Clocking in and clocking out for cash

[Kurt.]

Just heard this on the radio, members of the house of lords are entitled to a tax free expenses payment of 300 pound per day for clocking in at the house of lords..... A newspaper reporter cottoned onto one of th lords who made a habbit of clocking in, staying for half an hour then clocking out... For this he is entitled to his 300 quid, when confronted he claims he is doing nothing wrong an could name 30 or 40 more lords doing the same....... Oh, this one has previously been in prison for fraudulently claiming 14,000 pound in expenses from th tax payer. When will these people stop shafting us and start looking out for the country which affords them such luxuries as this ? It makes me sick hearing stories lik this every week.

 

[Brownie86]

Kick em off the planet, or send them to Coventry

 

[Dell Boy]

They should be paid a proper wage and given a clear job description. At the end of the year there is an independent review. If they're good then great maybe a pay rise. If they're crap then a warning/suspension/sacking.

Politicians have to be paid or it would be the old landed gentry/lords and ladies still ruling us without exception. It should be a good wage and equivalent to what they'd get in the private sector. Likewise messing about with office allowances, expenses and huge pensions.

Politicians in both houses should be on £100k+ like top headteachers, Council bosses and professionals like solicitors and accountants. But their performance should be reviewed independently and they definitely shouldn't be guaranteed a five-year term (or in a number of safe seats they effectively get a job for life).

Make it open, transparent and merit-based.

 

[peteblue]

It is a national disgrace. The man had already been done for fiddling expenses, he should be kicked out.........

 

[Mrk]

The House of Lords should be abolished.

 

[peteblue]

They should be paid a proper wage and given a clear job description. At the end of the year there is an independent review. If they're good then great maybe a pay rise. If they're crap then a warning/suspension/sacking.

Politicians have to be paid or it would be the old landed gentry/lords and ladies still ruling us without exception. It should be a good wage and equivalent to what they'd get in the private sector. Likewise messing about with office allowances, expenses and huge pensions.

Politicians in both houses should be on £100k+ like top headteachers, Council bosses and professionals like solicitors and accountants. But their performance should be reviewed independently and they definitely shouldn't be guaranteed a five-year term (or in a number of safe seats they effectively get a job for life).

Make it open, transparent and merit-based.

The Lords do not rule us, the Commons do. The Lords are there to challenge legislation so that the Commons cannot just do as it wants. I have to say it actually worked better when it was proper Lords as opposed to the political class giving themselves more honours and freebies........

 

[Del]

Its a joke really

 

[Mrk]

The Lords do not rule us, the Commons do. The Lords are there to challenge legislation so that the Commons cannot just do as it wants. I have to say it actually worked better when it was proper Lords as opposed to the political class giving themselves more honours and freebies........

The commons has the consent of the electorate (well, those who bother to vote), the Lords doesn't, so the commons should be allowed to do what it wants. If the Lords was elected, then it'd have some legitimacy.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Staggering isn't it? Even if they haven't broken any actual rules, they know full well that what they're doing is wrong. That these people are probably very wealthy anyway merely adds salt to the wound.

 

[Dell Boy]

The Lords do not rule us, the Commons do. The Lords are there to challenge legislation so that the Commons cannot just do as it wants. I have to say it actually worked better when it was proper Lords as opposed to the political class giving themselves more honours and freebies........

Sorry I meant "old landed gentry/lords and ladies" as an expression for the establishment rich folk that can afford to do a job and not receive clear payment for it.

Better when it was the "proper lords"? Are you taking the mick? The idea that someone should be a Lord and take a seat in an overarching chamber simply because of their birth right is insulting to us millions of commoners? No?

I'd happily support a directly elected second chamber but either way it needs to be open and transparent.

 

[peteblue]

The commons has the consent of the electorate (well, those who bother to vote), the Lords doesn't, so the commons should be allowed to do what it wants. If the Lords was elected, then it'd have some legitimacy.

The Commons is controlled by a party with about 30-40% of the actual vote and a far smaller % of those who are registered to vote. It would be possible for a party to get in and control both houses (if the lords were elected), voted in by a minority of the population and change all the laws and rules to enable it to control the country without challenge.......for ever.....

 

[Dell Boy]

Staggering isn't it? Even if they haven't broken any actual rules, they know full well that what they're doing is wrong. That these people are probably very wealthy anyway merely adds salt to the wound.

I disagree there mate. And this is probably going to be the only time I've defended a Lord but they/someone/anyone should get paid for doing a job. It's the system that's wrong. Assuming the Lord in question actually does some work then he has every right to receive payment.

 

[Mrk]

The Commons is controlled by a party with about 30-40% of the actual vote and a far smaller % of those who are registered to vote. It would be possible for a party to get in and control both houses (if the lords were elected), voted in by a minority of the population and change all the laws and rules to enable it to control the country without challenge.......for ever.....

That's still 10,000% better than a group of old, wealthy and unelected people having a say in what happens.

 

[Dell Boy]

The Commons is controlled by a party with about 30-40% of the actual vote and a far smaller % of those who are registered to vote. It would be possible for a party to get in and control both houses (if the lords were elected), voted in by a minority of the population and change all the laws and rules to enable it to control the country without challenge.......for ever.....

No it couldn't mate. If it was in any way so blatant the new laws could be challenged either in the Supreme Court or in Europe. Leaving aside all issues of PR and global political and commercial pressure......

 

[orchard]

The Lords do not rule us, the Commons do. The Lords are there to challenge legislation so that the Commons cannot just do as it wants. I have to say it actually worked better when it was proper Lords as opposed to the political class giving themselves more honours and freebies........

+1 Thanks again Tony