This Thursday What Are You Doing

[somabc]

Would that mean that we could stop subsidising?

 

Here is a can of worms, why don't you open it?

[DrCheese]

true but could you do it with objectivity and up to a point does it matter if the cost is reasonable?

No, MP's should be barred from directly hiring family members.

The £400 accountancy fee was a once off that could be let go, but when they randomly hire family members for permanent positions, that is wrong. One MP hired his son in a full time job... whist he was studying at university

[enjay]

No, MP's should be barred from directly hiring family members.

but when they randomly hire family members for permanent positions, that is wrong.

 

Surely all such positions are meant to be advertised publicly already? Certainly, all Govt agencies have to advertise all vacancies, would have thought the same applied to MPs who are spending public money...

[elsiegee40]

Surely all such positions are meant to be advertised publicly already? Certainly, all Govt agencies have to advertise all vacancies, would have thought the same applied to MPs who are spending public money...

 

I think MPs hiring their private office staff doesn't come under the category of 'public employee'; even if their pay ultimately comes out of public funds by means of expenses. As they are not directly employed by the government, the jobs don't have to be advertised.

[grumpy_git]

I thought only certain jobs had to be advertised - there are times when owing to the nature of the post it makes sense to use someone who is known. (It's how I started my work here, they needed someone at short notice and I was known to them).

 

Obviously that doesn't condone paying people for employing sons etc as "assistants" when I doubt they do much at all!)

 

IMO - get a building near Westminster, kit it out like a halls of residence. It doesn't need to be fancy, all you need is a bed for the night, a shower, perhaps a television and an internet connection. One room per MP. An on site janitor deals with supplies of furniture, household equipment etc so they can't claim a small fortune for that. Job done.

[russdev]

I thought only certain jobs had to be advertised - there are times when owing to the nature of the post it makes sense to use someone who is known. (It's how I started my work here, they needed someone at short notice and I was known to them).

 

Obviously that doesn't condone paying people for employing sons etc as "assistants" when I doubt they do much at all!)

 

IMO - get a building near Westminster, kit it out like a halls of residence. It doesn't need to be fancy, all you need is a bed for the night, a shower, perhaps a television and an internet connection. One room per MP. An on site janitor deals with supplies of furniture, household equipment etc so they can't claim a small fortune for that. Job done.

 

No they have to be advertised in some way know that could be a job advert in local village post office as long as they have. Why do you think companies use head-hunters as it dissolves them of having to advertise.

 

Russ

[RabbieBurns]

Euro Elections Snp Humiliates Labour In Scotland (from The Herald )

 

[ButterflyMoon]

Fab news for the SNP

[Polski]

“Proportional Representation” is the only fair way of electing members of parliament.

 

After all, it is hardly fair when (for example) the Conservative get (21,000 votes) Labour (19,000), Liberal Democrats (12,000), Others (5,000) and the Tory’s get the only seat!

 

The reason neither Labour nor Conservative parties will give it up, is because they are the two parties that win / win with the “First past the post” way of voting.

 

Mind you, I suppose it is one step up from the elections of old.

 

Thank yourselves lucky you don’t live in “Dunny-on-the-Wold”!

[Andrew_C]

More irritating is that you could get the following in two constituencies:-

 

Lab 20000, Con 5000, Lib 13000

Lab 5000, Con 20000, Lib 13000

 

And still no Liberal MPs despite the majority wanting them!

[k-strider]

What i dislike about PR is that you tend to get even more of a disconnect from the politician and the people. as PR inevitably has to have a much larger electorate that many people then represent. so the relationship naturally becomes less close, for example i bet you stand a good chance of knowing your mp but probably couldn't name even one of your previous meps.

 

at least with first past the post / winner takes all you get one vote and you vote for a person. i really don't like voting just for a party.

 

For example in this European election i voted conservative (needless to say) and we got three of our MEPs in, but had i the chance i wouldn't have voted for the three that got the place. the person at the bottom of the list would have got my first vote because I know her well and know she would have made a good job, however being sixth on our party list she never stood a chance of getting in. this leads onto another issue that I'm not overly happy with in the PR system used in Europe, which is that we politicians and party members get to rank the candidates (effectively deciding amongst ourselves who deserves to goto Brussels.) then the voters only really get to vote for the party not the candidates. it was always inevitable that we got two of the six seats so we knew that the 1st and 2nd ranked person on our list was going to Brussels, in this case we managed to scrape a third. Its the same for the other parties they know the approximate share of the vote they will get and therefore how many seats they are likely to get.

 

I think the other interesting thing that the Euro / Local elections have shown is the difference or indifference that the PR system has, in the Local elections people are upset with labour so almost all the county councils changed to Conservative which will give a noticable change of direction in policy there, where as with the PR system despite them doing so badly they don't loose as many seats and the actually make up changes marginally if this was echoed at a national level i suspect you would get a less effective government as no one would have a working majority to get on with the mandate that they put up and the people voted for.

 

 

Just my 2p worth... and i hope it gives you a bit of an incite into how the the PR system selection works.

 

Gordon

[witch]

Just a note though: that is how the PR selection works for the Euro elections, it is unlikely that we would follow the 'ranking' model in a general election.

I take your point about disassociation but I was taught that in National elections you vote for the party, and in local elections you vote for the person

[DrCheese]

“Proportional Representation” is the only fair way of electing members of parliament.

Yeah but I thought the problem with PR is you end up with weak governments that forever have to form unstable coalitions to get anything done.

[sparkeh]

Yeah but I thought the problem with PR is you end up with weak governments that forever have to form unstable coalitions to get anything done.

 

Possibley, but as Andrew pointed out, the First Past the Post system gives us an unfair representation of what people voted for:

 

More irritating is that you could get the following in two constituencies:-

 

Lab 20000, Con 5000, Lib 13000

Lab 5000, Con 20000, Lib 13000

 

And still no Liberal MPs despite the majority wanting them!

[Andrew_C]

MAYBE what we need is a FPTP Lower House, and a PR elected Upper House with longer tenure for individuals.

 

Thus a "Slower to react" brake on silly legislation in place of the Lords. Perhaps some of the Lords would retain their places, Law Lords as an example (NOT Bishops, they believe in fairies in the sky and should be disallowed for that alone).

 

Just kite flying you understand!

[featured_spectre]

On a note about the expenses thing, I spoke with a family friend who is a lawyer, it constitutes fraud what they have done, and as we are their employers, we have the right to sue them for defrauding us. I think I may well do this when I have some spare time!

[browolf]

Yeah but I thought the problem with PR is you end up with weak governments that forever have to form unstable coalitions to get anything done.

 

and when it goes pear-shaped you dont know who to blame.