Westminster Politics

sun_tzu said:
I'm gonna guess you don't know what I actually do?
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I going to state, so that you needn't guess, that I have no idea what you do but I know due to several previous declarations that you earn well and, of course, today's declaration that you lerhalled your ability to get where you are today.

Leaving aside your well earned wealth: the article you linked to doesn't support your claim regarding headmaster's pay and is, in fact, something of an expose of England's academy system being exploited. These hardly seem to be the quality people you were meaning.

I would contend that increasing the salaries of MPs would have a limited impact on improving quality of candidate, not least because the incumbents currently are, in many cases, already minted, milking their status to earn a fortune anyway now or after their parliamentary careers end. Paying more to prevent corruption seems to miss the root of the issue which I would argue is the failure in our party political system, a matter I think we agree on in many aspects.
 
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sun_tzu said:
Sure... perhaps my ability to use Google and do things for myself is why I earn the big bucks

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.th...alary-school-academy-bosses-jumps-20-per-cent


https://www.theguardian.com/educati...ool-headteachers-among-best-paid-in-the-world

£280 to £290k there so just three and half times an mp... not bad with a final salary pension and 6 weeks off in the summer... earning even more than the pm I believe https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...er-including-one-260k-ordered-justify-it.html


Over 1700 teachers on over 100k apparently
https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/1340525/head-teacher-salary-uk-earn-over-200k

But sure 80k is enough to pay somebody and expect the best and brightest to be making the decisions that impact all our lives
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Except, teaching professionals are not able to expense all trivial items in their daily lives, like pints of milk, poppies, a taxi, etc etc.

Then you also have the free events where the ministers get wooed, and wined and dined.

Then you have the bigger ticket items that are expensed, like lavish Central London flats.

Of course, then you also have a guaranteed income post-Government by being a paid advisor, or through media appearance fees.

Not quite a like-for-like comparisons the salaries then, are they.
 
Maybe MPs should be restricted to only working in their constituency and the City of London (or Edinburgh, Cardiff or Belfast)?

That way they are always near their main political offices.
 
The Telegraph and Sun are really hammering at migrants coming across the Channel the last day or two in a desperate bid to deflect, with the Tel also seemingly stepping up it's version of war on woke.
 
Peter van der Gea said:
Maybe MPs should be restricted to only working in their constituency and the City of London (or Edinburgh, Cardiff or Belfast)?

That way they are always near their main political offices.
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Given that a lot of MPs' 2nd jobs are t̶r̶a̶n̶s̶p̶a̶r̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶b̶r̶i̶b̶e̶s̶ vague consultancy roles with no expected deliverables I imagine it could pretty easily be argued that the 'work' could be done remotely to avoid such a rule.
 
Jippy said:
The Telegraph and Sun are really hammering at migrants coming across the Channel the last day or two in a desperate bid to deflect, with the Tel also seemingly stepping up it's version of war on woke.
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Aren't stories about migrants crossing the Channel in record numbers bad for the tories then? Plenty of heat for Priti Patel and Boris Johnson on social media about it from what I've seen.
 
Chipper said:
Aren't stories about migrants crossing the Channel in record numbers bad for the tories then? Plenty of heat for Priti Patel and Boris Johnson on social media about it from what I've seen.
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Just had a look on Mail Online, and the common theme seems to be blaming the French.
 
Chipper said:
Aren't stories about migrants crossing the Channel in record numbers bad for the tories then? Plenty of heat for Priti Patel and Boris Johnson on social media about it from what I've seen.
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Yeah they'll berate the government about it but they'll dig out asylum seekers Starmer helped as attorney general and paint Labour getting in as an existential threat in the face of the 'swarm' come election time.
 
jeff_goldblum said:
Given that a lot of MPs' 2nd jobs are t̶r̶a̶n̶s̶p̶a̶r̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶b̶r̶i̶b̶e̶s̶ vague consultancy roles with no expected deliverables I imagine it could pretty easily be argued that the 'work' could be done remotely to avoid such a rule.
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I guess if they have to published their billed hours as well, the vague consultancy roles with no expected deliverables, will be clear and their time in London/their constituency that is being used for private work more apparent. No private jets to the Bahamas that may or may not be private work and may or may not be a bribe.
 
Pexbo said:
She’s definitely given up on impartiality now she’s stepping down. What a cnut.
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Most sensible people have recognised that this is a Labour led initiative.

The wording of Johnson's letter also leaves a lot of ambiguity for this mess to just carry on.
 
Ekkie Thump said:
Perfect timing:

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@Pogue Mahone do you really not think things like this give some credence to the claims of questionable orientation from the BBC's main political correspondent?

It's pretty blatant that she's deeply tied in with Boris, which in and of itself isn't a bad thing, if it doesn't come in exchange for favourable coverage...but the way she characterises the information that comes from him is invariably more helpful to him, whether it's explaining away a shitshow or advocating for a proposition. Don't you think she could have characterised this in all sorts of ways, but the way she did just propagated his position, while explicitly pouring cold water on the opposition's position, and that fits a discernible pattern?
 
WOW!!! Well THAT was an interesting PMQs!!!

I think Starmer has taken some coaching from Angela Rainer because he went in hard on Boris for the lobbying/consultancy scandal. I loved it!

...and the best that Boris could offer was a teenager-esque response to the Speaker when challenged about accusing Starmer of 'mishconduct'.
 
Brwned said:
@Pogue Mahone do you really not think things like this give some credence to the claims of questionable orientation from the BBC's main political correspondent?

It's pretty blatant that she's deeply tied in with Boris, which in and of itself isn't a bad thing, if it doesn't come in exchange for favourable coverage...but the way she characterises the information that comes from him is invariably more helpful to him, whether it's explaining away a shitshow or advocating for a proposition. Don't you think she could have characterised this in all sorts of ways, but the way she did just propagated his position, while explicitly pouring cold water on the opposition's position, and that fits a discernible pattern?
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She’s obviously a wrong ‘un. Not sure I’ve ever defended her?
 
Pogue Mahone said:
She’s obviously a wrong ‘un. Not sure I’ve ever defended her?
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Fair enough! My impression is you’re usually pretty harsh on the folks who criticise the BBC for being biased, and usually those claims of bias are directly or indirectly informed by something stupid ol’ Laura says. As the political editor she tends to represent the BBC’s political slant, especially for her critics. If you think she’s a butter too then I missed the nuance!
 
Brwned said:
Fair enough! My impression is you’re usually pretty harsh on the folks who criticise the BBC for being biased, and usually those claims of bias are directly or indirectly informed by something stupid ol’ Laura says. As the political editor she tends to represent the BBC’s political slant, especially for her critics. If you think she’s a butter too then I missed the nuance!
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I don’t think any media organisation is without bias but the BBC does a better job than most. I don’t even know where you’d begin with hiring a team of political experts that have no preference towards any one political party or another. What kind of person decides to have a career in politics without having any kind of personal political preferences?!?
 
Pogue Mahone said:
I don’t think any media organisation is without bias but the BBC does a better job than most. I don’t even know where you’d begin with hiring a team of political experts that have no preference towards any one political party or another. What kind of person decides to have a career in politics without having any kind of personal political preferences?!?
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Ah, come on! Of course she should have political preferences, but it’s part of her job as a journalist to suspend those preferences, and it’s an essential component of fulfilling her role well if she’s the face of an organisation that wants to describe itself as the most neutral! If she wants to use her political preferences to enrich her material then she should be working for the spectator! And if the BBC are comfortable with her being the face of their political reporting, then it raises questions about how important neutral coverage is to them. That’s at the heart of the bias debate!
 
Watching clips of pmqs. Did the speaker almost say he expects "better bollocks" from both sides?
 
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