Are some Labour MPs so annoyed at other MPs earning lots of money because they are incapable of earning such high wages? It would explain a lot... ;-)
It seems there are two things they are pretending to be worried about: undue influence and earnings (the 'it should be a full time job' line).
If 'undue influence', then would that also apply if the wife held a directorship with a company? Or a child? And why would union-sponsored MPs not be covered under this?
If earnings, then why should it bother others as long as the MP also represent their constituents? After all, it is easily possible not to represent your constituents (ref Stuart Bell RIP) and still be an MP.
Let it all be open, and let the constituents decide if the MP is working hard enough for them.
We need better people in parliament, and such restrictions will only get more Eds and Daves.
Neat twitter fact (I have no idea whether it's true, but what the hell):
James Chapman (Mail) @jameschappers · 1m1 minute ago 1/50 adult Scots has joined SNP since referendum. Party has more members than British army has soldiers. @alexmassie in @spectator #GE2015
Shit, that probably means invasion is out of the question.
You can join the SNP for precisely £1
Bit economical there Mike, minimum is £1 per month , perhaps you were thinking of Scottish Labour offer recently.
you forget the £175K averag eexpenses for your wife and family and paper clips etc. Rifkind charge for paper clips , 5p , 5p and 8p. They are extremely well rewarded and are unlikely to need to touch their salary given the generous unlimited expenses.
Yes: but charging paperclips doesn't pay the gas bill or for your bottle of Chateau Thames Embankment.
Take me or Richard Tyndall or any number of PBers. We have our own small businesses. Would the businesses survive our absence for 5 years?
So, if we were to decide to enter politics, and take a pay cut, we also have to factor in that our businesses probably won't be around on the far side of it. (Especially if 'outside interests' were severely proscribed.
Absolutely, as I mentioned last time someone suggested I stand for Parliament, apart from my dislike of politicians as a breed and some dubious bits of my past that I would rather were not in the public eye, I simply couldn't afford to be an MP.
Perhaps if it wasn't so unacceptable within the Labour Party to have 2nd jobs (and Labour did not encourage a culture of bullying and intimidation) then perhaps not so many of their MPs would have ended up in jail for fiddling their expenses?
I was also Googling my Dutch translation last night, and discovered that the influential Dutch TV panel show, DWDD (broadcast on the Dutch equivalent of BBC1 - i.e. the most popular channel) chose it as one of their "four books of the month" (they have a regular feature when they get booksellers and publishers on the show to select four hot titles).
It's very nice that they chose ICE TWINS, of course, and that they all think it gripping and twisty. But the most amusing/gratifying bit is about 5 minutes into the show when they speculate as to who is the mysterious and pseudonymous author of De Ijstweeling. The consensus is that it is Julian Barnes or J K Rowling. Or maybe Ian McEwan.
you forget the £175K averag eexpenses for your wife and family and paper clips etc. Rifkind charge for paper clips , 5p , 5p and 8p. They are extremely well rewarded and are unlikely to need to touch their salary given the generous unlimited expenses.
Yes: but charging paperclips doesn't pay the gas bill or for your bottle of Chateau Thames Embankment.
Take me or Richard Tyndall or any number of PBers. We have our own small businesses. Would the businesses survive our absence for 5 years?
So, if we were to decide to enter politics, and take a pay cut, we also have to factor in that our businesses probably won't be around on the far side of it. (Especially if 'outside interests' were severely proscribed.
Absolutely, as I mentioned last time someone suggested I stand for Parliament, apart from my dislike of politicians as a breed and some dubious bits of my past that I would rather were not in the public eye, I simply couldn't afford to be an MP.
Are some Labour MPs so annoyed at other MPs earning lots of money because they are incapable of earning such high wages? It would explain a lot... ;-)
It seems there are two things they are pretending to be worried about: undue influence and earnings (the 'it should be a full time job' line).
If 'undue influence', then would that also apply if the wife held a directorship with a company? Or a child? And why would union-sponsored MPs not be covered under this?
If earnings, then why should it bother others as long as the MP also represent their constituents? After all, it is easily possible not to represent your constituents (ref Stuart Bell RIP) and still be an MP.
Let it all be open, and let the constituents decide if the MP is working hard enough for them.
We need better people in parliament, and such restrictions will only get more Eds and Daves.
The Prime Minister manages to squeese in his constituency duties, while running the country. Cant be too hard.
I was also Googling my Dutch translation last night, and discovered that the influential Dutch TV panel show, DWDD (broadcast on the Dutch equivalent of BBC1 - i.e. the most popular channel) chose it as one of their "four books of the month" (they have a regular feature when they get booksellers and publishers on the show to select four hot titles).
It's very nice that they chose ICE TWINS, of course, and that they all think it gripping and twisty. But the most amusing/gratifying bit is about 5 minutes into the show when they speculate as to who is the mysterious and pseudonymous author of De Ijstweeling. The consensus is that it is Julian Barnes or J K Rowling. Or maybe Ian McEwan.
Are you expecting Hollywood to come knocking?
They've knocked. We're about to sign a deal this week (inshallah). A subsidiary of Warner Bros.
Which one? (My film producer wife just asked - having ordered it from Amazon today....)
I should get your book. From the descriptions, it sounds as though it would form a striking counterpoint to Christopher Priest's "The Prestige" and "The Affirmation", both of which I have read recently.
I was also Googling my Dutch translation last night, and discovered that the influential Dutch TV panel show, DWDD (broadcast on the Dutch equivalent of BBC1 - i.e. the most popular channel) chose it as one of their "four books of the month" (they have a regular feature when they get booksellers and publishers on the show to select four hot titles).
It's very nice that they chose ICE TWINS, of course, and that they all think it gripping and twisty. But the most amusing/gratifying bit is about 5 minutes into the show when they speculate as to who is the mysterious and pseudonymous author of De Ijstweeling. The consensus is that it is Julian Barnes or J K Rowling. Or maybe Ian McEwan.
Are you expecting Hollywood to come knocking?
They've knocked. We're about to sign a deal this week (inshallah). A subsidiary of Warner Bros.
Maybe you should play hard to get and wait for a frenzied multimillion dollar bidding war to break out.
you forget the £175K averag eexpenses for your wife and family and paper clips etc. Rifkind charge for paper clips , 5p , 5p and 8p. They are extremely well rewarded and are unlikely to need to touch their salary given the generous unlimited expenses.
Yes: but charging paperclips doesn't pay the gas bill or for your bottle of Chateau Thames Embankment.
Take me or Richard Tyndall or any number of PBers. We have our own small businesses. Would the businesses survive our absence for 5 years?
So, if we were to decide to enter politics, and take a pay cut, we also have to factor in that our businesses probably won't be around on the far side of it. (Especially if 'outside interests' were severely proscribed.
Absolutely, as I mentioned last time someone suggested I stand for Parliament, apart from my dislike of politicians as a breed and some dubious bits of my past that I would rather were not in the public eye, I simply couldn't afford to be an MP.
Yeah, but think of the free paperclips.
Not to mention a diamond-crusted pension when you retire.... no need to ever work again if you get a few terms under your belt in say the 50-60 years of age.
Personally I think the pension crisis could be partly addressed by limiting MPs to no more than 10 years in Parliament so that the cushy, squalid, repulsive putrid self-indulgence was at least more spread around a bit!!!
Think how much pension the father of the house or indeed Skinner have banked. Perhaps NPxMP could advise what his revalued pension income for life is for the time he banked just to illustrate that?
- Dair said: » show previous quotes You do not know 300 people's inclination to be an MP or 300 people's salary levels.
Seriously, who do you think you will kid with this nonsense? -
It is amazing what you emerges over a period of time in normal society if you:
A) care about people and are able to talk to them and maintain friendships ...no, just A)
Yet it is nonsense.
There are plenty of studies which show the average peer group is less than 12 people. The idea anyone on earth has a peer group of 300 is completely ridiculous.
What rot.
I've worked on projects where I would daily talk, eat, have coffees, meet with at least 50 people of my age group, socio economic background and similar skill set.
I studied at a college where I would on a daily basis work, eat, chat, have a beer with 100 or more people within 3 years of me.
Facebook started in the UK about 6 months before I went to Oxford, and I'm therefore still decently in touch with just about anyone I ever had a meaningful conversation with whilst there. Add in linkedin and I have a decent idea of what they're earning...
- Dair said: » show previous quotes You do not know 300 people's inclination to be an MP or 300 people's salary levels.
Seriously, who do you think you will kid with this nonsense? -
It is amazing what you emerges over a period of time in normal society if you:
A) care about people and are able to talk to them and maintain friendships ...no, just A)
Yet it is nonsense.
There are plenty of studies which show the average peer group is less than 12 people. The idea anyone on earth has a peer group of 300 is completely ridiculous.
What rot.
I've worked on projects where I would daily talk, eat, have coffees, meet with at least 50 people of my age group, socio economic background and similar skill set.
I studied at a college where I would on a daily basis work, eat, chat, have a beer with 100 or more people within 3 years of me.
Facebook started in the UK about 6 months before I went to Oxford, and I'm therefore still decently in touch with just about anyone I ever had a meaningful conversation with whilst there. Add in linkedin and I have a decent idea of what they're earning...
you forget the £175K averag eexpenses for your wife and family and paper clips etc. Rifkind charge for paper clips , 5p , 5p and 8p. They are extremely well rewarded and are unlikely to need to touch their salary given the generous unlimited expenses.
Yes: but charging paperclips doesn't pay the gas bill or for your bottle of Chateau Thames Embankment.
Take me or Richard Tyndall or any number of PBers. We have our own small businesses. Would the businesses survive our absence for 5 years?
So, if we were to decide to enter politics, and take a pay cut, we also have to factor in that our businesses probably won't be around on the far side of it. (Especially if 'outside interests' were severely proscribed.
you forget the £175K averag eexpenses for your wife and family and paper clips etc. Rifkind charge for paper clips , 5p , 5p and 8p. They are extremely well rewarded and are unlikely to need to touch their salary given the generous unlimited expenses.
Yes: but charging paperclips doesn't pay the gas bill or for your bottle of Chateau Thames Embankment.
Take me or Richard Tyndall or any number of PBers. We have our own small businesses. Would the businesses survive our absence for 5 years?
So, if we were to decide to enter politics, and take a pay cut, we also have to factor in that our businesses probably won't be around on the far side of it. (Especially if 'outside interests' were severely proscribed.
Absolutely, as I mentioned last time someone suggested I stand for Parliament, apart from my dislike of politicians as a breed and some dubious bits of my past that I would rather were not in the public eye, I simply couldn't afford to be an MP.
Yeah, but think of the free paperclips.
Not to mention a diamond-crusted pension when you retire.... no need to ever work again if you get a few terms under your belt in say the 50-60 years of age.
Personally I think the pension crisis could be partly addressed by limiting MPs to no more than 10 years in Parliament so that the cushy, squalid, repulsive self-indulgence was at least more spread around a bit!!!
Think how much pension the father of the house or indeed Skinner have banked. Perhaps NPxMP could advise what his revalued pension income for life is for the time he banked just to illustrate that?
Spot on. If I had only 10 seconds in power I'd put all politicians on money purchase pensions and see how it changes their world view.
I was also Googling my Dutch translation last night, and discovered that the influential Dutch TV panel show, DWDD (broadcast on the Dutch equivalent of BBC1 - i.e. the most popular channel) chose it as one of their "four books of the month" (they have a regular feature when they get booksellers and publishers on the show to select four hot titles).
It's very nice that they chose ICE TWINS, of course, and that they all think it gripping and twisty. But the most amusing/gratifying bit is about 5 minutes into the show when they speculate as to who is the mysterious and pseudonymous author of De Ijstweeling. The consensus is that it is Julian Barnes or J K Rowling. Or maybe Ian McEwan.
Are you expecting Hollywood to come knocking?
They've knocked. We're about to sign a deal this week (inshallah). A subsidiary of Warner Bros.
Which one? (My film producer wife just asked - having ordered it from Amazon today....)
Can't say until it's signed. Bad juju. Also probably bad form.
But ta to yr wife!
Well done anyway. And about bloody time!
I have one of my projects going up on imdb tomorrow. Which is nice. A bit gutted for another to go all the way to Spielberg's number 2 at Dreamworks with a glowing report from underlings there (this will make big money, it's a franchise...blah de blah) only for the number 2 to say she wanted to take the company in a different direction. Arse.
I'm still wondering how much of a contortionist you have to be to blow your own trombone...?
I was also Googling my Dutch translation last night, and discovered that the influential Dutch TV panel show, DWDD (broadcast on the Dutch equivalent of BBC1 - i.e. the most popular channel) chose it as one of their "four books of the month" (they have a regular feature when they get booksellers and publishers on the show to select four hot titles).
It's very nice that they chose ICE TWINS, of course, and that they all think it gripping and twisty. But the most amusing/gratifying bit is about 5 minutes into the show when they speculate as to who is the mysterious and pseudonymous author of De Ijstweeling. The consensus is that it is Julian Barnes or J K Rowling. Or maybe Ian McEwan.
Are you expecting Hollywood to come knocking?
They've knocked. We're about to sign a deal this week (inshallah). A subsidiary of Warner Bros.
Which one? (My film producer wife just asked - having ordered it from Amazon today....)
Can't say until it's signed. Bad juju. Also probably bad form.
But ta to yr wife!
Make sure you max out your pension contributions then before the politicians get rid of your higher rate tax relief or cap you to buttons! [or at least take advice on whether to!!]
I was also Googling my Dutch translation last night, and discovered that the influential Dutch TV panel show, DWDD (broadcast on the Dutch equivalent of BBC1 - i.e. the most popular channel) chose it as one of their "four books of the month" (they have a regular feature when they get booksellers and publishers on the show to select four hot titles).
It's very nice that they chose ICE TWINS, of course, and that they all think it gripping and twisty. But the most amusing/gratifying bit is about 5 minutes into the show when they speculate as to who is the mysterious and pseudonymous author of De Ijstweeling. The consensus is that it is Julian Barnes or J K Rowling. Or maybe Ian McEwan.
Are you expecting Hollywood to come knocking?
They've knocked. We're about to sign a deal this week (inshallah). A subsidiary of Warner Bros.
Maybe you should play hard to get and wait for a frenzied multimillion dollar bidding war to break out.
you forget the £175K averag eexpenses for your wife and family and paper clips etc. Rifkind charge for paper clips , 5p , 5p and 8p. They are extremely well rewarded and are unlikely to need to touch their salary given the generous unlimited expenses.
Yes: but charging paperclips doesn't pay the gas bill or for your bottle of Chateau Thames Embankment.
Take me or Richard Tyndall or any number of PBers. We have our own small businesses. Would the businesses survive our absence for 5 years?
So, if we were to decide to enter politics, and take a pay cut, we also have to factor in that our businesses probably won't be around on the far side of it. (Especially if 'outside interests' were severely proscribed.
Absolutely, as I mentioned last time someone suggested I stand for Parliament, apart from my dislike of politicians as a breed and some dubious bits of my past that I would rather were not in the public eye, I simply couldn't afford to be an MP.
Yeah, but think of the free paperclips.
Not to mention a diamond-crusted pension when you retire.... no need to ever work again if you get a few terms under your belt in say the 50-60 years of age.
Personally I think the pension crisis could be partly addressed by limiting MPs to no more than 10 years in Parliament so that the cushy, squalid, repulsive self-indulgence was at least more spread around a bit!!!
Think how much pension the father of the house or indeed Skinner have banked. Perhaps NPxMP could advise what his revalued pension income for life is for the time he banked just to illustrate that?
Spot on. If I had only 10 seconds in power I'd put all politicians on money purchase pensions and see how it changes their world view.
I think the reds might take more interest in the stockmarket for a start!!!
After the Telegraph expenses, I've always wondered why we didn't see tables showing the value of the biggest pension pots the taxpayers was going to be paying to all the MPs. It's no different in that there's a seemingly unwritten agreement to keep these benefits out of the limelight as there was with expenses to top up the 'low' salary.
I was also Googling my Dutch translation last night, and discovered that the influential Dutch TV panel show, DWDD (broadcast on the Dutch equivalent of BBC1 - i.e. the most popular channel) chose it as one of their "four books of the month" (they have a regular feature when they get booksellers and publishers on the show to select four hot titles).
It's very nice that they chose ICE TWINS, of course, and that they all think it gripping and twisty. But the most amusing/gratifying bit is about 5 minutes into the show when they speculate as to who is the mysterious and pseudonymous author of De Ijstweeling. The consensus is that it is Julian Barnes or J K Rowling. Or maybe Ian McEwan.
I still think we'd all prefer it if you could write under the pen name Gaylord Poncyboots.
you forget the £175K averag eexpenses for your wife and family and paper clips etc. Rifkind charge for paper clips , 5p , 5p and 8p. They are extremely well rewarded and are unlikely to need to touch their salary given the generous unlimited expenses.
Yes: but charging paperclips doesn't pay the gas bill or for your bottle of Chateau Thames Embankment.
Take me or Richard Tyndall or any number of PBers. We have our own small businesses. Would the businesses survive our absence for 5 years?
So, if we were to decide to enter politics, and take a pay cut, we also have to factor in that our businesses probably won't be around on the far side of it. (Especially if 'outside interests' were severely proscribed.
Absolutely, as I mentioned last time someone suggested I stand for Parliament, apart from my dislike of politicians as a breed and some dubious bits of my past that I would rather were not in the public eye, I simply couldn't afford to be an MP.
Yeah, but think of the free paperclips.
Not to mention a diamond-crusted pension when you retire.... no need to ever work again if you get a few terms under your belt in say the 50-60 years of age.
Personally I think the pension crisis could be partly addressed by limiting MPs to no more than 10 years in Parliament so that the cushy, squalid, repulsive self-indulgence was at least more spread around a bit!!!
Think how much pension the father of the house or indeed Skinner have banked. Perhaps NPxMP could advise what his revalued pension income for life is for the time he banked just to illustrate that?
Spot on. If I had only 10 seconds in power I'd put all politicians on money purchase pensions and see how it changes their world view.
I think the reds might take more interest in the stockmarket for a start!!!
Well anything that exposes those with power to the consequences of their actions. Why give a stuff about QE or exchange rates or annuity rates that affect tens of millions of us if you're blissfully immune in your pension ivory tower. I mean how many MP's know that a £20k index linked pension with 50% same age spouse cover is about £650k to buy right now via an annuity? I'd love to know.
They've knocked. We're about to sign a deal this week (inshallah). A subsidiary of Warner Bros.
Which one? (My film producer wife just asked - having ordered it from Amazon today....)
Can't say until it's signed. Bad juju. Also probably bad form.
But ta to yr wife!
Well done anyway. And about bloody time!
I
Quite. Hollywood is ridiculous. You can get a thousand green lights from the CEO down and then, just as they are readying the cameras, they pull the plug.
That's another reason we took this offer from this particular company. They are self financing: they have a biilionaire backer and if they want to make a movie, they can do it, they just need to decide - then hire the director, actors, etc.
But they have a watertight relationship with Warner which guarantees that Warner have to distribute etc.
Out of interest what's yr movie coming out tomorrow? Is that what you mean by going up on IMDB?
Just the company that developed it wanting to er, blow their own trombone about their projects. They read 125 scripts, took just 2, mine being one. Now fully developed and ready to roll. I'll stick a link up when I get it.
It is an ensemble piece. A classic old-school British comedy drama. But I won't say anything more yet..
you forget the £175K averag eexpenses for your wife and family and paper clips etc. Rifkind charge for paper clips , 5p , 5p and 8p. They are extremely well rewarded and are unlikely to need to touch their salary given the generous unlimited expenses.
Yes: but charging paperclips doesn't pay the gas bill or for your bottle of Chateau Thames Embankment.
Take me or Richard Tyndall or any number of PBers. We have our own small businesses. Would the businesses survive our absence for 5 years?
So, if we were to decide to enter politics, and take a pay cut, we also have to factor in that our businesses probably won't be around on the far side of it. (Especially if 'outside interests' were severely proscribed.
Me neither. If I took a career break from medicine I would struggle to get anywhere near the same job afterwards.
Though I am not sure that doing a few Locums during recess would be anywhere as lucrative as supping with big pharma.
The problem is not some MP keeping a hand in at farming, mining or doctoring. They earn money by peddling influence and contacts. Its not what they earn that is a problem, it is what they sell.
I would just like to thank the EU for increasing the annual cost of me playing golf. It is one of the few sports I enjoy and now I will be forced into paying even more due to them forcing those who use buggies to have insurance. It is expensive enough as it is without them interfering.
Neat twitter fact (I have no idea whether it's true, but what the hell):
James Chapman (Mail) @jameschappers · 1m1 minute ago 1/50 adult Scots has joined SNP since referendum. Party has more members than British army has soldiers. @alexmassie in @spectator #GE2015
It's not true. Since the Referendum only 70,000 Scots have joined the SNP (or slightly more but not 75k yet) as 25,000 were already members.
So it's about 1/60. The total membership is about 1/55 now.
Of course it also means about 1500 members for every single constituency in Scotland. Now that is significant.
Looks like Plod is being really super-efficient to ensure that the Sir Cliff historical claims gets fully investigated. Heaven forbid anyone should suggest this is because their reputation is on the block.
If only they showed such dedication to industrial scale rape occurring on a rather more recent time-line....
They've knocked. We're about to sign a deal this week (inshallah). A subsidiary of Warner Bros.
Which one? (My film producer wife just asked - having ordered it from Amazon today....)
Can't say until it's signed. Bad juju. Also probably bad form.
But ta to yr wife!
Well done anyway. And about bloody time!
I have one of my projects going up on imdb tomorrow. Which is nice. A bit gutted for another to go all the way to Spielberg's number 2 at Dreamworks with a glowing report from underlings there (this will make big money, it's a franchise...blah de blah) only for the number 2 to say she wanted to take the company in a different direction. Arse.
I'm still wondering how much of a contortionist you have to be to blow your own trombone...?
Quite. Hollywood is ridiculous. You can get a thousand green lights from the CEO down and then, just as they are readying the cameras, they pull the plug.
That's another reason we took this offer from this particular company. They are self financing: they have a biilionaire backer and if they want to make a movie, they can do it, they just need to decide - then hire the director, actors, etc.
But they have a watertight relationship with Warner which guarantees that Warner have to distribute etc.
Out of interest what's yr movie coming out tomorrow? Is that what you mean by going up on IMDB?
Billionaire and sidekick? Good luck - they're seriously tough operators.
Neat twitter fact (I have no idea whether it's true, but what the hell):
James Chapman (Mail) @jameschappers · 1m1 minute ago 1/50 adult Scots has joined SNP since referendum. Party has more members than British army has soldiers. @alexmassie in @spectator #GE2015
Shit, that probably means invasion is out of the question.
Historically Scots have been about 20% of the British Army, so you really only have 54k. Maybe you could take over Chelmsford.
I should get your book. From the descriptions, it sounds as though it would form a striking counterpoint to Christopher Priest's "The Prestige" and "The Affirmation", both of which I have read recently.
Ta. You might enjoy it. Some people love it, almost embarrassingly so. Others don't, clearly.
I think this girl liked it, on Twitter - she just finished it:
@CasIsMyAngel_ 2h2 hours ago Just finished reading #TheIceTwins...I'm actually crying silently. The ending was so beautifully chilling - amazing. Ugh my heart hurts.
I'll stop now. Maybe.
The reviews on Goodreads look very positive. I should get it.
Does it have anything like the Swedish boiling scene in it?
They've knocked. We're about to sign a deal this week (inshallah). A subsidiary of Warner Bros.
Which one? (My film producer wife just asked - having ordered it from Amazon today....)
Can't say until it's signed. Bad juju. Also probably bad form.
But ta to yr wife!
Well done anyway. And about bloody time!
I
Out of interest what's yr movie coming out tomorrow? Is that what you mean by going up on IMDB?
Just the company that developed it wanting to er, blow their own trombone about their projects. They read 125 scripts, took just 2, mine being one. Now fully developed and ready to roll. I'll stick a link up when I get it.
It is an ensemble piece. A classic old-school British comedy drama. But I won't say anything more yet..
Yes, always best to be super-cautious, for reasons we both know.
I remember spending a very drunken evening with the genius writer-director of Withnail and I, Bruce Robinson. I was about 23, and with a friend, and we turned up on Robinson's doorstep in Wimbledon - unheralded - to say how much we adored his movie - and he very generously found it amusing, and took us out for a curry and got us totally pissed. Classic evening.
But something he said chilled me, which was that he'd written ten scripts for Hollywood that were commissioned but never made. Ten. Or more.
It's like Shakespeare writing ten plays from Romeo and Juliet to King Lear and none of them ever appearing in the theatre.
Hollywood devours talent, and regurgitates about a tenth of it, in movie form.
It could have been worse. They could have brought on another team of writers to add much more comedy into King Lear.....
Neat twitter fact (I have no idea whether it's true, but what the hell):
James Chapman (Mail) @jameschappers · 1m1 minute ago 1/50 adult Scots has joined SNP since referendum. Party has more members than British army has soldiers. @alexmassie in @spectator #GE2015
Shit, that probably means invasion is out of the question.
you forget the £175K averag eexpenses for your wife and family and paper clips etc. Rifkind charge for paper clips , 5p , 5p and 8p. They are extremely well rewarded and are unlikely to need to touch their salary given the generous unlimited expenses.
Yes: but charging paperclips doesn't pay the gas bill or for your bottle of Chateau Thames Embankment.
Take me or Richard Tyndall or any number of PBers. We have our own small businesses. Would the businesses survive our absence for 5 years?
So, if we were to decide to enter politics, and take a pay cut, we also have to factor in that our businesses probably won't be around on the far side of it. (Especially if 'outside interests' were severely proscribed.
Me neither. If I took a career break from medicine I would struggle to get anywhere near the same job afterwards.
Though I am not sure that doing a few Locums during recess would be anywhere as lucrative as supping with big pharma.
The problem is not some MP keeping a hand in at farming, mining or doctoring. They earn money by peddling influence and contacts. Its not what they earn that is a problem, it is what they sell.
"Me neither. If I took a career break from medicine I would struggle to get anywhere near the same job afterwards."
Why chase the money? Take a career break, enjoy yourself, let your family (if you have one) enjoy yourselves, and see where life takes you. You are, by all accounts intelligent (you are a doctor), and both interested and interesting (you post on PB) - you could do lots of things.
It's the way I've led my life (both through choice and accident), and although I'll never be rich, I'm comfortable and happy.
As an uncle once said to a gf of mine: "Money doesn't buy you happiness, but it does buy a better form of miserable."
- Dair said: » show previous quotes You do not know 300 people's inclination to be an MP or 300 people's salary levels.
Seriously, who do you think you will kid with this nonsense? -
It is amazing what you emerges over a period of time in normal society if you:
A) care about people and are able to talk to them and maintain friendships ...no, just A)
Yet it is nonsense.
There are plenty of studies which show the average peer group is less than 12 people. The idea anyone on earth has a peer group of 300 is completely ridiculous.
What rot.
I've worked on projects where I would daily talk, eat, have coffees, meet with at least 50 people of my age group, socio economic background and similar skill set.
I studied at a college where I would on a daily basis work, eat, chat, have a beer with 100 or more people within 3 years of me.
Facebook started in the UK about 6 months before I went to Oxford, and I'm therefore still decently in touch with just about anyone I ever had a meaningful conversation with whilst there. Add in linkedin and I have a decent idea of what they're earning...
mince
With or without Turnips?
LOL, tatties and turnip
They think turnips are small tasteless white things not tasty yellow things. As they say, the English consider food what the Scots would only feed to horses.
- Dair said: » show previous quotes You do not know 300 people's inclination to be an MP or 300 people's salary levels.
Seriously, who do you think you will kid with this nonsense? -
It is amazing what you emerges over a period of time in normal society if you:
A) care about people and are able to talk to them and maintain friendships ...no, just A)
Yet it is nonsense.
There are plenty of studies which show the average peer group is less than 12 people. The idea anyone on earth has a peer group of 300 is completely ridiculous.
What rot.
mince
With or without Turnips?
LOL, tatties and turnip
They think turnips are small tasteless white things not tasty yellow things. As they say, the English consider food what the Scots would only feed to horses.
No, other way round.
'Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.' Sam Johnson, Dictionary
If my writing has shown me anything, it is that I have a great criminal mind. I have devised an original heist-within-a-heist that readers think really works.
If only I had started earlier in life down this road, I could by now have my own volcano island base with invisible helicopters and a Maglev train and everything. Henchmen too. I've always wanted henchmen.
I blame the careers service at school for not developing my skills....
"Hollywood devours talent, and regurgitates about a tenth of it, in movie form"
My next door neighbour makes a film about once every two years. Writes (usually) and directs. They never make money but she gets together an A list cast-Robert De Niro Kathy Bates Geraldine Chaplin Harvey Keitel etc- and they come along as regular as clockwork.
Though a very good friend the one question I don't ask is how she gets so much backing when she keeps making lemons. Other friends can't get their scripts made for love nor money. It's a trick but I don't know what it is.
"Hollywood devours talent, and regurgitates about a tenth of it, in movie form"
My next door neighbour makes a film about once every two years. Writes (usually) and directs. They never make money but she gets together an A list cast-Robert De Niro Kathy Bates Geraldine Chaplin Harvey Keitel etc- and they come along as regular as clockwork.
Though a very good friend the one question I don't ask is how she gets so much backing when she keeps making lemons. Other friends can't get their scripts made for love nor money. It's a trick but I don't know what it is.
I was also Googling my Dutch translation last night, and discovered that the influential Dutch TV panel show, DWDD (broadcast on the Dutch equivalent of BBC1 - i.e. the most popular channel) chose it as one of their "four books of the month" (they have a regular feature when they get booksellers and publishers on the show to select four hot titles).
It's very nice that they chose ICE TWINS, of course, and that they all think it gripping and twisty. But the most amusing/gratifying bit is about 5 minutes into the show when they speculate as to who is the mysterious and pseudonymous author of De Ijstweeling. The consensus is that it is Julian Barnes or J K Rowling. Or maybe Ian McEwan.
Are you expecting Hollywood to come knocking?
They've knocked. We're about to sign a deal this week (inshallah). A subsidiary of Warner Bros.
Maybe you should play hard to get and wait for a frenzied multimillion dollar bidding war to break out.
That was the alternative, if the book goes gangbusters in America then we could have an auction and I'd make millions.
However this was a good offer with a very generous purchase price, from a company that buy few books, but does actually make the ones it buys. And I want to see this movie made.
Also I figured if the book goes mad in America I'll make loads anyway, and this company will be able to attract real talent to the movie, which will be watched by all the readers and more, generating more sales.
Whereas if the book tanks in America, and we'd turned this deal down, I'd have no movie deal at all.
it was a fine call, but I went for the bird in the hand. To hell with the bush. As it were.
I was also Googling my Dutch translation last night, and discovered that the influential Dutch TV panel show, DWDD (broadcast on the Dutch equivalent of BBC1 - i.e. the most popular channel) chose it as one of their "four books of the month" (they have a regular feature when they get booksellers and publishers on the show to select four hot titles).
It's very nice that they chose ICE TWINS, of course, and that they all think it gripping and twisty. But the most amusing/gratifying bit is about 5 minutes into the show when they speculate as to who is the mysterious and pseudonymous author of De Ijstweeling. The consensus is that it is Julian Barnes or J K Rowling. Or maybe Ian McEwan.
Are you expecting Hollywood to come knocking?
They've knocked. We're about to sign a deal this week (inshallah). A subsidiary of Warner Bros.
"Hollywood devours talent, and regurgitates about a tenth of it, in movie form"
My next door neighbour makes a film about once every two years. Writes (usually) and directs. They never make money but she gets together an A list cast-Robert De Niro Kathy Bates Geraldine Chaplin Harvey Keitel etc- and they come along as regular as clockwork.
Though a very good friend the one question I don't ask is how she gets so much backing when she keeps making lemons. Other friends can't get their scripts made for love nor money. It's a trick but I don't know what it is.
you forget the £175K averag eexpenses for your wife and family and paper clips etc. Rifkind charge for paper clips , 5p , 5p and 8p. They are extremely well rewarded and are unlikely to need to touch their salary given the generous unlimited expenses.
Yes: but charging paperclips doesn't pay the gas bill or for your bottle of Chateau Thames Embankment.
Take me or Richard Tyndall or any number of PBers. We have our own small businesses. Would the businesses survive our absence for 5 years?
So, if we were to decide to enter politics, and take a pay cut, we also have to factor in that our businesses probably won't be around on the far side of it. (Especially if 'outside interests' were severely proscribed.
Me neither. If I took a career break from medicine I would struggle to get anywhere near the same job afterwards.
Though I am not sure that doing a few Locums during recess would be anywhere as lucrative as supping with big pharma.
The problem is not some MP keeping a hand in at farming, mining or doctoring. They earn money by peddling influence and contacts. Its not what they earn that is a problem, it is what they sell.
"Me neither. If I took a career break from medicine I would struggle to get anywhere near the same job afterwards."
Why chase the money? Take a career break, enjoy yourself, let your family (if you have one) enjoy yourselves, and see where life takes you. You are, by all accounts intelligent (you are a doctor), and both interested and interesting (you post on PB) - you could do lots of things.
It's the way I've led my life (both through choice and accident), and although I'll never be rich, I'm comfortable and happy.
As an uncle once said to a gf of mine: "Money doesn't buy you happiness, but it does buy a better form of miserable."
While I am certainly well paid, between my NHS salary and my modest private practice. I actually love my job and it is great to be a Consultant in my Hospital. I get to teach enthusiastic and Idealistic youngsters, shape vital services locally, I have both scientific and human interest in my patients, many of whom I have built friendships with and I have interesting and varied colleagues who are both supportive and challenging. I get plenty of office politics too.
Why would I want to be an MP instead? Particularly as an LD it would be a short career!
Spot on. If I had only 10 seconds in power I'd put all politicians on money purchase pensions and see how it changes their world view.
I think the reds might take more interest in the stockmarket for a start!!!
After the Telegraph expenses, I've always wondered why we didn't see tables showing the value of the biggest pension pots the taxpayers was going to be paying to all the MPs. It's no different in that there's a seemingly unwritten agreement to keep these benefits out of the limelight as there was with expenses to top up the 'low' salary.
While the Dow generally bounces back from the most severe setback within a year, the FTSE has only just reached DotCom levels (i.e. 2000). Meanwhile the pensions "industry" ponzi scheme continues to have the highest fixed annual charges in the world.
All at the behest of parliament whose politicians are isolated from such effects and who can look forward to lucrative board positions with the pension companies when they leave the commons.
Welshowl really hits the nail on the head. If politicians were on Defined Contribution schemes, the pension industry would change. If the public sector was on Defined Contribution there would be riots (and the police would be part of those rioting).
Ah, Mr TSE, I've been expecting you. He's had a Postiga.
I fear Mr Owls may not like my negativity to Public Sector DB pensions... I realise it's too soon to say what will be in our manifesto however regarding that area.
I suggested this shortly after the Charlie Hebdo murders. The idea that schools here should have funding from Saudi Arabia, a country which has just sentenced a man to death for renouncing Islam, is quite abhorrent to me. It is little surprise that so many Muslims here think that Islam is incompatible with Western liberal democracy if they are being taught that sort of malevolent rubbish.
you forget the £175K averag eexpenses for your wife and family and paper clips etc. Rifkind charge for paper clips , 5p , 5p and 8p. They are extremely well rewarded and are unlikely to need to touch their salary given the generous unlimited expenses.
Yes: but charging paperclips doesn't pay the gas bill or for your bottle of Chateau Thames Embankment.
Take me or Richard Tyndall or any number of PBers. We have our own small businesses. Would the businesses survive our absence for 5 years?
So, if we were to decide to enter politics, and take a pay cut, we also have to factor in that our businesses probably won't be around on the far side of it. (Especially if 'outside interests' were severely proscribed.
Absolutely, as I mentioned last time someone suggested I stand for Parliament, apart from my dislike of politicians as a breed and some dubious bits of my past that I would rather were not in the public eye, I simply couldn't afford to be an MP.
Yeah, but think of the free paperclips.
Not to mention a diamond-crusted pension when you retire.... no need to ever work again if you get a few terms under your belt in say the 50-60 years of age.
Personally I think the pension crisis could be partly addressed by limiting MPs to no more than 10 years in Parliament so that the cushy, squalid, repulsive self-indulgence was at least more spread around a bit!!!
Think how much pension the father of the house or indeed Skinner have banked. Perhaps NPxMP could advise what his revalued pension income for life is for the time he banked just to illustrate that?
Spot on. If I had only 10 seconds in power I'd put all politicians on money purchase pensions and see how it changes their world view.
I think the reds might take more interest in the stockmarket for a start!!!
Well anything that exposes those with power to the consequences of their actions. Why give a stuff about QE or exchange rates or annuity rates that affect tens of millions of us if you're blissfully immune in your pension ivory tower. I mean how many MP's know that a £20k index linked pension with 50% same age spouse cover is about £650k to buy right now via an annuity? I'd love to know.
That's meaningless. When you tell them it would cost about £800 per month from the age of 30 to 65 to get a pension of £20k on Defined Contribution then you see them start to understand how shocking UK pensions are.
Anecdote alert: My sister-in-law has just phoned my wife in a gloomy mood because she doesn't know who to vote for. She normally votes Labour, but was going to vote Green because she can't bring herself to vote for Ed Miliband. But since yesterday's debacle she can't vote Green. She's never voted Tory, and can't bring herself to do so, although she can't understand why people dislike them as much as they do, though she knows why she dislikes them. Unfortunately, I can't bring you any further insight as I've had to leave the room as the alternatives were either sitting mute while politics was discussed in a semi-informed manner or butting in repeatedly, which would have neither won friends nor changed minds.
Ah, Mr TSE, I've been expecting you. He's had a Postiga.
I fear Mr Owls may not like my negativity to Public Sector DB pensions... I realise it's too soon to say what will be in our manifesto however regarding that area.
We will fund the most generous pensions in the world by making
1) All Commonwealth Nations pay us an annual tribute of 15% of their GDP
2) Any country that has ever been part of the empire has to pay us an annual tribute of 10% of their GDP
3) Any country we've ever been at war with, has to pay us an annual tribute of 25% of their GDP
4) France is excluded from 3) as we enforce the Treaty of Troyes and we take 100% of their GDP
"Me neither. If I took a career break from medicine I would struggle to get anywhere near the same job afterwards."
Why chase the money? Take a career break, enjoy yourself, let your family (if you have one) enjoy yourselves, and see where life takes you. You are, by all accounts intelligent (you are a doctor), and both interested and interesting (you post on PB) - you could do lots of things.
It's the way I've led my life (both through choice and accident), and although I'll never be rich, I'm comfortable and happy.
As an uncle once said to a gf of mine: "Money doesn't buy you happiness, but it does buy a better form of miserable."
While I am certainly well paid, between my NHS salary and my modest private practice. I actually love my job and it is great to be a Consultant in my Hospital. I get to teach enthusiastic and Idealistic youngsters, shape vital services locally, I have both scientific and human interest in my patients, many of whom I have built friendships with and I have interesting and varied colleagues who are both supportive and challenging. I get plenty of office politics too.
Why would I want to be an MP instead? Particularly as an LD it would be a short career!
I wasn't just referring to being an MP, and I'm really glad you enjoy your job. but are you sure you wouldn't enjoy something else more?
Too many people chase money IMHO, and too many people waste their lives in jealousy of those who are rich.
This came out in a conversation yesterday, when a few people seemed more concerned about their children's earning power than their health or happiness.
Spot on. If I had only 10 seconds in power I'd put all politicians on money purchase pensions and see how it changes their world view.
I think the reds might take more interest in the stockmarket for a start!!!
After the Telegraph expenses, I've always wondered why we didn't see tables showing the value of the biggest pension pots the taxpayers was going to be paying to all the MPs. It's no different in that there's a seemingly unwritten agreement to keep these benefits out of the limelight as there was with expenses to top up the 'low' salary.
While the Dow generally bounces back from the most severe setback within a year, the FTSE has only just reached DotCom levels (i.e. 2000). Meanwhile the pensions "industry" ponzi scheme continues to have the highest fixed annual charges in the world.
All at the behest of parliament whose politicians are isolated from such effects and who can look forward to lucrative board positions with the pension companies when they leave the commons.
Welshowl really hits the nail on the head. If politicians were on Defined Contribution schemes, the pension industry would change. If the public sector was on Defined Contribution there would be riots (and the police would be part of those rioting).
As dividends make up a much higher part of the FTSE 100 the better compator is total return rather than stock prices.
Ah, Mr TSE, I've been expecting you. He's had a Postiga.
I fear Mr Owls may not like my negativity to Public Sector DB pensions... I realise it's too soon to say what will be in our manifesto however regarding that area.
We will fund the most generous pensions in the world by making
1) All Commonwealth Nations pay us an annual tribute of 15% of their GDP
2) Any country that has ever been part of the empire has to pay us an annual tribute of 10% of their GDP
3) Any country we've ever been at war with, has to pay us an annual tribute of 25% of their GDP
4) France is excluded from 3) as we enforce the Treaty of Troyes and we take 100% of their GDP
The way Ed's hero is going in France, we can probably do without the funds from part 4.
Actually we could lease them George O as their economics minister of state for £10bn a year. Cheap as chips that and a nice second job for HMG.
A touch of luck helps.....after 911 Tony Blair quoted a line from Bridge Of St Luis Rey in New York which touched a nerve and reminded Americans of the little classic by Thornton Wilder which then became a best seller and who just happened to be touting the film script at that precise moment........
Ah, Mr TSE, I've been expecting you. He's had a Postiga.
I fear Mr Owls may not like my negativity to Public Sector DB pensions... I realise it's too soon to say what will be in our manifesto however regarding that area.
We will fund the most generous pensions in the world by making
1) All Commonwealth Nations pay us an annual tribute of 15% of their GDP
2) Any country that has ever been part of the empire has to pay us an annual tribute of 10% of their GDP
3) Any country we've ever been at war with, has to pay us an annual tribute of 25% of their GDP
4) France is excluded from 3) as we enforce the Treaty of Troyes and we take 100% of their GDP
That sounds reasonable, so long as you PROMISE to continue to ring-fence the foreign aid budget.
Neat twitter fact (I have no idea whether it's true, but what the hell):
James Chapman (Mail) @jameschappers · 1m1 minute ago 1/50 adult Scots has joined SNP since referendum. Party has more members than British army has soldiers. @alexmassie in @spectator #GE2015
Shit, that probably means invasion is out of the question.
You can join the SNP for precisely £1
You could join SLab for £1 too. How's their membership number doing?
Neat twitter fact (I have no idea whether it's true, but what the hell):
James Chapman (Mail) @jameschappers · 1m1 minute ago 1/50 adult Scots has joined SNP since referendum. Party has more members than British army has soldiers. @alexmassie in @spectator #GE2015
Shit, that probably means invasion is out of the question.
You can join the SNP for precisely £1
Bit economical there Mike, minimum is £1 per month , perhaps you were thinking of Scottish Labour offer recently.
Spot on. If I had only 10 seconds in power I'd put all politicians on money purchase pensions and see how it changes their world view.
I think the reds might take more interest in the stockmarket for a start!!!
After the Telegraph expenses, I've always wondered why we didn't see tables showing the value of the biggest pension pots the taxpayers was going to be paying to all the MPs. It's no different in that there's a seemingly unwritten agreement to keep these benefits out of the limelight as there was with expenses to top up the 'low' salary.
While the Dow generally bounces back from the most severe setback within a year, the FTSE has only just reached DotCom levels (i.e. 2000). Meanwhile the pensions "industry" ponzi scheme continues to have the highest fixed annual charges in the world.
All at the behest of parliament whose politicians are isolated from such effects and who can look forward to lucrative board positions with the pension companies when they leave the commons.
Welshowl really hits the nail on the head. If politicians were on Defined Contribution schemes, the pension industry would change. If the public sector was on Defined Contribution there would be riots (and the police would be part of those rioting).
Neil has assured me that defined contribution pensions are too expensive for the public sector.
- Dair said: » show previous quotes You do not know 300 people's inclination to be an MP or 300 people's salary levels.
Seriously, who do you think you will kid with this nonsense? -
It is amazing what you emerges over a period of time in normal society if you:
A) care about people and are able to talk to them and maintain friendships ...no, just A)
Yet it is nonsense.
There are plenty of studies which show the average peer group is less than 12 people. The idea anyone on earth has a peer group of 300 is completely ridiculous.
What rot.
mince
With or without Turnips?
LOL, tatties and turnip
They think turnips are small tasteless white things not tasty yellow things. As they say, the English consider food what the Scots would only feed to horses.
No, other way round.
'Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.' Sam Johnson, Dictionary
You are wrong quite a lot, aren't you?
I was well aware of the reference. The fact remains, in England you eat white turnips whereas they are animal feed in most civilised nations.
Rob D is a member of our party isn't he? I think he was signed up without even having to agree, we're that helpful to prospective members.
He is, he liked the fact we weren't obsessed by Europe or the Gays, and our patrons would be Ken Clarke and Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Two different people today have urged me to stand as the Directly Elected Mayor of Manchester.
That could be an awesome first victory for our party.
Two of my favourite Tories as you may know.
I could stand here against Bercow too and have a clear run against him, the kippers are few and far between of course as Farage so spectacularly proved?
Naturally in a similar way to Carswell/Farage, should I win and be our first MP then I wouldn't expect to be party leader.
"Me neither. If I took a career break from medicine I would struggle to get anywhere near the same job afterwards."
Why chase the money? Take a career break, enjoy yourself, let your family (if you have one) enjoy yourselves, and see where life takes you. You are, by all accounts intelligent (you are a doctor), and both interested and interesting (you post on PB) - you could do lots of things.
It's the way I've led my life (both through choice and accident), and although I'll never be rich, I'm comfortable and happy.
As an uncle once said to a gf of mine: "Money doesn't buy you happiness, but it does buy a better form of miserable."
While I am certainly well paid, between my NHS salary and my modest private practice. I actually love my job and it is great to be a Consultant in my Hospital. I get to teach enthusiastic and Idealistic youngsters, shape vital services locally, I have both scientific and human interest in my patients, many of whom I have built friendships with and I have interesting and varied colleagues who are both supportive and challenging. I get plenty of office politics too.
Why would I want to be an MP instead? Particularly as an LD it would be a short career!
I wasn't just referring to being an MP, and I'm really glad you enjoy your job. but are you sure you wouldn't enjoy something else more?
Too many people chase money IMHO, and too many people waste their lives in jealousy of those who are rich.
This came out in a conversation yesterday, when a few people seemed more concerned about their children's earning power than their health or happiness.
Who knows whether I would have enjoyed another job as much? I have just worked hard and taken opportunities as they have arisen. I have had career disappointments, but have always moved on to other opportunities without looking back.
It may be my Scots/Ulster Presbyterianism showing but as far as I can see pretty much all job satisfaction comes from what you put in, not what you get out. Youngsters with a "Can't be Arsed" attitude will neither be happy or well paid.
Comments
It seems there are two things they are pretending to be worried about: undue influence and earnings (the 'it should be a full time job' line).
If 'undue influence', then would that also apply if the wife held a directorship with a company? Or a child? And why would union-sponsored MPs not be covered under this?
If earnings, then why should it bother others as long as the MP also represent their constituents? After all, it is easily possible not to represent your constituents (ref Stuart Bell RIP) and still be an MP.
Let it all be open, and let the constituents decide if the MP is working hard enough for them.
We need better people in parliament, and such restrictions will only get more Eds and Daves.
REAKING NEWS:Labour bid to ban MPs holding paid directorships or consultancies defeated in Commons by a government majority of 68
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-31624695
I very rarely blow my own trombone
Classic!!!!!! LOL
If people don't like their local MP moonlighting as a taxi driver, a novelist, or a lawyer, they can always vote for someone else.
A sharp corrective to nostalgia.
I should get your book. From the descriptions, it sounds as though it would form a striking counterpoint to Christopher Priest's "The Prestige" and "The Affirmation", both of which I have read recently.
Personally I think the pension crisis could be partly addressed by limiting MPs to no more than 10 years in Parliament so that the cushy, squalid, repulsive putrid self-indulgence was at least more spread around a bit!!!
Think how much pension the father of the house or indeed Skinner have banked. Perhaps NPxMP could advise what his revalued pension income for life is for the time he banked just to illustrate that?
I have one of my projects going up on imdb tomorrow. Which is nice. A bit gutted for another to go all the way to Spielberg's number 2 at Dreamworks with a glowing report from underlings there (this will make big money, it's a franchise...blah de blah) only for the number 2 to say she wanted to take the company in a different direction. Arse.
I'm still wondering how much of a contortionist you have to be to blow your own trombone...?
After the Telegraph expenses, I've always wondered why we didn't see tables showing the value of the biggest pension pots the taxpayers was going to be paying to all the MPs. It's no different in that there's a seemingly unwritten agreement to keep these benefits out of the limelight as there was with expenses to top up the 'low' salary.
Though I am not sure that doing a few Locums during recess would be anywhere as lucrative as supping with big pharma.
The problem is not some MP keeping a hand in at farming, mining or doctoring. They earn money by peddling influence and contacts. Its not what they earn that is a problem, it is what they sell.
So it's about 1/60. The total membership is about 1/55 now.
Of course it also means about 1500 members for every single constituency in Scotland. Now that is significant.
If only they showed such dedication to industrial scale rape occurring on a rather more recent time-line....
Does it have anything like the Swedish boiling scene in it?
Minimum cost of SNP membership is £12.
Just had to ask Mrs H who Ed Sheeran is. I'm not even middle-aged any more...
Dan loves Ed
EICIPM (Ed isnt crap is perfect musician?)
Why chase the money? Take a career break, enjoy yourself, let your family (if you have one) enjoy yourselves, and see where life takes you. You are, by all accounts intelligent (you are a doctor), and both interested and interesting (you post on PB) - you could do lots of things.
It's the way I've led my life (both through choice and accident), and although I'll never be rich, I'm comfortable and happy.
As an uncle once said to a gf of mine: "Money doesn't buy you happiness, but it does buy a better form of miserable."
'Oats. A grain, which in England is generally given to horses, but in Scotland supports the people.' Sam Johnson, Dictionary
You are wrong quite a lot, aren't you?
http://on.ft.com/1A6Pqpf
If only I had started earlier in life down this road, I could by now have my own volcano island base with invisible helicopters and a Maglev train and everything. Henchmen too. I've always wanted henchmen.
I blame the careers service at school for not developing my skills....
"Hollywood devours talent, and regurgitates about a tenth of it, in movie form"
My next door neighbour makes a film about once every two years. Writes (usually) and directs. They never make money but she gets together an A list cast-Robert De Niro Kathy Bates Geraldine Chaplin Harvey Keitel etc- and they come along as regular as clockwork.
Though a very good friend the one question I don't ask is how she gets so much backing when she keeps making lemons. Other friends can't get their scripts made for love nor money. It's a trick but I don't know what it is.
Why would I want to be an MP instead? Particularly as an LD it would be a short career!
All at the behest of parliament whose politicians are isolated from such effects and who can look forward to lucrative board positions with the pension companies when they leave the commons.
Welshowl really hits the nail on the head. If politicians were on Defined Contribution schemes, the pension industry would change. If the public sector was on Defined Contribution there would be riots (and the police would be part of those rioting).
I fear Mr Owls may not like my negativity to Public Sector DB pensions... I realise it's too soon to say what will be in our manifesto however regarding that area.
"Austria bans foreign funding for imams and mosques:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-31629543"
I suggested this shortly after the Charlie Hebdo murders. The idea that schools here should have funding from Saudi Arabia, a country which has just sentenced a man to death for renouncing Islam, is quite abhorrent to me. It is little surprise that so many Muslims here think that Islam is incompatible with Western liberal democracy if they are being taught that sort of malevolent rubbish.
There's probably not a Scot alive with a reading age above 12 who isn't aware of the good doctor's definition.
1) All Commonwealth Nations pay us an annual tribute of 15% of their GDP
2) Any country that has ever been part of the empire has to pay us an annual tribute of 10% of their GDP
3) Any country we've ever been at war with, has to pay us an annual tribute of 25% of their GDP
4) France is excluded from 3) as we enforce the Treaty of Troyes and we take 100% of their GDP
Too many people chase money IMHO, and too many people waste their lives in jealousy of those who are rich.
This came out in a conversation yesterday, when a few people seemed more concerned about their children's earning power than their health or happiness.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2969119/I-m-long-slow-burn-bed-says-Ed-Balls-excruciating-LBC-interview-Mumsnet-rates-Commons-best-lovers.html
Have just learnt that the BBC have remade Poldark.
If they do as bad a job as they did with Jamaica Inn, there'll be violence.
(My favourite book is Winston Graham's 'Marnie', which Hitchcock made into an uncharacteristically hideous film. Hitchcock's dead. Just sayin'). ;-)
Actually we could lease them George O as their economics minister of state for £10bn a year. Cheap as chips that and a nice second job for HMG.
"Film financing is a very black art..."
A touch of luck helps.....after 911 Tony Blair quoted a line from Bridge Of St Luis Rey in New York which touched a nerve and reminded Americans of the little classic by Thornton Wilder which then became a best seller and who just happened to be touting the film script at that precise moment........
I think it's all to do with Catholicism!
I do not like the sound of this dryness I have to say
Two different people today have urged me to stand as the Directly Elected Mayor of Manchester.
That could be an awesome first victory for our party.
Two of my favourite Tories as you may know.
I could stand here against Bercow too and have a clear run against him, the kippers are few and far between of course as Farage so spectacularly proved?
Naturally in a similar way to Carswell/Farage, should I win and be our first MP then I wouldn't expect to be party leader.
While we know about the Clapham Omnibus.
TSE is DEMOM
Surely it should be Nantwich
It may be my Scots/Ulster Presbyterianism showing but as far as I can see pretty much all job satisfaction comes from what you put in, not what you get out. Youngsters with a "Can't be Arsed" attitude will neither be happy or well paid.
*Innocent Face*