I feel sorry for MPs

[Seeker]

They work so hard and are only getting a £3360 pay rise in April.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...y-b910428.html

Their pay is calculated by an independent body and "now is not the time to change the system". No, I guess not.

[gadget]

Originally Posted by Seeker

They work so hard and are only getting a £3360 pay rise in April.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...y-b910428.html

Their pay is calculated by an independent body and "now is not the time to change the system". No, I guess not.

I think you'll find that is to cover their drop in earnings when they have to take a less high profile position within parliament having been caught fiddling their expenses. 🙄

[SV650rules]

Rather MPs than people like Lineker and Norton who the BBC think it is OK to give millions a year of BBC tax money to.....

[Seeker]

Originally Posted by SV650rules

Rather MPs than people like Lineker and Norton who the BBC think it is OK to give millions a year of BBC tax money to.....

I'll have to disagree there. Lineker and Norton are entertainers, I'm not a football fan so I don't how good a pundit Lineker is, I enjoy Norton's chat show so I get some value from him.

My MP is Martin Vickers who has done nothing for me and when I asked him what he'd done for the area he never answered. When I asked him to intervene (or even speak out) in the GKN hostile takeover (by Melrose), he said he agreed with me but followed the party line. I have asked him about any successes that privatisation has brought - still waiting for that answer (from 2 years ago).

So returning from your "whataboutism", I find it annoying when people are losing their jobs and the economy is tanking that politicians are getting a raise and hiding behind "it's the system, there's nothing we can do but take the money".

[Biker Biggles]

How much of a pay rise are Lineker and Norton getting? I thought the BBC was cutting a lot of its top presenters pay to save money and deal with historic gender discrimination. MPs on the other hand-------

[Ruffy]

I find it hard to square this against my own situation:

I currently work for a government owned arm's-length infrastructure company, so ultimately the same paymaster, I suppose. I've just had to suck up losing my entire bonus entitlement for last year (i.e. earned pre-Covid except for 2 weeks) under the performance-related-pay system because of the current economic and political climate.

Whatever you think about such bonus schemes, it seemed easy enough to change the system applicable to me and my colleagues. Apparently one rule for them, one rule for us, that's what unpleasantly sticks in the throat!

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P.S. I do appreciate I'm fortunate to have been spared the worst of employment problems recently, although I would note that personally I've been working harder than ever managing the repeated changes to circumstances (no furloughed summer off for me and rapidly changing planning horizons and project delivery constraints), I am now additionally supporting No.1 son who lost his job due to Covid (Agency/Zero hours worker, no entitlement to furlough etc.) as well as No.2 son who has returned to the country and is finding it far more difficult than expected to find work. I'm not seeking sympathy or support for my position but please don't suggest I've been unaffected.

[Ruffy]

Originally Posted by Seeker

... followed the party line. ...

This is what I find so aggravating about our current parliamentary system.

If everyone simply aligns with the party line why do we need 600+ MPs? I reckon we could get away with 5-10% of that, maybe less, for same level of "representation".

[SV650rules]

Originally Posted by Biker Biggles

How much of a pay rise are Lineker and Norton getting? I thought the BBC was cutting a lot of its top presenters pay to save money and deal with historic gender discrimination. MPs on the other hand-------

Lineker got £1.7million of BBC taxpayers money last year and the year before etc. Zoe Ball gets 1.36milion for a radio show, Graham Norton over £2 million, and they are not the only ones. Something really bad happening when celebrities get >10x the amount Prime minister gets paid....

[gadget]

History has taught us nothing if it hasn't driven home the fact that all politicians since the dawn of time are well n truly bent in one way, shape, or form. Why are we and why would we be surprised about any of this. Tbh, the last time I voted was the last time the Tories got in and that was based purely for my own selfish reasons, of which one was the unchanging retirement age, and the Tories said this ... quote ' if we are elected... we will NOT be raising the retirement age' unquote. LIES, LIES, LIES. As that is exactly what they did. None of them would know what a day's work was if it jumped up n bit them in the bo#$@$ks, so why on earth would we expect any MP to actually earn their salaries and be able to justify their pay rises?. Let's see how true to his word the chancellor of the exchequer is with regards to abolishing inheritance tax by 2021, I think we have more chance of being punched in the face by the Pope than that actually happening! I won't hold my breath.

[SV650rules]

It was an EU directive that caused problems with pensions in UK, the directive is dated 1978 but UK put off implementing it as long as they could. The directive mandated governments to treat men and women equally in matters of social security.

Since 1978 the then European Economic Community (EEC) set in place regulation to force members to bring in pension age equality, so men and women benefit equally. The EU continued this policy and as such Member States could choose the rate at which they changed the pension age, within reason – making the state pension age the same for men and women – at some point. Now, with the UK at age equality, there have been many suggestions from legal minds that Labour’s policy of refunding the women affected ( so called WASPI women) would go against EU legislation, as it would treat men and women differently (See Council Directive 79/7/EEC).