If they think the trains are bad.... get them to ride on the MegaBus!

Reading this it seems people wont be happy until they're sitting on a spike while doing their work.

I can understand that in a packed carriage during peak times its going to be hard to get on with some work. On the otherhand I despise the fact he thinks he ought to be entitled to this like its a god given right.

Yes but as the Mirror said "He represents the true face of the Tories."

Only fair that they get shafted while they shaft the public

That’s the bit that gets everyone, I think. The whole attitude behind the statement stinks.

Mind you, First Class is always empty when I travel on a train, especially when everyone is standing nose to armpit.

This one is tricky I have to say. While the immediate knee-jerk reaction is stuff the old fool in to an overhead luggage rack think there are some valid arguments to allowing MP's to travel first class.

It comes down to when and where we want MP's to do work.
If travel was only to ferry between the constituency and Westminster then frankly they can travel standard class with the bulk of the population.
However, if we wish MP's to make use of what is essentially dead time then they need the space to do that work. Yes there are tables and so on in standard class on intercity trains but the space is cramped and at peak times he does have a point about the general volume level in most train coaches.
There aren't generally useful tables in standard class on a lot of commuter trains.

My solution would be to give MP's travel warrants for standard class. If they need to work then they pay for an upgrade to 1st class and claim it back but in order to do so they must provide evidence that they have been doing work on the journey.
That's the theory but how it would work in practice I'm not entirely sure given how rubbish government are at implementing IT type things.

I think that the best option is that if they want to travel first class, then they pay for it themselves. No claims for expenses will be allowed. They already have enough problems with expense claims so lets keep it simple for them.

If we all think MPs' spend too much time not working, I'd say cutting down their enormous paid holidays would be a better solution than letting them charge first class travel back to the state. There are few MPs who are more than a couple of hours from London by intercity, I really don't think comparatively speaking it's worth paying them extra (via expenses) to work those few hours when they swan off from the house for months on end anyway.

Jon

I would prefer that MP's wages are linked to a fixed multiple of minimum wage. I would live to see the Tories deal with minimum wage after that. Also they are also capped to housing costs as the same as the housing benefit for a single person. MP couples also have to comply with the rules for two benefit claimants. Any more than that they have to pay out of their own pockets.

Totally agree.

Their salary should be directly linked to the national average salary.

I get a pay cut, my MP gets a pay cut.

Well that's just kneejerk reactionary bullsh*t. Those "months" of holidays are usually still spent in surgeries and meetings with varying people such as union leaders, local industry, lobbyists, charity leaders and conferences etc. Really all the holiday means is that instead of 70 hours of duties they'll be doing about 20-30 a week. they only have about 3-5 weeks off a year. Ok it is provided that they are good MPs. But it's not Holiday it's a break

An mp doesn't really have to do anything or work any hours. A good MP will spend 70 hours a week on various duties in London or in their constituency (usually in London since they have to be able to get in parliament in 15 minutes (or something to that effect)at any time to vote). A good MP will run a surgery at least every 2 weeks. My MP currently has listed around 10,000 people in the constituency for people who are in or were in varying dire situations. Doing paperwork and dealing with correspondence is probably what they will be doing on the train, depending on where their constituency is that can be a lot of dead time if they come up to their constituency every week. There are some MPs that don't eve deal with their constituents at all.

Problem in this country most people aren't informed as to what they do day to day and hour to hour dealings of MPs are. I have a feeling that most people think they sit at home most the day and just go into parliament a few times a week then when parliaments off they have a big long season of dinner parties and extravagance.

As a job being an mp means: having to work 70 hours a week for 8/9 months of the year; you become an automatic pariah; because you usually are only elected because of your party affiliation you can only vote with the party; You get a ministerial job you’ve then got the national media trying to shaft you so after getting into a position where you can make some real difference you can’t do anything because the slightest slip up means your head and finally every 5 years you have a chance of losing your job. Joy(!)

And for those long breaks they actually go around their constituencies meeting voter and businesses and finding out what needs to be done. Some go on fact finding junkets, some more so than others. One Tory MP did more than thirteen overseas junkets last year. Some are much better than others and actually do something for their constituents during the breaks, plus they do have staff who help quite considerably who are there all year round.

BBC 4 Tuesday 9pm http://www.tvguide.co.uk/detail.asp?id=59108644 could be interesting and fun