“A Rip Off On A Massive Scale”

Canadian members are parliament seem to be onto a good thing. Remuneration in excess of £100,000 and a gold plated pension (payable in full at aged 55) to which the Canadian tax payer contributes more than the MP themselves. Funny how the act of politicians looking after themselves much better than the people they serve is a near universal experience.

The Canadian tax payers association has described this as a “rip off on a massive scale”. Now who do Canadian need to turn to in order to get this state of affairs changed? Oh it’s their respective MP. Oh dear.

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MP pensions ‘a ripoff on a massive scale’
JEFF DAVIS
Ottawa Citizen
19 Jan 2012

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation says it’s high time MPS stopped making Canadians pick up the tab for their “gold-plated” pension plan. “This is a ripoff on a massive scale,” the advocacy group’s federal director, Gregory Thomas, said at a news…read more…

Tech Tags: Ottawa Citizen newspaper FRONT PAGE

Politicians Who Inhale

Experience = Understanding?

Labour home secretary Jacqui Smith admits that she indulged in taking cannabis when at university and so the holier than thou contingent crawl out of the woodwork waving their fingers and intimating that this makes her unfit to hold her position. She makes a lot of apologetic noises which I wish she didn’t have to do in order to excuse the experimentations and experiences of youth. If she had been convicted for fraud or murder or was currently a heroin or crack addict then it would perhaps warrant the kind of tut tutting that seems to come from some quarters.

I tend to agree with her response to all this hoo ha.

Life experiences

“One of the things about being a politician is that you are often criticised for not knowing what’s going on. I hope that my experiences in my life have actually helped me understand that I do want crime tackled”.

OK the statement is a little bit self serving but If we have to have politicians I’d rather ones that have real experiences in the real world than ones that are informed only through popular culture and 3rd hand experiences. Is that wrong?

UPDATE: More Labour ministers admit to having inhaled in what is almost an “I’m Spartacus” moment. Non inhalers might be feeling a little left out.

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