Tighter expenses rules 'harming MPs' mental health'

[vetran]

Wasn't retrospectively, it was always 'wholly & exclusively'.

If you built a website for your EMPLOYER and linked to your own private business then you would be lucky if you only got a slap on the wrist.

They used the expenses to supplement their earnings, again you would be shown the door for that.

They claimed for expenses for things that didn't exist. You would probably be arrested for that.

They brutally exploited the tax system for their own profit in a way a normal citizen would have been prosecuted for (flipping homes).

no sympathy. The judges saw it that way as well.

Now if they had put their earnings into a perfectly legal (at the time because most high earners were doing it and many lawyers wrote that it was legal) offshore trust then they suddenly said hey you owe tax because we don't LIKE what you are doing. However they were I suppose covered by artificial construct to avoid tax, but these were clearly declared to HMRC ahead of time.

So if they can find a few high profile legal experts to put in writing that cleaning their Moat, buying duck houses, claiming mortgage payments for a mortgage that had been paid off, for buying expensive furniture for a private home, renting porno movies or your sisters back bedroom when you never stayed there was wholly & exclusively then I'll start feeling sorry for them.

I don't have any investment in BN66 I thought it was trouble when I first saw it and preferred paying the tax. Now I know it was to feather multi millionaires nests I wish I had done that.

[d000hg]

the poor sods should award them selves £200k basics and then point to the numerous directorships they could be on instead trying to run the country for you.

I also agree it would have been easier to pay them a decent amount so they don't need to have an 'unofficial top up'. Of course doing that now - raising from £66k or whatever it is to £100k - would spark national outcry from all the shelf-stackers on £15k.

[Arturo Bassick]

I also agree it would have been easier to pay them a decent amount so they don't need to have an 'unofficial top up'. Of course doing that now - raising from £66k or whatever it is to £100k - would spark national outcry from all the shelf-stackers on £15k.

For most of them 66K is more than enough. They like to think they do a comparable job to CEOs etc, but most do not. If any of them were that calibre then they would be doing that job. John Prescott for example. Ships steward (naval waiter) to deputy prime minister?
They may be ministers and they may decide policy, but it is the civil service that does all the hard work.

[d000hg]

Don't agree. I imagine being an MP is a very hard job if you GAS... long hours and lots of travelling, etc. £66k is pretty low for any job with serious responsibility.

Do they get to expense a full-time PA/assistant or does that come from salary?

[NickFitz]

Christ, they're a bunch of delicate flowers aren't they? If they find it so stressful claiming expenses, they should try claiming benefits

[d000hg]

Christ, they're a bunch of delicate flowers aren't they? If they find it so stressful claiming expenses, they should try claiming benefits

Try coming out from behind your keyboard and working with the bitter public all day every day, who are constantly either blaming you for everything or making snide jokes.

It's like blaming your doctor that you can't get an appointment...

[Zoiderman]

Don't agree. I imagine being an MP is a very hard job if you GAS... long hours and lots of travelling, etc. £66k is pretty low for any job with serious responsibility.

Do they get to expense a full-time PA/assistant or does that come from salary?

I think they are allowed up to (I think) about £130k to 'staff an office'. They did that before, by employing theirs sons and daughters, and wives etc, and nearly all of them used 'almost' all of the £130k.

I agree they should be paid more, but also agree the furore would last a while. They could be smarter though in how the whole parliament thing is run though; in Sweden, they have a big old block of flats in which each MP is allocated an apartment, all paid for.

When offered this, they baulked saying they didn't want other MP's to be able to knock on their doors night and day.

I guess some would like it. How's the story on Dr. Fox going?