And the gravy train rumbles on.

First fucking class all the way. Did they think we'd forget so quickly? Did they think everyone would still be pissed from New Year and not notice this?

MPs could receive a big pay rise to compensate them for the loss of their generous expenses, it emerged last night.

They haven't lost their generous expenses at all, you fucking innumerate mong, that's just what they're just telling everybody to try and get some sympathy. As far as I know, and I won't believe otherwise until I see it for myself, if an MP submits a claim for reasonable expenses incurred solely as a result of their work as an MP they'll be reimbursed. And do you know what? Nobody has got a fucking problem with that. What people objected to was the use of expenses to feather their own nests in a way that would have got anyone in the private sector doing something similar either fired or told not to be so fucking silly. Jesus Christ, some years ago - before I started working for me - I personally was grilled about expenses for printer ink (I suggested PDFs so we could stop fucking about with printing it at all, but someone didn't want to spring for enough copies of Acrobat)parking in London (it's London therefore it was fucking expensive, but if I was to be able to get back in the car and on the way somewhere else at fifteen minutes notice I sort of had to). What I was never asked about was the wine I had with my dinner when I'd worked away from home, or the CDs I bought to listen to on the commute, or the mobile phone calls to Mrs Exile to tell what time I'd be home. And the reason these expense items were never questioned was because they never fucking happened. Knowing that if I couldn't justify an expense claim I wouldn't get the money back I stuck to claiming for what the job forced me to spend on it. Why is this simple concept so difficult for many Parliamentarians to grasp, especially considering how fucking talented they are at grasping any money that hasn't been stapled somewhere out of reach?

The head of the watchdog charged with ending the expenses scandal has suggested that some allowances could be scrapped in favour of a higher basic salary.
This could see pay for a backbench MP go up from almost £65,000 a year to more than £80,000.
Professor Sir Ian Kennedy, head of the new Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, said one of his jobs was to ensure that MPs were properly remunerated.

Oh for fuck's sake. I've blogged this before (see here and here) and I'm certainly not the only one. Firstly, if they're underpaid and honestly believe they'd get more in the private sector, and I concede that some might, then there's an obvious answer. Fuck off to the private sector if you think someone there will have you. The bottom line is that there are 646 seats in the Commons, each of which is contested by candidates from at least half a dozen parties who in turn selected their candidate from a list of maybe a dozen or more people. That's ignoring the independents who are effectively a party of one and the larger numbers of main party hangers on who aren't on any lists not because they don't want to be an MP but because they haven't yet climbed high enough up their party's internal political greasy pole. Bottom line, there are conservatively fifteen thousand people, possibly much more, who want to be one of the 646 MPs. If it's underpaid they'd be having trouble finding that many people who want to do it, and since they're not either the money is good enough or there are other attractions. Either way there's no need to put the salary up.

Secondly, let's just remind ourselves how we got to this point. Dishonesty. Greed. Venality. Is this behaviour that deserves rewarding with a pay rise? Is it fuck! You don't deal thieves and robbers by giving them money in the hope they won't bother to steal in future, so what in the name of all that's vaguely sane makes someone think that corrupt, nest feathering politicians should get more pay? What they should get is kicked out on their arses, preferably into a cell.


H/T Ambush Predator.