Cash for Questions

[brogdale]

It shocks and amuses me that they were stupid enough to fall for this.

Yes, how arrogant and lazy do you have to be not to google the folk rocking up with the offer of dosh?

 

[Lord Camomile]

It is “quite unrealistic” to think MPs can live on “simply £60,000” a year, says Sir Malky.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/inv...e-on-60k-a-year-says-Sir-Malcolm-Rifkind.html

I know, it's terrible. It's like the minimum wage. Or the average wage.

The other implication here which he probably didn't intend is that politicians are in it for themselves - "you'll have to pay us because there's no other reason we'd do it".

Not much of a surprise to us, but he should surely at least be called on it on the record.

 

[ViolentPanda]

Its a difficult one, politicians need to be people of both ability & intergrity, they need to have higher ideals than the accumulation of wealth. The people with political power are not necessarily those with massive wealth. Those with massive wealth seek always to increase their wealth & they can often do this by influencing politicians. So the wealthy seek out the company of politicians & offer them money for 'advice' & so on. This gives the politician a taste for the goodlife & so it goes on. Nobody has any answers & the public just become more disillusioned with the political process & are even less inclined to vote.

Rather than railing against the political class generally does anybody have any answers on how to change this? The problem here is corruption. I'm sure there are less corrupt politicians in the UK than some other countries though. An MP can be corrupted whatever their background so where they come from is less important & most important is that they are people of integrity as well as ability. I think the way forward if there is one is that MPs do not have any other income except their salary. Rifkind is talking bollocks saying you need wealthy business people as MPs, that will just give more of the same. What is needed is people of integrity & honesty to be MPs

No, what is needed is a system where elected representatives represent their constituents, not the interests of capitalism.

 

[danny la rouge]

Yes, how arrogant and lazy do you have to be not to google the folk rocking up with the offer of dosh?

They didn't because there was nothing out of the ordinary about the situation.

 

[Tankus]

Well .....I hope Straw has had his peerage fucked.... There's tidy for you....

I'm surprised anyone's surprised !

 

[tim]

Well .....I hope Straw has had his peerage fucked.... There's tidy for you....

I'm surprised anyone's surprised !

He doesn't need a poxy life peerage as he's managed to snaffle his son and heir a safe seat in the house of Commons. Coincidentally, or not, his wife runs the Post Office (not a sub-post office which is the most the average dodgy politician manages to wangle for his relatives).

 

[SaskiaJayne]

While staying well clear of the poor and underprivileged?

I'm presuming that's not what you meant, but there seems to be an overemphasis on who MPs should be dealing with.

Its the wealthy that will try to buy MPs & their influence by giving them a taste of the high life not the poor & under privileged though. This is why MPs need to be above & beyond reproach. It may work like this. Megarich person seeking to cash in on London redevelopment may fly MPs in private jets to somewhere unbelievably luxurious, wine them & dine them & maybe give them a gold Rolex. It beats holding a surgery for their constituents, for corrupt MPs, anyway.

 

[SaskiaJayne]

No, what is needed is a system where elected representatives represent their constituents, not the interests of capitalism.

Well yes, in the post you quoted I did ask if anybody had any suggestions on how to achieve what you suggest in your post?

 

[StoneRoad]

Cash for questions seems to be turning up quite often, I assume that it is just another (lucrative) income stream for MPs and lobbyists.
So as soon as the smoke has died down again, it will be business first, as usual.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Its the wealthy that will try to buy MPs & their influence by giving them a taste of the high life not the poor & under privileged though. This is why MPs need to be above & beyond reproach. It may work like this. Megarich person seeking to cash in on London redevelopment may fly MPs in private jets to somewhere unbelievably luxurious, wine them & dine them & maybe give them a gold Rolex. It beats holding a surgery for their constituents, for corrupt MPs, anyway.

So a commons full of Zac Goldsmiths would solve this problem. Not sure if that's what I'd go for though...

 

[danny la rouge]

@IanBell1916: Forget #Rifkind and “67k”. That's plus 15k (committee chair), plus 181k (directorships), plus 50k (“advisory board”). #timeonhishands

Good point.

 

[hot air baboon]

He doesn't need a poxy life peerage as he's managed to snaffle his son and heir a safe seat in the house of Commons.

...oh dear ....I hoped this was going to be the final Straw...


...the nepotism of these people is almost as nauseating as the shamelessly lacernous venality...

 

[butchersapron]

Its the wealthy that will try to buy MPs & their influence by giving them a taste of the high life not the poor & under privileged though. This is why MPs need to be above & beyond reproach. It may work like this. Megarich person seeking to cash in on London redevelopment may fly MPs in private jets to somewhere unbelievably luxurious, wine them & dine them & maybe give them a gold Rolex. It beats holding a surgery for their constituents, for corrupt MPs, anyway.

Make them so rich that they can't be bought off. Then all will be good in the house.

 

[kebabking]

the offensive thing, for me, is that if an SIS officer, or a Security Service Officer, or a Diplomat, or an Army Officer (all people under Rifkinds' perview, if not control..) did the same, he'd roast their organisations for not detecting them, sacking them, and prosecuting them.

moreover, getting into bed with people he doesn't know in exchange for money puts him at risk of compromise - and as chair of the Int-Sec committee, he has access to all manner of information and influence. if he has neither the integrity to care, or wit to understand, then he has no place on the committee.

 

[butchersapron]

the offensive thing, for me, is that if an SIS officer, or a Security Service Officer, or a Diplomat, or an Army Officer (all people under Rifkinds' perview, if not control..) did the same, he'd roast their organisations for not detecting them, sacking them, and prosecuting them.

moreover, getting into bed with people he doesn't know in exchange for money puts him at risk of compromise - and as chair of the Int-Sec committee, he has access to all manner of information and influence. if he has neither the integrity to care, or wit to understand, then he has no place on the committee.

You reckon?

 

[weltweit]

Ok so the price for a Rifkind or Straw seems fixed at around £5,000 a day, I wonder what you actually get for that though? 14 days of that after all exceeds their MP salary!

 

[SaskiaJayne]

Make them so rich that they can't be bought off. Then all will be good in the house.

No, make sure they are honest & above the acquisition of material things. They should be prepared to live in tents & wear combat fatigues.....

 

[hash tag]

Technically, they have done nothing wrong; its the system that allows this to happen that is wrong. It doesnt alter the fact that they are both shit bags. I voted/ they were voted in to serve their public. We pay them approx £70k pa and they have a fixed term contract for 5 years yet on the other hand they can earn upwards of £5k per day and can be dropped at any time, i would assume their loyalties and comnitment do not lie with me.
If they do not like the pay, then let them fuck off to the city, let someone else have the job who will get on with it. Dont lie to me while your loyalty is elsewhere
Did no one hear rifkind say he has so much time on his hands he doesnt know how to fill his days.

 

[SaskiaJayne]

Rifkind is a 67yr old Thatcher throwback. I'm sure Cameron will be happy to kick him out & give his safe seat to a new generation Tory. Straw is giving up his seat anyway so no really big deal, everybody knows what MPs are like anyway. I bet Boris is pissed off, I reckon he would have loved Rifkind's seat, presumably too late for him to change now?

 

[SpookyFrank]

I'm actually mildly surprised at the going rate; £5k a day seems kind of cheap, for that world.

But it's not an actual job of work is it? It'll be some non-executive directorship or consultancy or something on paper, to justify the cash, but basically you're paying for a few words in the right ear from the right person. Straw himself says in the footage, you're paying for his name and his connections, not for him to actually do anything.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Just heard Lemsip Optic on the radio saying it was healthy for MPs to have outside interests, and comparing Rifkind's comments about spare time to having a hobby or bringing up children.

"Outside interest" suggests that all this stuff is separate from their day jobs, when the exact opposite is clearly the case. It's the political equivalent of a boxer being paid to take a dive.

 

[danny la rouge]

"Outside interest" suggests that all this stuff is separate from their day jobs, when the exact opposite is clearly the case. It's the political equivalent of a boxer being paid to take a dive.

That's exactly it.

 

[Sue]

Malcolm Rifkind: "I am self-employed - so nobody pays me a salary. I have to earn my income."

 

[brogdale]

Well .....I hope Straw has had his peerage fucked.... There's tidy for you....

I'm surprised anyone's surprised !

But, but...poor old Jack; people still shout at him...how much more pain do you want to inflict?

"People will still shout at me on the Tube sometimes, with less frequency these days, and say I'm a war criminal. It’s much less pleasant for my family, particularly given the fact that my wife and both children opposed the war.”

Well, I reckon there'll be few more shouters now for Pinochet's, troughing, class-traitor mate.

From that same Indy piece...

The 68-year-old also admitted knowing that if he had opposed the war, he could have stopped Britain from becoming involved.

"I [could have] said in early March to Tony, ‘look here Tony, I’m not going to support this’ - and after all I’d seen everything - ‘I’m not going to support this, you’ve got to decide; if you go ahead with this I’ll resign’.

“If I’d resigned the Government wouldn’t have got a majority and it may have brought the Government down. I’m not being precious about that, it’s just a reality. So I was aware of that responsibility.”

Well, Jack...thank fuck you went to war, then.

 

[SpookyFrank]

Malcolm Rifkind: "I am self-employed - so nobody pays me a salary. I have to earn my income."

Obviously he doesn't think £67,000 pa is worthy of being called a 'salary'.

And yet I reckon most people in the UK would be only too happy to accept such a pittance, even it meant they were basically just doing voluntary work.

 

[Sue]

Obviously he doesn't think £67,000 pa is worthy of being called a 'salary'.

And yet I reckon most people in the UK would be only too happy to accept such a pittance, even it meant they were basically just doing voluntary work.

Well you can see how it might slip his mind, being such a paltry amount and all...

 

[hash tag]

Sounds more like a tax dodge to me; something tells me his "fees" are being paid to a company, overseas one preferably, in an attempt to mitigate ones tax, dont you know

 

[Dogsauce]

Pay too much and you'll get people only interested in it for the money (who will represent the interests of those interested in gaining and retaining lots of money), pay too little and you'll only get people who are already wealthy and can afford to do it as a hobby (representing those who are already wealthy and interested in retaining lots of money). Make it attractive only to those with a drive to change society and for whom monetary gain is not a motivation and it'll end up stuffed with religious crackpots, anti-abortionists, hunt scum and the odd nutball in a monkey costume.

Fucked, isn't it?

 

[SaskiaJayne]

We are all the monster raving loony party now.

 

[bluescreen]

Pay too much and you'll get people only interested in it for the money (who will represent the interests of those interested in gaining and retaining lots of money), pay too little and you'll only get people who are already wealthy and can afford to do it as a hobby (representing those who are already wealthy and interested in retaining lots of money). Make it attractive only to those with a drive to change society and for whom monetary gain is not a motivation and it'll end up stuffed with religious crackpots, anti-abortionists, hunt scum and the odd nutball in a monkey costume.

Fucked, isn't it?

And if their only income is the MP's income then unless there are generous severance allowances you will get people promising anything/voting for anything in the hope of keeping their job.