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.

ah expat, I never said that they weren't getting the shaft as much. But many reports have been done in the press that show that the greatest tax burden doesn't sit on the highest earners (who tax structure their salaries) but those in the middle who don't access that sort of help but don't earn below the threshold to get any proper help from the government.

I don't begrudge those benefits at all (and no I don't know their name ).

tbh, have been on mumsnet long enough to know not to get into conversations about money but what I was trying to say is that, yes the lowest earners have it toughest (when it comes to childcare) AND childcare costs are such that they are a huge barrier to people going back to work, even if they earn reasonable salaries but in some cases, it can be done even without being top top earners (though it can be v tough and mean lots of sacrifices).

This column about Julie Kirkbride made me laugh this morning

Spicemonster said:

"But if she had kept her seat until she had retired and this whole thing hadn't blown up then we would have paid wouldn't we?"

No, actually, unless JK had an interest-only mortgage (unlikely nowadays).

Because with an ordinary repayment mortgage, the monthly payment is part interest, part-capital. And you pay more capital than interest the closer one gets to paying it off. So the taxpayer would not fund the whole £50k bill, only a portion of it (you can still, if you want to, argue that even £1 is too much for taxpayer to fund, but the point is, it's almost certainly NOT £50k).

Also, the childcare thing being treated as a woman's problem... the extension was put on the house that JK was claiming as 2nd home; the house she was entitled to claim interest on. So as a childcare solution/subsidy, it fell to her to claim it, Andrew McKay couldn't claim because he was only able to claim interest on the mortgage on the other property.

Julie Kirkbride probably did have an interest only mortgage - most MPs seem to, as it keeps costs to themselves down. She's been an MP since 1997, so although nowadays an interest-only mortgage may be less likely, it wouldn't have been then.

spicemonster I was told it was Keith Vaz who lives in Stanmore: he used this as justification for the second home allowance; he said he was far too far away from London.

It 30 minutes away from Westminster on the Jubilee Line. Plus...ooo let's add 15 minutes driving time. Plus delays. Ooooo. 15 minutes.

Just saying. You know

Personally I don't think it is particularly fair to have a small child when both parents are working very antisocial hours. Luckily MPs have a huge amount of holiday and no longer do regular late nights (because sadly much less legislation is actually discussed in Parliament).

The issue of MPs dodgily employing family members is a very old one though, and would be better resolved by putting such arrangements on a more business like footing, where the pay is arranged in the same way as the rest of the public sector, with proper adverts, contracts etc etc. I'm not totally sure the "constituency home" really counts as a home in any real sense of the word for many MPs - if they are only there at the weekend then they seem more like holiday homes really.

I wonder if the family members paid taxes on their earning....

however,I thought you are only allowed to take money for doing childcare if you are an ofsted registred childminder, nursery...or a nanny....or is that not so?

I wonder if the family members paid taxes on their earning....

however,I thought you are only allowed to take money for doing childcare if you are an ofsted registred childminder, nursery...or a nanny....or is that not so?