Minister says life is too hard on £90k a year

[iansheff 88]

Doesn't your heart bleed for Mark Simmonds almost £90,000 a year and almost £28,000 expenses and bleats it is not enough to live in Westminster when he is in London. He doesn't want to commute from a different part of London as it is not a lifestyle he wants. Also his wife is employed as his office manager on a salary between £20,000 and £24,999. Blaming it all on the expenses and saying they are not enough. What about the thousands of people that have to commute a lot further than a few miles and pay thousands in season tickets for the privilege of rail travel.

[SportsTrophy 10]

He could have said many other things to make it an easy separation. Bringing up expenses was naive when there is so much poverty in the UK with my thoughts being he felt out of his depth in his current role.

[Intake Too 10]

My heart bleeds for him.

[alchresearch 214]

What an idiot. Everyone knows an MPs life is constantly traveling from Westminster to their constituency. He's spitting out his dummy because he can't take his family with him.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28737781

[taxman 12]

Where's the world's smallest violin when you need it?

[Bonzo77 13]

The words 'bell' and 'end', spring to mind!

[emma royd 10]

Doesn't your heart bleed for Mark Simmonds almost £90,000 a year and almost £28,000 expenses and bleats it is not enough to live in Westminster when he is in London. He doesn't want to commute from a different part of London as it is not a lifestyle he wants. Also his wife is employed as his office manager on a salary between £20,000 and £24,999. Blaming it all on the expenses and saying they are not enough. What about the thousands of people that have to commute a lot further than a few miles and pay thousands in season tickets for the privilege of rail travel.

 

I'm not really sure what your beef is here. The story seems to be that a man on what appears to some be a high salary has decided to chuck it in because he can do better elsewhere with less disruption to his life. I don't think he is asking for anyone to feel sorry for him, or for your heart to bleed for him. He isn't asking for a pay rise. He has just left a job and is off to do something else in order to have a happier better paid life.

 

Perhaps he feels that he can do better...

 

David Miliband's move to the US : A staff of 12,000 and a salary of £300,000 on the aid gravy train

 

Top job at International Rescue Committee charity includes number of perks

Complimentary private health care and gold-plated, tax-free pension

Likely to be paid five times salary of Labour MP for 37-and-a-half hour week

 

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2300240/David-Milibands-US--A-staff-12-000-salary-300-000-aid-gravy-train.html

Edited August 12, 2014 by emma royd

[iansheff 88]

I'm not really sure what your beef is here. The story seems to be that a man on what appears to some be a high salary has decided to chuck it in because he can do better elsewhere with less disruption to his life. I don't think he is asking for anyone to feel sorry for him, or for your heart to bleed for him. He isn't asking for a pay rise. He has just left a job and is off to do something else in order to have a happier better paid life.

 

He is moaning that the expenses are not enough to live in Westminster, what is wrong with commuting a few miles a day. In these days of austerity that a minister on such a high salary is moaning is pathetic. It is not like he is poor he made over half a million pounds on the house he bought in Putney in 2001. From 2001 to 2009, the mortgage interest was paid by the taxpayer, with the Tory MP claiming more than £2,000 a month to cover the cost.

The more they have the more they want.

[Cyclone 10]

He doesn't really seem to be complaining about the pay or the expenses though.

 

The fact is that if you work 5 days a week in London but live in another part of the country then you don't see your family very much.

Unless your children don't go to school then you can't alter that really.

 

And to be honest, it sucks. I don't think I'd take a 90k job with travel expenses that was based in London. And it's not that I couldn't, that sort of salary would be entirely possible for a permie IT architect. It's just a crappy kind of life.

 

---------- Post added 12-08-2014 at 10:48 ----------

 

He is moaning that the expenses are not enough to live in Westminster, what is wrong with commuting a few miles a day. In these days of austerity that a minister on such a high salary is moaning is pathetic. It is not like he is poor he made over half a million pounds on the house he bought in Putney in 2001. From 2001 to 2009, the mortgage interest was paid by the taxpayer, with the Tory MP claiming more than £2,000 a month to cover the cost.

The more they have the more they want.

 

I don't think he is. He didn't mention not being able to afford to live in Westminster.

The expenses are more than enough to get a flat in Westminster or Pimlico.

[Glennis 15]

Should we have a whip round?

[hyper 10]

Should we have a whip round?

For what?

English comprehension lessons for those who misinterpret his reasons for leaving? or

Spectacles for those who cannot read why he left?

 

I have no shame in saying I have moved jobs for a better work-life balance.

[andyofborg 11]

English comprehension lessons for those who misinterpret his reasons for leaving? or

Spectacles for those who cannot read why he left?

 

I have no shame in saying I have moved jobs for a better work-life balance.

 

That may be true and had he left it at that then people would have been understanding and sympathetic.

 

Instead, he also went on to make some comments about the expenses system being inadequate.

 

I can sympathise with the work-life difficulties caused by the job and, he's quite right, something should be done to make it easier for MPs with families. We might get some better MPs if they were.

 

Anyone with half a functioning brain cell must know that in the present climate criticising the expenses regime is not going to end well.