"Pint of order: MPs must pay 'high street' prices in Commons bars"

[rpadam]

In these days of austerity, this is a bit of overdue news via the BBC News website:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/politics/10388683.stm

[Conrad]

Good news unless you happen to be the firms catering for the House of Commons, but it is right that they shouldn't have exceptional treatment.

[oldboots]

"bar prices into line with a competitively priced high street pub chain. " JDW then....after the CAMRA discount

"snouts in trough" smiley please.

[Alesonly]

:moremad:
"bar prices into line with a competitively priced high street pub chain. " JDW then....after the CAMRA discount

"snouts in trough" smiley please.

In a statement, it pledged to "bring cafeteria prices into line with benchmark workplace venues and bar prices into line with a competitively priced high street pub chain. Wetherspoons Prices My thoughs Exactly Plus with a Vat a & Tax exemption as well no doubt. :moremad:

[aleandhearty]

Subsidised drinking, normal licensing laws not applicable, stressful job. Is it any wonder they all drink like fish? Sian Lloyd, after being unceremoniously dumped by Lembit Opik, was none too impressed when she wrote in her book of memoirs- A Funny Kind Of Love:

'The amount of alcohol MPs of all parties drank blew my mind.'

[Farway]

Funny how we all homed in on the "bar prices into line with a competitively priced high street pub chain" AKA JDW

Shameless the lot of them

PS No idea what price HP bar is, would it not be complete irony if the prices actually went down and the subsidy up :mad:

[Evil Gazebo]

On a bit of a tangent, this reminds me of my sense of outrage when the very people who voted for a smoking ban for everyone else somehow exempted themselves from the ban (http://www.thesmokingban.org/uk.php).


When Introduced in July 2007, it encompassed every enclosed and substantially enclosed public space in the country with the only exceptions being those spaces classed as peoples homes and the bar in the houses of parliament.

This, I believe, left homes (understandable), prisons (understandable) and the bar in the Houses of Parliament, which is not only beyond understanding, it is frankly an incitement to riot.

(I speak as a non-smoker, btw)

[Millay]

This, I believe, left homes (understandable), prisons (understandable) and the bar in the Houses of Parliament,

To use prison terminology, would this be another case of ‘snouts’ in the trough :D (I'll get me coat)

[NickDavies]

One does wonder how much of this is tabloid stirring. If I worked there (remember MPs are far outnumbered by ordinary staff, many poorly paid) I'd be pretty annoyed if I had to pay high street prices when friends working elsewhere have cheap staff social clubs.

[Conrad]

I agree with Nick :whistle:

For some reason I just am not really bothered by this story, it is sensible that they should pay for it, but happy for it to be price matched with JDW or some such, lots of jobs have perks, as long as they are not breaking the law or the spirit of the perk (I hated the house flipping stuff) then it is just part of the job. Also agree with EG about the hypocrisy of the smoking ban exemption (first time I had heard that story) and again this is from a rabid non-smoker.

[arwkrite]

I think I read yesterday that the expected beer price would be £2.10p per pint. I can buy a well respected pint from a small brewery for £2.00 ( £1.70p between 5pm>7pm ). My other locals charge £2.30p> £2.50p for real ale. Lager £2.80 >£3.00. Keg beer sorry dont know. I do know that these prices are appreciably cheaper than those charged south of Oxford and on into the capitol. My small town does not have a JDWs but if you pick the right pub you can still find a ( relative ) bargain.
The question is which part of the country will supply the bench mark prices ?

As for perks MPs have far to many and are called expenses which can amount to far more than some hard workers annual wage. Dont ask me to give the bas***ds any leeway.Any ordinary person would have gone to prison or at least ended with a criminal record ruining future employment chances had they committed fraud and embezzlement on the scale of many MPs efforts. For so long they have considered that the laws of the land do not affect them. Lets start with doing away with Parliamentary Privilege which has become a licence to abuse the system . I do not have faith in any committees set up to police the system. Would you let habitual criminals sit in judgement on their fellow wrong doers ?

[Conrad]

As for perks MPs have far to many and are called expenses which can amount to far more than some hard workers annual wage. Dont ask me to give the bas***ds any leeway.Any ordinary person would have gone to prison or at least ended with a criminal record ruining future employment chances had they committed fraud and embezzlement on the scale of many MPs efforts. For so long they have considered that the laws of the land do not affect them. Lets start with doing away with Parliamentary Privilege which has become a licence to abuse the system . I do not have faith in any committees set up to police the system. Would you let habitual criminals sit in judgement on their fellow wrong doers ?
Agree parliamentary privilege should be dismissed, and some of the crimes relating to house flipping, and selling houses on to family members should be pursued as if nothing else this is defrauding the tax man. As to the pay issue, MPs are paid less than equivalent jobs in industry, which makes me think the only people who would ever go for it are people who like the idea of power, it just seems like in many ways we are inviting a corrupt system, should we be surprised when we get it.

As to expenses, I have seen so many dodgy things done in the name of expenses it just seems silly to be angry when MPs do it, as far as I can tell 90% of people who can claim expenses will stick their noses in the trough. Even silly things like paying for all your business expenses using a personal credit card then using all the free airmiles on yourself, a perk of sorts. It comes back to the old adage that the only thing the MPs are guilty of is getting caught.

[arwkrite]

And if they get caught can I hang them High and Dry ?......Please......Pretty Please

[Conrad]

Well Public Lynching may be the way to get them to behave, certainly would get my vote.

[Millay]

Even silly things like paying for all your business expenses using a personal credit card then using all the free airmiles on yourself, a perk of sorts.

The Airmiles thing happens in my place as well (the financial sector) and hacks me off, probably because I don't get the chance to travel on business much. Some of our senior management seem to be jetting off on business trips with obscene regularity and we've always got one or two people kicking around our office who are 'visiting' for a few days. We were even invited to put all our airline and hotel loyalty card details into our travel booking system. I've heard in the past of people getting free flights and hotel stays to take their family holiday on the back of business travel.

I did suggest that these loyalty perks are pooled and distributed the the lower paid workers - they're still thinking about it!

[Conrad]

My first full-time job was for a large IT consultancy firm that no longer exists. It was an eye opener and an education into the working world for me, although many of my colleagues kindly helped me by explaining how to fill out an expense claim form when working on client site (I'll leave that to your imagination).

The truth is I don't know how you solve it though, although I do like your suggestion Millay. Trouble is the overpaid ******'s would just lie to avoid donating anything to their minions.

[trainman]

the overpaid ******'s

Reported to apostrophe police.