So, MPs cost the taxpayer £115 million pounds per year. Including extra payments made to ministers that works out at £175,000 per year for each of the 659 MPs. The question is do you think they earn or deserve it?

And with this country been dictated to more and more by the Brussels unelected do we still need 659 MPs?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3671641.stm

http://www.parliament.uk/faq/pay_faq_page.cfm#pay2

when i think about the pittance i earn, that is an obscene amount of money even if they were any use at their jobs. of course they are not worth it.

But does that figure also include running their offices, staff, travel and other expenses? They certainly don't get that in salary.

I certainly don't resent the £3 or so that it costs me. I do resent the amount of bloat that there is in the government. They have a turnover of billions of pounds every year - I can't help but feel that privatisation is the way to lowering taxes.

If I want to pay for private healthcare, why should I also subsidise those on the NHS?


Susie, hates what politics has become

Originally posted by Tony
But does that figure also include running their offices, staff, travel and other expenses? They certainly don't get that in salary.

It's all in the link Tony. £66,458 and £77,534 maximum for staffing allowances. MPs parliamentary salary is £57,485. So for instance if an MP hired their spouse as their secretary then this doubles their households income.

Originally posted by Lickszz
It's all in the link Tony. £66,458 and £77,534 maximum for staffing allowances. MPs parliamentary salary is £57,485. So for instance if an MP hired their spouse as their secretary then this doubles their households income.


If Tony Blairs spouse became his secretary (and gave up her job at Matrix) they would lose more than half of their household income

Why on earth would Cherie ever consider giving up her job?

It is the lawyer led Government who 'snatched' onto the EU Bill of Human Rights to make loads of money for themselves defending not the contributors to the legal aid bill as was originally intended but all and sundry throughout the world!


Not to mention the Blairs enthusiastic approach to continue accepting freebies. :mad:

Originally posted by Lickszz
It's all in the link Tony. £66,458 and £77,534 maximum for staffing allowances. MPs parliamentary salary is £57,485. So for instance if an MP hired their spouse as their secretary then this doubles their households income. Of course it doesn't, because like I asked (and you confirmed) that also includes lots of other expenses. Also, (apart from ethics) what prevents an MP's partner being employed - someone has to do the work. Or are you suggesting that MP's who employ their partners don't do the same work that the other do?

Tony,

Are you disputing those figures on the Parliament website?

Salary £57,485
Incidental expenses £19,325
Staffing allowances between £66,458 / £77,534
Additional costs allowance £20,902
London supplement £1,618

Nothing prevents an MPs partner from being employed but I'm more concerned with how they obtain that position. Do they go through the application/interview procedure along with other candidates who may want that job? If not would it be fair for one to assume that it could be a case of some MPs further feathering their own nests with tax payers money?

Not disputing the figures at all. I tend to agree with you about employing partners, but your first post seemed to imply that MP's got far more in thier pocket than is the case.

Sorry for any misunderstanding. As your aware those figures were not my figures but were taken from the websites. I was simply asking the question whether people thought we got value for money. I'll give an example of what I mean.

If you take a look around the House of Commons during the week. It's empty. Many of them serve on committees to be sure but, for correspondence to constituants they have (or claim for) secretary's.

Maybe they are taking the delights of the 'Subsidised' bars? And the 'Subsidised' eateries. Free postage and allowances for travel.

More and more emoluments maybe?

Seems cheap to me... all our MP's and their staffing costs are less than the US spends each year to provide their President with a private plane (Air Force One).

Personally, I'm more concerned about the £6 billion the UK is spending on fighting an illegal war that has achieved nothing except death, destruction and increased hatred for the West. The interest alone on £6 billion would pay for the cost of our MPs twice over.

illegal war


I bet you couldn't wait to bring that up. Why not take it somewhere more apropriate. Like to the Police.


Susie, sick of hearing about the justification for this damn war

Originally posted by SusieP
I bet you couldn't wait to bring that up. Why not take it somewhere more apropriate. Like to the Police.


Susie, sick of hearing about the justification for this damn war
OK, forget about the legal or moral issues around the war. From a strictly financial point of view, wouldn't you agree that the spunking of £6 billion on the war is perhaps a slightly bigger concern that the piddling amount MP's cost us?

Zamo, sick of people sick of hearing about the justification for this damn war! :razz:

Could you put £6bn into perspective, please? Say, how much the government spends per year anyway.

Susie, who always wondered that and managed to get the burden of proof onto you

if your personally more concerned with the cost of a war (which has ended by the way), why not go and start a thread about it, instead of talking about it in one which is about MP's and the amount of money spent on central government?

Originally posted by SusieP
Could you put £6bn into perspective, please? Say, how much the government spends per year anyway.

Susie, who always wondered that and managed to get the burden of proof onto you
Get out of here... look it up yourself! :D

If you want perspective then apply a simple value for money test. The cost of administering the democratic system that we all benefit from is equal to £2 for every man, woman and child in the UK - money well spent I'd argue.

The cost (in financial terms only) of fighting a war in Iraq is over £100 for every man, woman and child in the UK and has bought us what?!?!? I can only think of negative things, therefore money badly spent I'd argue.

Originally posted by Cyclone
if your personally more concerned with the cost of a war (which has ended by the way), why not go and start a thread about it, instead of talking about it in one which is about MP's and the amount of money spent on central government?
The war in Iraq has ended?!?!? You'll no doubt be booking your summer holiday in Falluja then?

The thread was indeed about the £115 million spent administering our democratic system and whether this is too much money. My opinion is that this isn't an excessive amount, especially when you consider the amount of waste elsewhere. I simply gave an example of far greater waste i.e. the Iraq war. If this strayed off topic too much then I of course apologise profusely.

What is your opinion on the subject? Is £115 million too much? Are MP's overpaid? Do you think this should be a priority area for reducing government spend?

If however, you're personally more concerned about people straying off topic then why not go and start a thread about it, instead of talking about it in one which is about MP's and the amount of money spent on central government? :D

good comeback, i'll be sure to remember that :loopy:

if you want my opinion on the war, then go and start a topic.

I don't think MP's themselves are overpaid. I do think there is probably some room to tighten up on central government spending. But I agree with you that there are other areas where much more money could be saved.

Mod: Why not start a new thread entitled "The cost of the Iraq Conflict"??

Originally posted by Tony
Mod: Why not start a new thread entitled "The cost of the Iraq Conflict"??
User: Because I don't especially want to?

PS: Why are we writing in bold letters and officially declaring our forum status?!?

Mod: Because that's how it works. I thought you had some genuine points that deserved a thread in its own right. Carry on drifting off topic if you like.

Only here to help! :confused: