Thread: How much more can our MPs embarrass us?

The new, tougher expenses regime is damaging MPs' "mental wellbeing", the doctor who looks after them has said.

Dr Ira Madan told a committee looking into the system that its "frustrations and difficulties" had increased workloads but decreased rewards.

She also said MPs were tired of being the butt of jokes about their expenses.

And she said they were coming under greater pressure because of the "increased ability for constituents to readily contact members by email".

Following the expenses scandal of 2009, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority - Ipsa - was set up to more closely monitor MPs' allowances.

But MPs have complained that the new system is costly and bureaucratic, and has left many of them out of pocket.

They also complain of constant expenses jokes.

"If they go to the hairdresser people will say 'Are you going to put that on expenses?'. It might be funny for the first one or two times but actually it gets right up their noses," she said.

Aw....Diddums!

Any Brits got one iota of sympathy for them?

Whining about something that would not have been necessary at all if they hadn't permanently had their hands in the taxpayers pockets seems to me a bit thick when you consider what everybody but the rich in the UK is having to put up with financially.

"We're all in this together"...my arse! Not if they can keep themselves out of it!

Originally Posted by Oddquine

The new, tougher expenses regime is damaging MPs' "mental wellbeing", the doctor who looks after them has said.

Dr Ira Madan told a committee looking into the system that its "frustrations and difficulties" had increased workloads but decreased rewards.

She also said MPs were tired of being the butt of jokes about their expenses.

And she said they were coming under greater pressure because of the "increased ability for constituents to readily contact members by email".

Following the expenses scandal of 2009, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority - Ipsa - was set up to more closely monitor MPs' allowances.

But MPs have complained that the new system is costly and bureaucratic, and has left many of them out of pocket.

They also complain of constant expenses jokes.

"If they go to the hairdresser people will say 'Are you going to put that on expenses?'. It might be funny for the first one or two times but actually it gets right up their noses," she said.

Aw....Diddums!

Any Brits got one iota of sympathy for them?

Whining about something that would not have been necessary at all if they hadn't permanently had their hands in the taxpayers pockets seems to me a bit thick when you consider what everybody but the rich in the UK is having to put up with financially.

"We're all in this together"...my arse! Not if they can keep themselves out of it!

I read this over my breakfast yesterday. It left me speechless ... well almost! And one doctor between 650 odd of them. No desperately trying to get through on the phone for an appointment for them in the morning. But naive fools keep voting for them.

Originally Posted by Oddquine

Any Brits got one iota of sympathy for them?

Sympathy for some of them yes. Lots of MPs (especially new ones) had absolutely nothing to do with the abuses of the expenses system. I have no doubt that plenty of MPs would strongly resist any real attempt at reform of their entire pay structure (as should have happened) but the time would have taken to do properly would have been unacceptable to the virtual lynch-mob created from the controversy.

It was inevitable that the rushed attempt at a quick fix, under huge pressure from the tabloids and the public they control, would result in an equally flawed system as has become apparent.

Significantly, I have concern, not only for the wellbeing of MPs but for their ability to actual do the job we elect them for if, as is claimed, it takes so much time for them to complete expenses paperwork. In any other role, that would be the key issue.

I certainly don't see any legitimacy in getting a cheap laugh from anyone's suffering.

Originally Posted by HonestJoe

Sympathy for some of them yes. Lots of MPs (especially new ones) had absolutely nothing to do with the abuses of the expenses system. I have no doubt that plenty of MPs would strongly resist any real attempt at reform of their entire pay structure (as should have happened) but the time would have taken to do properly would have been unacceptable to the virtual lynch-mob created from the controversy.

It was inevitable that the rushed attempt at a quick fix, under huge pressure from the tabloids and the public they control, would result in an equally flawed system as has become apparent.

Significantly, I have concern, not only for the wellbeing of MPs but for their ability to actual do the job we elect them for if, as is claimed, it takes so much time for them to complete expenses paperwork. In any other role, that would be the key issue.

I certainly don't see any legitimacy in getting a cheap laugh from anyone's suffering.

MPs are suffering?

Originally Posted by tamora

MPs are suffering?

Erm, yes. That's what the article is about (unless you're accusing the doctor of lying to a parliamentary committee).

It's not suffering on the scale of someone loosing their job and their home due to the recession (which in itself isn't on the scale of a starving family in an African famine) but, in context, it's still suffering.

Originally Posted by HonestJoe

Erm, yes. That's what the article is about (unless you're accusing the doctor of lying to a parliamentary committee).

It's not suffering on the scale of someone loosing their job and their home due to the recession (which in itself isn't on the scale of a starving family in an African famine) but, in context, it's still suffering.

I'd say the doctor is too close to the MPs and none of them understand what suffering is.

MPs are well paid for doing what is increasingly a non-job, and they'll get a fat pension when they leave. As Peter Mandelson said recently, we're entering the post-democratic age. Have you seen how empty the House is for most debates these days?

If they are worried about being the butt of jokes, they shouldn't have milked the system. They should be more worried about the effects of the policies they meekly vote for, then we might just have more sympathy for them. Any MP who can't stand the entirely justifiable disgust of the electorate shouldn't be an MP.

Originally Posted by Oddquine

"We're all in this together"...my arse! Not if they can keep themselves out of it!

Exactly.

Originally Posted by tamora

I'd say the doctor is too close to the MPs and none of them understand what suffering is.

Nice rhetoric, but I'm not sure that sentence is actually saying anything.

Originally Posted by tamora

MPs are well paid for doing what is increasingly a non-job, and they'll get a fat pension when they leave.

I question your allegation of "non-job" - do you even know what MPs actually do?

I agree they get paid well and I'd actually argue too well but that is a topic for a rational debate. As long as there is an irrational hatred of all politicians by so many people, such debates can't be rational.

Originally Posted by tamora

As Peter Mandelson said recently, we're entering the post-democratic age. Have you seen how empty the House is for most debates these days?

I'm not convinced this wasn't always the case. It's only relatively recently that the general public have seen Commons debates. Anyway, time in the chamber is just one aspect of the role of an MP.

Originally Posted by tamora

If they are worried about being the butt of jokes, they shouldn't have milked the system.

But many of them didn't. You're basically supporting bigotry, little different to hating all Muslims because of a few terrorists.

Originally Posted by tamora

They should be more worried about the effects of the policies they meekly vote for, then we might just have more sympathy for them.

How are you measuring MPs concern about the effects of policies? Do you really have the slightest idea what any of them think beyond what you drink up from the media?

Originally Posted by HonestJoe

Sympathy for some of them yes. Lots of MPs (especially new ones) had absolutely nothing to do with the abuses of the expenses system. I have no doubt that plenty of MPs would strongly resist any real attempt at reform of their entire pay structure (as should have happened) but the time would have taken to do properly would have been unacceptable to the virtual lynch-mob created from the controversy.

It was inevitable that the rushed attempt at a quick fix, under huge pressure from the tabloids and the public they control, would result in an equally flawed system as has become apparent.

Significantly, I have concern, not only for the wellbeing of MPs but for their ability to actual do the job we elect them for if, as is claimed, it takes so much time for them to complete expenses paperwork. In any other role, that would be the key issue.

I certainly don't see any legitimacy in getting a cheap laugh from anyone's suffering.

I assumed that the doctor wasn't talking about all MPs.......unless those MPs who claimed sweeties or honest amounts, and were still in Parliament had, all of a sudden, decided to start taking the proverbial. She may even have been talking about the new MPs, but you'd have thought that if they were going to be good for anything, they'd have managed to work out the difference between, for example necessary expenses to do the job for their constituents and party related expenses a year into the Parliament.

But I'm afraid that any MP who claims 30p for stationery in the first place is making the work for himself.

They are certainly entitled, as is anyone in a private company, to the expenses agreed as necessarily entailed in doing their job......and excuse me if I think they should know what those expenses are...and have the necessary documentation to hand. Why on earth, if they are making legitimate claims and have the intelligence to hand over the requisite phone bill, VAT receipts. etc as proof, are claims being rejected at all?

However, while I agree it is unfair to tar all MPs with the greedy bugger brush......it is not IPSA they should be railing against....it is the greedy buggers who made IPSA necessary in the first place.

The IPSA chairman agrees that the rules need to be revised, and certainly making the system less bureaucratic wouldn't hurt....but imo, it should be borne in mind that their constituents did not ask them to become MPs.they chose to do so, and if they did not have the wit to find out what that entailed regarding remuneration etc, then they are even thicker than I have always given them credit for.

They should be subject to the draconian Inland Revenue rules that apply to normal people who STILL manage to get their jobs done and pay tax on their expenses into the bargain.

Be wary, Oddquine. Someone would call you "anti-British".

Originally Posted by janpor

Be wary, Oddquine. Someone would call you "anti-British".

Not really anti-British..given I am technically British myself.....but most definitely not enamoured of Westminster Government for Scotland. (or the UK come to that.........the standard just isn't great)

I tend to like the Plaid and SNP Westminster MPs until I dislike them, while I work the other way round with MPs from the UK wide parties! I like rebels with some principles not lickspittles ensuring their jobs.