On Jul 13, 8:00*pm, Roland Perry wrote:

In message , at 19:47:46 on
Mon, 13 Jul 2009, Recliner remarked:

Looking down the list and picking the first person as my random
example: Ms Diane Abbott claimed around £131k, *none* of which was
for a second home.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8044207.stm

If they ran their offices as self-employed businesses, they would, but I
don't doubt that they exempted themselves (not to save money, but just
to simplify their paperwork). In fact, I don't know if the money for
things like staff costs isn't paid directly to the staff, rather than
via the MP's books.

One of the proposed changes is that the staff will be paid direct from
Westminster. (Which sounds to me like something that will require a
whole new layer of admin, so they can be assured what hours those people
have actually worked).

Which is fine by me, if it stops dodgy MPs 'employing' their children
who somehow do all the work whilst they're 300 miles away at
university, and other such scams.

Some MPs work very hard - my understanding is that Diane Abbott is one
such example - and I'm all for providing them with the proper back up
of researchers and staff (I was going to call this a 'private office',
which it is commonly called, but actually I don't think that's a very
appropriate phrase).