Who is worth what?

Our politicians really are a sorry crowd. To make a statement that disabled people may not be worth the minimum wage or even, I believe the figure of £2/hour has been bandied about is disgraceful enough. That the man who made it refuses to resign is also totally normal as is Cameron's refusal to sack him. He may be forced to yet of course but for the moment all is running on well tried and tested wheels. An apology to the plebs is quite sufficient.

Yet when you take into account the scandals of just the last 5 years, the lies, the greasing of palms, the greed, and avarice of those same politicians, together with some of the shall we say dodgy declarations one has to wonder.

We'll get the deficit down in this parliament. No we wont
We'll get immigration down to tens of thousands Pause for laughter
We'll renegotiate with the EU. The EU will not negotiate with us.
We'll have a British bill of rights in this parliament Well maybe the next one.

And so on and so on

So given their lamentable record just who is not worth the minimum wage?

katertaif wrote:Our politicians really are a sorry crowd. To make a statement that disabled people may not be worth the minimum wage or even, I believe the figure of £2/hour has been bandied about is disgraceful enough. That the man who made it refuses to resign is also totally normal as is Cameron's refusal to sack him. He may be forced to yet of course but for the moment all is running on well tried and tested wheels. An apology to the plebs is quite sufficient.

Yet when you take into account the scandals of just the last 5 years, the lies, the greasing of palms, the greed, and avarice of those same politicians, together with some of the shall we say dodgy declarations one has to wonder.

We'll get the deficit down in this parliament.                      No we wont
We'll get immigration down to tens of thousands                Pause for laughter
We'll renegotiate with the EU.                                           The EU will not negotiate with us.
We'll have a British bill of rights in this parliament              Well maybe the next one.

And so on and so on

So given their lamentable record just who is not worth the minimum wage?

Good evening katertaif.

Sadly our 'Honourable Members' keep adjusting their own 'minimum wage' to keep pace with their expense account claims, otherwise they'd be getting more in expenses than salary

malena stool wrote:

katertaif wrote:Our politicians really are a sorry crowd. To make a statement that disabled people may not be worth the minimum wage or even, I believe the figure of £2/hour has been bandied about is disgraceful enough. That the man who made it refuses to resign is also totally normal as is Cameron's refusal to sack him. He may be forced to yet of course but for the moment all is running on well tried and tested wheels. An apology to the plebs is quite sufficient.

Yet when you take into account the scandals of just the last 5 years, the lies, the greasing of palms, the greed, and avarice of those same politicians, together with some of the shall we say dodgy declarations one has to wonder.

We'll get the deficit down in this parliament.                      No we wont
We'll get immigration down to tens of thousands                Pause for laughter
We'll renegotiate with the EU.                                           The EU will not negotiate with us.
We'll have a British bill of rights in this parliament              Well maybe the next one.

And so on and so on

So given their lamentable record just who is not worth the minimum wage?

Good evening katertaif.

Sadly our 'Honourable Members' keep adjusting their own 'minimum wage' to keep pace with their expense account claims, otherwise they'd be getting more in expenses than salary

Good morning young sir

Quite so. I thought they already were getting more out of expenses. At the very least trying to. As you know it doesn't end with salary or even expenses. They get extra for being on committees, going on fact finding missions (The Bahamas for preference) Second home swapping, furnishing the aforementioned second home etc etc.

Having said that, if their salaries are insufficient to keep body and soul together then the answer is simple. We are constantly told they could make more in the world of commerce well OK, go and do it. eschew politics and go make the money they say they are worth. Ah but wait!!

The majority of them were in the world of commerce (mostly the law) and were not greatly successful at it. Politics on the other hand has a great deal going for it. Thronged by respectful hangers on, wielding authority far beyond their abilities, the salary per se may not be huge but comparatively speaking is a fortune to many, their expenses etc, easily more than double that. where else can you set your own hours of work? Oh yes the odd midnight debate, how tiresome!

Then when finally rumbled by the electorate, there is always the chance of getting a set of second hand ermine robes, and getting £300 a day attendance money. If all else fails, the inflation proof golden pension beckons, and with it the time to write the inevitable book.

Minimum wage? As my late father would say, He wouldn't pay them in washers.

Good evening katertaif,

Whatever happened to the real polititians we used to have represent us?
Sure, lots of them, of all political preferences, were 'strange' to say the least and undoubtebly the majority were back then richer than God, but the Labour party in the main, were representative of the working man. Today's sticky fingered New Labour polititians happily vote themselves salary inreases and fiddle their John Lewis accounts along with their Tory and Liberal buddies while blocking pay rises for the plebs who elected them into office.
Even when caught red handed with their fingers in the till or taking their boy friends on holidays fact finding missions at the public's expense, nothing is ever done about it, they are still seen to be freeloading after a peurile apology to their colleagues... never to the public who pay their wages.

Gordon Brown, the most detested, shallow, incompetent, drooling oaf of a Chancellor and Prime Minister this nation has ever seen, is still allowed to be involved in politics. Yet if the working man were to make, in his daily toils (assuming he is able to find a job), as many questionable ill thought out barmpot decisions as Brown he would be out of a job. They truly as you say, have a job for life.

We are in the unenviable position as a country of possessing two political parties which follow the same path, Conservatism.
The Labour values of old have gone, we have been set on a path to return to cheap labour markets, deskilling our tradesmen to a point where if a tradesmen's skills are needed, work is contracted out to other countries.

Sorry, I've had a bit of a rant here, but I wouldn't pay our polititians at all. The present bunch are in my opinion, for the main part jailbirds.

The thing is Malena, these days people cannot be sacked just like that.  No matter what they have done!  There are many processes to go through which take forever and a day. Usually the guilty party is suspended on full pay, which usually works out at a 12 month holiday.   Then once they have  appeared before the endless panels, they end up being reinstated because of a technicality.  It is a very sad state of affairs.

Don't know how this time the EU can take the blame. Portugal is in the EU and things don't work like that at all. More the opposite, sadly.

I think we here follow the EU rules to the letter but I will take it of the post.

fuzeta wrote:I think we here follow the EU rules to the letter but I will take it of the post.

Here you're fired first and then they try to find out if there's reason to fire you or not.

malena stool wrote:Good evening katertaif,

Whatever happened to the real polititians we used to have represent us?
Sure, lots of them, of all political preferences, were 'strange' to say the least and undoubtebly the majority were back then richer than God, but the Labour party in the main, were representative of the working man. Today's sticky fingered New Labour polititians happily vote themselves salary inreases and fiddle their John Lewis accounts along with their Tory and Liberal buddies while blocking pay rises for the plebs who elected them into office.
Even when caught red handed with their fingers in the till or taking their boy friends on holidays fact finding missions at the public's expense, nothing is ever done about it, they are still seen to be freeloading after a peurile apology to their colleagues... never to the public who pay their wages.

Gordon Brown, the most detested, shallow, incompetent, drooling oaf of a Chancellor and Prime Minister this nation has ever seen, is still allowed to be involved in politics. Yet if the working man were to make, in his daily toils (assuming he is able to find a job), as many questionable ill thought out barmpot decisions as Brown he would be out of a job. They truly as you say, have a job for life.

We are in the unenviable position as a country of possessing two political parties which follow the same path, Conservatism.
The Labour values of old have gone, we have been set on a path to return to cheap labour markets, deskilling our tradesmen to a point where if a tradesmen's skills are needed, work is contracted out to other countries.

Sorry, I've had a bit of a rant here, but I wouldn't pay our polititians at all. The present bunch are in my opinion, for the main part jailbirds.

Good morning Malena Stool

As usual you are quite correct in your observations. The most telling of which is (IMHO) that even though I personally never supported Labour at least they were transparent in their beliefs and what they stood for. Now we simply have one single party with a left wing right wing, and centre ground. Fuzeta is completely correct in that there is no mechanism for firing them when they have been found guilty of wrongdoing, which in itself is yet another scandal in the mileau that is Westminster. There is absolutely no doubt that our politicians have lost their way, in that apart from every few years lowering themselves (as I'm sure they see it) before the lower orders by touting for votes, they spend the next four years happily ignoring the same electorate.

The most recent scandal I believe being the health workers. Refused a miserable 1% increase in salary, politicians themselves are happy to take 11%. I notice by the way that the voices claiming they agreed with the electorate and wouldn't take this size of an increase have magically fallen silent. The true measure of their integrity perhaps.