MP's "Wife Swapping", idea?

[R1Geezer]

Why do MP's find it so difficult to comprehend public anger over the whole exes Fiasco? The latest idea to avoid the "employing relatives" rule, is to swap relatives in some sort of Pairing arrangement. This just illustrates to me what total contempt they have for public anger over this. Can they not see that the public are sick to the teeth of the cynical exploitation of public funds? At the moment MP's find themeselves the most hated and derided, even lawyers and Estate agents are higher in public opinion, yet they continue to ignore the public anger over this. How will MP's ever gain any form of public respect ever again?

[jake-the-peg]

http://www.timesonlin...cs/article6888988.ece

I think someone ought to ask David Cameron how somebody as stupid as Eve Burt came to be married to an MP in his party.

Not for coming up with the idea but for actually talking to the Times about it!

Did she think everybody was going to say "Oh what a good idea - yes lets do?"

Can you imagine the conversation between Cameron and Burt this morning?

[LazyGun]

It beggars belief that some of them so vociferously try to defend the indefensible. This is nepotism, pure and simple, and another way of extracting public monies. And the analogy often drawn between MPs and a small, family run business is poor - The business is paying for the family members salary out of the turnover the company derives from its sales or services, so no burden on the public purse.

And as a taxpayer, I would like to know that researchers, PAs and secretarial staff are selected for their ability to do the job in question - not because they are living with or are family members of the MP.

[ludwig]

I've been as critical as anyone on here about the whole expenses thing, but I can see why they're slightly disgruntled about this.
After all, there's nothing wrong with employing your spouse as a secretary/assistant/office manager whatever if they're actually doing the job. They're often the best candidate for the role by virtue of the fact that they live with you anyway, and it's someone you know well and can trust with sensitive information.

The problem is of course as with alot of things in life, the people who abuse the system spoil things for everyone else.

Having said that, do I have any sympathy for any of them?. No, not really. I couldn't give a toss.

[jake-the-peg]

I know Ludwig but it's not - what shall we say "best practice" is it?

Can you imagine what your average HR department would say if you said you wanted to employ your partner and have them report directly to you?

And they can't be the best staff available can they - not if they're stupid enough to say that sort of thing to journalists