidates with trust funds - it would be going back to the bad old days. I am very clear it needs to be a really stellar pay packet.

And I totally disagree with S Fry that everyone fiddles their expenses. I have never fiddled expenses and would never.

morningpaper · 13/05/2009 19:32

He is right to an extent. The whole thing has been whipped into a frenzy with awful reporting.

Particularly annoying pro-Tory reporting too. The headlines about Brown paying his brother for example - when the TRUTH is that Brown was paying a cleaner with proper holiday pay, a contract, and a pension scheme. How many people do that?!

And the thing with Menzies Campbell being shouted at for claiming 10k on a flat - a one-bed flat that he has RENTED for 20 YEARS and only had redecorated once!

Whereas the Tories claiming for things like MOATS which is actually far more chortle-worthy headlining was left until the end... oh and David Cameron, "limits claims to mortgage and utilities" - i.e. a man worth several million claimed £82,450 in mortgage interest, so he can accrue another nice fat property in his property portfolio! How very limiting of him. How is that worse than Prescott claiming for a loo seat?

morningpaper · 13/05/2009 19:32

NOT worse

morningpaper · 13/05/2009 19:33

Agree with Voltaire - MPs need a proper salary or we will just end up with politicians who can afford to live off daddy's earnings

Original poster
Fairynufff · 13/05/2009 19:35

The fact that Prescott claimed a salary is scandalous to me...

OP posts:
morningpaper · 13/05/2009 19:36

Look, I won't have any Prescott bashing

He is fantastic

And if I had to do a politician

Original poster
Fairynufff · 13/05/2009 19:38

StripeyOss - I agree we wouldn't have know about this without the press whipping it up but that is the beauty of a free press to expose the weaknesses in a democracy. We should applaud those who have brought it to public attention.

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Original poster
Fairynufff · 13/05/2009 19:39

morningpaper

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posieparker · 13/05/2009 19:40

Did anyone actually think MPs earn their tiny salary and that's it with a little pocket money for their second home. These people choose a job that's powerful and caries influence, of course they were enjoying a rich and indulgent life. About time it was stopped.

I love Stephen Fry.

morningpaper · 13/05/2009 19:41

Well I think I've explained this before

He is a proper MAN

Really, if you were alone in a house and there was the sound of breaking glass downstairs, would you rather be alone with John Prescott or David Cameron?

I mean really

Original poster
Fairynufff · 13/05/2009 19:41

morningpaper - not if you are Mrs Prescott in which case - loving your work babe!

OP posts:
StripeyKnickersSpottySocks · 13/05/2009 19:44

Boak at the thought of having to jump into bed with Prezza after he's seen the burglar off.

TheCrackFox · 13/05/2009 19:45

Well, he could sit on the intruder until the police arrived.

Nighbynight · 13/05/2009 19:46

Well Id rather be with Cameron

because he is upper class, so he could just call the gamekeeper to beat the burglars up

and the police would be all over him

Nighbynight · 13/05/2009 19:46

I went off Stephen Fry in about 1991

posieparker · 13/05/2009 19:49

1991?

pointydog · 13/05/2009 19:50

I agree in part with what fry said. It's such a huge dramatic fuss.

However, fry is a prize twat who knows the meaning of tedious only too well.

slowreadingprogress · 13/05/2009 20:16

I think Stephen Fry's moral compass may be slightly 'out'

His comments made me feel like a mug for being a council worker who has not fiddled! I simply would not, could not, ever fiddle expenses. He's out of touch if he thinks we all do it Maybe he was meaning that taking a biro or a yellow sticky pad is the same thing but that doesn't equate to fiddling expenses IMO when we're talking about people paying for moat cleaning/housekeepers!

I think he's a fascinating, complex, priveleged man and I am always interested in what he's got to say but I do think his view on this is skewed

Cathpot · 13/05/2009 20:33

I agree they should be paid a proper wage so that people coming into the job do not feel that their expenses are in fact part of their wage.

I dont think 'politician bashing' for the sake of it does anyone any good, we all need good people to want to go into politics.

Clearly some people abused the system, but this should make us rejoice about being in a democracy, because unlike miliions of people in other countries, if we think our politicians have behaved badly we can vote them out. This cheers me hugely.

chegirl · 13/05/2009 20:42

Its a bit much for a wealthy man in a elite profession to look down on the prols for being petty about money

Yes its getting a bit boring because its pretty much down to point scoring now but there are a lot of scared and skint people out there.

I love SF. I have warmed to him over the years. I couldnt bear him when he wrote 'Moab is my washpot' I thought it the most pretentious title ever (but thats probably because I havent a clue what it means). Kingdome is my (very) guilty secret and I just think SF is terribly nice and self effacing.

But he really should keep his gob shut about this sort of thing.

DorisIsAPinkDragon · 13/05/2009 20:48

I really don't agree that MP's need more money... They already recieve substantial sums which place them well above the national average wage of their constituents. Many (if not most) have paid directorships with other companies or charge for "advisory services".

At what point would a salary be grand enough for them to give up all their sideline work, but low enough to maintain their contact with real life and more importantly that of their constituents.

They have set themselves up with some of the best pensions in Europe (anyone who moans about public sector pensions would be much better starting with MP's), and have skimmed off the taxpayer to an alarming degree for years. Civil sevants have to reciept every claim made, and it has to be directly related to their work.

I am not suprised by the claims but I am dishearted by the cries to up their pay. In a time of ecconmic recession when every other public sector worker is being told to tighten their belts, why should we feel sorry for the "poor" MP's who now they have to account for gross abuses of a corrupt system, feel that an increase in pay is appropriate.

Oh and although I did previously like SF I do not think he is the best talking head for opionion on corruption give porevious form.