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Part time MP's
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/aug/24/tory-mp-nadhim-zahawi-lands-job-with-oil-firm-gulf-keystone
A Conservative party MP has taken a job at a British oil company with significant operations in Kurdistan. Nadhim Zahawi, who has been MP for Stratford-on-Avon since 2010, is joining the oil exploration company Gulf Keystone Petroleum as chief strategy officer on a part-time basis.
Zahawi also owns shares in a recruitment company, SThree, and takes home £3,333 a month for seven hours’ work as a non-executive director for the firm
No doubt he supports welfare cuts. An MP taking time off from his job, with no loss of pay, to earn money on the side is evidently okay with him, but unless he's a Tory rebel on welfare, which isn't likely, helping the hard up is not on.
There should be a law forbidding MP's from taking outside, paid, employment.
A Conservative party MP has taken a job at a British oil company with significant operations in Kurdistan. Nadhim Zahawi, who has been MP for Stratford-on-Avon since 2010, is joining the oil exploration company Gulf Keystone Petroleum as chief strategy officer on a part-time basis.
Zahawi also owns shares in a recruitment company, SThree, and takes home £3,333 a month for seven hours’ work as a non-executive director for the firm
No doubt he supports welfare cuts. An MP taking time off from his job, with no loss of pay, to earn money on the side is evidently okay with him, but unless he's a Tory rebel on welfare, which isn't likely, helping the hard up is not on.
There should be a law forbidding MP's from taking outside, paid, employment.
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I personally think MP's should have no outside interests whatsoever while in the HoC.
He's obviously not taking time off from his job if he's only working 7 hours a month for someone. MPs can do want they like in their spare time. You might have a point if he was never seen half the week.
There's also a very real question who you would get to do the job, if the salary is so low compared to most professions You want people with some ability, and people of ability tend to get paid well, and tend to come with financial commitments to meet. The alternative is to pay them all more, or have people who don't justify a big salary, or have really rich people who don't have to do anything - because they have money anyway.
In short we should be grateful that our MPS show up at all for they have to earn big to keep up the lifestyle.
You have a bright future working for the Ministry of Truth.
If you set the salary at the level of a middle ranking civil servant, you won't get anyone leaving a job that pays more than that . You end up with no headteachers, consultants, top lawyers, anyone who has had a successful business, or commanded a military unit, or higher grade scientists or academics. You actually need lawyers to write laws, expertise to debate subjects, and some knowledge of science, war, and business. Your more likley to gte the economics right too if you have soem people who are qualified economists. Otherwise you end up with just the full time political types, who can't make more outside, and its even more of a case of the unknowing legislating about the unknown . And the pure politician backbenchers are often the most keen on exploiting the system for parliamentary trips and junkets.
If they are there , doing what they are meant to, when they are meant to , I don't think it makes any difference , if they spend the odd hour lecturing, writing, offering advice, or using their training, or attract union or charitable support. The ones who never turn up, or leave their constituents untended, or who use their influence for money, tend now to be found out.
In this case its just political pointscoring to find one conservative making some money outside his day job . Look at Dianne Abbotts outside earnings
http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/10001/diane_abbott/hackney_north_and_stoke_newington
After all, they have more holidays than anyone in the country.
MP.... Work.... hospital.... care.... assistant.... Lol!
Excesive holidays are another matter - in theory they are meant to be catching up with their constituents.........
Would you give up a well paid job to do another for less than half the money and with no guarantee that you will still have the job in five years time. Bearing in mind you still have the mortgage you had and all the other bills to pay.
You would end up with career politicians who are not capable of doing anything else and no real life experience. As opposed to people who have run big businesses, doctors, lawyers and can actually run government
Its very easy to be envious without thinking things through.
We saw in the banks how the principle of paying sky high salaries to get good people didn't work out, as we've ended up highly paid idiots and criminals running banks. The salary of an MP is not very high, but it's not low either, and they don't have to take the job.
The problem with outside employment is the possibility, or even probability, that an MP will seek to further the interests of that employer/s, rather than the country.
Whose career is looking after vested interests who reward them with big money.
It's not envy at all. I did actually change careers about 10 years ago after I decided I wasn't happy being a manager and went back to my old role. That move did involve a substantial pay cut. It's the best decisions I've ever made, but it wasn't an easy one at the time.
Why should MPs be able to do something that should be a full time job and then take all these other roles on the side which, let's be honest here, are just ways to get around bribery rules?
Removing this situation should give MPs an incentive to do something that would be valuable to many people (I'm not holding my breath on this though), which is improving funding and access to further education. So many people are stuck where they are because they cannot afford to retrain and there is little to no support for those who are unemployed to retrain. It's a massive waste of human resources and nothing is done about it.
There's a difference between what your MP is doing and those who are hired by companies to further their interests in Parliament. MP's and Lords were only forced to reveal outside employment in the mid-nineties after so many scandals of politicians accepting payment from big business in return for fixing the law for them.
Thats the point, there is a big difference in carrying on your career part-time AFTER becoming an MP especially if its to keep skills and knowledge current, and being offered and doing a job because you ARE an MP - it begs the question, what are the company getting by paying a high wage for very short part-time work hours? and what expertise can a current MP offer that a non-MP in the business can't? From reading the article it appears he got his job because he is an MP with contacts not because of any expertise in the oil business.