Do your duty

bo_drinker

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/05/09/gordon-brown-pledges-to-sort-out-mps-expenses-shame-115875-21344947/

olly300

drc wrote: »

What's the point . Nothing will ever be done. It's obvious that the government will get away with it because there is one set of rules for them and another for us plebs. This Orwellian nightmare has finally come to pass and there isn't anything we can do about it :rolleyes:.

We can't do anything about it because the majority of voters don't give a !!!!.

If the voting turn out was higher we wouldn't have a problem.

That's also why both the two main political parties like the first past the post system.

vivatifosi

dervish wrote: »

I would advise everyone that if they are looking to report benefit fraudsters then you should look at GYpsies and New Age Travellers.

Why? I'm part Romany, live in a house and have always paid my taxes.

lostinrates

I have to admit, I can get a little anxious when travellors settle nearby (a lazy stereotypical reaction based on an isolated experience).

Where my parents lived when I was at school there were settled gypsies in a peranant camp who could build homes etc there, and they were really great neighbours and the life and soul of the neighbourhood watch -partly they said- because they were fed up with everything being pinned on them. No one dared so much as pick an apple off a tree overhanging the rod because the excellent gypsies would inform the house holder they had been robbed, They knew where lost dogs wandered to and anythng and everything else. they really did make the neighbourhhod safer.


We had some travellors round the corner for a few months, they left recently, and much to everyones absolute delight, they left the place SPOTLESS. Not a broken toy or scrap of rubbish left behind. The parish council are surprised but pleased: we get some travellors everyyearand I'm sure one of the vans at least is the same, but its never been left so clean. I think if its the same vans next year they might even get jam and cake from the parish council ladies: the difference made by leaving the area clean has been immense.

julieq

MP's claiming expenses for things I probably couldn't = zero effect on economy
Benefit fraud = small but ultimately negligible effect on the economy
Gypsy's and New Age Travellers = very small part of the economy whatever they do

So why make this a big issue. Jealousy? Expression of frustration that you can't get ahead when others seem to have it easy? I'm not a New Age Traveller. I chose to do other things, I'm happy with that choice because travelling isn't something I want to do. I've no objection to other people doing it if they don't otherwise impinge on my life.

I care a lot more about the gold plated pensions in the public sector which are costing me a lot of money, to be honest, but there's not a Gypsy or traveller in site on that particular gravy train.

treliac

I don't think we should rate the impact of one set of dishonest people against another. AFAICS, if it's wrong, it's wrong and the force of the law should be used against it.

Public sector pensions are lawfully funded, as much as many may not like the fact! - and they will probably be cut back before much longer. If this govt had not disincentivised private companies, a great many more employees would still be able to look forward to occupational pensions.

dervish

vivatifosi wrote: »

Why? I'm part Romany, live in a house and have always paid my taxes.

:rolleyes: then you are not gypsy then...

vivatifosi

dervish wrote: »

:rolleyes: then you are not gypsy then...

With respect dervish, I am part Romany and that's my ethnic background. Where I choose to live will not change that, in the same way that if you chose to move to Spain you would still be British in origin. Perhaps you should learn a bit more about gypsies in the future as it strikes me you are making sweeping statements without understanding a complex issue.