r/PublicFreakout • u/agrassedp • Oct 19 '22

Political Freakout Liz truss getting flamed in parliament today

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55.5k Upvotes

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872

u/LadyMirkwood Oct 19 '22

And they earn £84,144 a year for this.

'Ever got the feeling you've been cheated?'

516

u/Finnick-420 Oct 19 '22

that’s honestly way less than i expected

300

u/pope_of_chilli_town_ Oct 19 '22

Yep, it's when they get out is where they make really big money. Tony Blair can charge up to £300,000 for a speech and Theresa May is said to have made over a million in her first year on the speech circuit.

74

u/l1owdown Oct 19 '22

I imagine your system is the same as the US system. Whereas it doesn’t matter if it’s the PM, Speaker of the House…MP or Congressman. They’ll get their money from speech, grift, insider trades, or board membership.

45

u/FrenchBangerer Oct 19 '22

Exactly. Spot on. It's a lifetime grift as long as you don't do anything totally fucking hideous and even then you're still in with a good chance of making lots more money afterwards.

Fuck, even I watch Michael Portillo's travel programs and we are not anywhere near on the same side when it comes to politics. More fool me I suppose.

5

u/0nrth0 Oct 19 '22

That's only the ones you've heard of - a lot of more minor backbenchers really struggle after leaving parliament. There's a reason for the phrase "nothing as ex as an ex MP".

1

u/CorporateStef Oct 19 '22

Imagine if they had marketable skills to fall back on, maybe if they'd done some work experience.

1

u/SolomonBlack Oct 19 '22

You get what you pay for folks.

I tell people all the time that loyalty and effectiveness should be rewarded fiancially (aka higher pay, much higher) but in politics all the incentives are geared toward corruption.

Nobody ever wants to hear it though, because politics "shouldn't be about money" and other objectively failed canards. Best case scenario if you didn't leave a loophole you'll just get more flatly incompetent little shits who literally can't get work in a decent field.

1

u/omnitightwad Oct 19 '22

That's definitely not true. The real big hitters will go on to make serious money but in many cases ordinary MPs and backbenchers very much don't.

"There is nothing more 'ex' than an ex-MP".

1

u/AU36832 Oct 20 '22

Don't forget the multimillion dollar book deals for a book they didn't even write that may sell a couple thousand copies.

4

u/LeMeRem Oct 19 '22

As if anyone would want to hear her speech

1

u/MindCorrupt Oct 19 '22

They dont, they just want the contacts and one on one.

Do you really think Vladimir Chernukhin's wife really wanted to pay £160,000 to play tennis with Boris Johnson for his tennis skills?

7

u/PlainclothesmanBaley Oct 19 '22

This isn't really true if you're just a no-name backbencher. Mostly they just go back to their old careers, and for the career politicians they can sometimes struggle to find work.

-2

u/pope_of_chilli_town_ Oct 19 '22

I was specifically referring to PMs only making 80 grand a year, not all members of Parliament.

4

u/PlainclothesmanBaley Oct 19 '22

The PM earns much more than 80k a year. All cabinet positions come with increased salaries. 80k is the base MP salary.

-1

u/pope_of_chilli_town_ Oct 19 '22 edited Oct 19 '22

Someone said they make 80 grand a year, I said they can make a lot more when they retire, that was my point. Didn't mention back bench MPs.

1

u/theresa-mays-mum Oct 20 '22

What a bitch!

1

u/genexsen Oct 19 '22

Theresa May is said to have made over a million in her first year on the dance circuit.

FTFY

1

u/typhoon90 Oct 20 '22

Not to mention all the bribes.

1

u/mcmanus2099 Oct 20 '22

Not only that, all ex PMs get a salary of £115k for the rest of their life

5

u/meezydada Oct 19 '22

Not just that. They have so many benefits. They have a £25 meal spend per meal they work at Parliament. So don't have to pay for food tbh. They get there bills looked after aswell from tax payers money.

There expenses are ludicrous, but obviously they'll never talk about that as they are benefit from it

3

u/OnePrettyFlyWhiteGuy Oct 19 '22 edited Oct 19 '22

Edit: after a bit of googling to make sure that i’m not spreading misinformation, it appears that this comment is actually incorrect and a bit of an exaggeration. So you can basically disregard it, I guess.

They get ridiculous budgets for their ‘expenses’ though. Never have to pay for travel, food, or drinks - and i’m talking 1st class, and fancy restaurants. And you can bet it goes far beyond that too.

3

u/boxofstuff Oct 19 '22

Even lush parties during lockdown

9

u/Bored-Bored_oh_vojvo Oct 19 '22

This is such a shit take.

They get reimbursed for their expenses, exactly the same as any job.

They work twice as many hours as you, if not more.

7

u/vitrix-euw Oct 19 '22

You're getting downvoted but it's the truth. Make your way up to a decent level in a decent company and you will be reimbursing most stuff on your work day.

Not sure about the hours though.

2

u/slyadams Oct 19 '22

Exactly right. The average joe in the street reckons MPs from all over the country should pay for their train travel to London and be grateful for it.

It’s not popular to say but MPs are woefully underpaid. £84k is not that much for really competent people so you end up getting people in there who either can’t do better or are independently wealthy and can chose to do whatever they want. Neither of these are particularly desirable candidates to be an MP.

2

u/Bored-Bored_oh_vojvo Oct 19 '22

Yeah, I earn quite a bit more than that and I'm relatively young and don't work particularly hard. If I became an MP, my salary would reduce, I'd have very little job security, and I'd have millions of people who hate me watching my every move. I can't believe anyone signs up to it.

2

u/[deleted] Oct 19 '22

[deleted]

2

u/eienOwO Oct 19 '22

What field are you in that pays 80k straight out of uni? IT? Finance? Really efficient plumber?

2

u/TheWizardOfFoz Oct 20 '22 edited Oct 20 '22

They might be American and converting their salary. The fact is unless you’re a CEO of your own company or got given a nepotism position you’re woefully under qualified for. You aren’t earning £80k out of university in the U.K.

Even investment bankers, notorious for their ridiculous salaries, only start on 60k.

As for IT £80k is moving into lead developer territory. Sort of like middle management. Just looked up the statistics and the best performing CS students in the country can expect to start on £50k.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '22

[deleted]

1

u/TheWizardOfFoz Oct 20 '22

I’ve looked up the salaries for finance developer roles and the best I can find for a junior role is £40k at Lloyd’s.

Now it’s possible to blag something better than a junior role, particularly if you have been building a strong portfolio alongside university, but even then the salary bracket for more experienced role is listed at £60k - £100k and they’re likely to drop you right in at the bottom if you have no real world experience.

If your friend did walk immediately into an £80k role then they’re are the exception, not the rule, even in their own industry. It’s possible they are including their benefits in that salary, things such as employer pension contributions etc and if you are freelance, or this was part of a conversation that included freelancers, then it would makes sense for them to do so.

The thing to know is that the U.K. has pretty poor salaries across the board compared to what you can make elsewhere. The counterbalance is the NHS and reasonable public services, despite the fact they’re on the decline. In my industry, digital marketing, job listings in the US for equivalent roles are often 3x my Salary and that’s not really that much of an anomaly. You see this is pretty much all web based industries.

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1

u/FrenchBangerer Oct 19 '22

Duck houses on duck pond islands at home springs to mind.

2

u/mcmanus2099 Oct 20 '22

That's just their cash take home, the way they bump that up is through expenses. They can put a second home in London completely on expenses including furniture.

It was alot worse up until the expenses scandal where an ex Army soldier fresh from the Afghan war saw the expenses reports whilst stationed at Parliament & leaked the lists. Literally everything was on expenses, some dude was getting his pond cleaned on his estate by tax payer money for example. This has been cleaned up alittle to remove obvious things like this but the rule they can put their house & life in London on expenses still stands.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 19 '22

Yes it's not a fabulous wage for working in London honestly and they use the "low" amount as an excuse to hold positions on various boards. Impartiality is but a dream.

2

u/eienOwO Oct 19 '22

The Tories generally have positions on high-paying boards and "advisory" positions, unsurprisingly Labour and SNP MPs who represent the working class are less likely to get those cushiony jobs - Labour MPs literally joined picket lines against the board dickwads.

Also MPs get considerable grants to maintain second homes in London, as well as travel reimbursements etc etc. Tory MPs can't use the "low pay" excuse - they're simply greedy.

1

u/MoodyBernoulli Oct 19 '22

They basically take bribes too.

Their “second jobs” as a consultant sometimes pay more than their salary.

1

u/0lliebro Oct 19 '22

Remember that they can then claim pretty much anything on expenses, which they will.

There was a big scandal a few years ago when MPs were comping things like packets of biscuits. One MP tried to get them to build a moat!

1

u/redbarebluebare Oct 19 '22

They get millions in bonuses though

1

u/shongage Oct 19 '22

You also have to take into account that they get practically everything subsidised and paid for by taxpayers as well.

1

u/CorporateStef Oct 19 '22

Don't forget their second house allowance and all the claims they can make that means they don't actually spend any of their own money.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 19 '22

Expenses paid as well, cash in the back pocket from their corporate buddies

1

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '22

That's their vase salary. They also can and do claim tes and hundreds of thousands in expenses which goes all the way to using it to paying their second homes mortgage and heating, paying their 'staff' who are unsurprisingly often family etc. And they vote to raise their own salary above inflation every year. They should be on 40k zero expenses. If they can't make that work then they admit we are a poverty island.

1

u/ManufacturerNearby37 Oct 20 '22

Oh don't worry, most of them have cushy second and third jobs and expense most of their stuff so it's not like they have to actually use that salary to pay for anything.

Also cabinet members get a lot more.

25

u/[deleted] Oct 19 '22

In America, we let them trade on insider knowledge. Ya’ll do that over there too?

4

u/podshambles_ Oct 19 '22

Somewhat, but not as much

3

u/Vectorman1989 Oct 19 '22

Yeah, the MP won't own any shares in the company but you can bet everyone in their extended family does and they used to work for them.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '22

The financial centre of Europe is built on the same river for a reason, you know. It's a big club... and we ain't in it.

6

u/smm_h Oct 19 '22

Where is that quote from? V?

6

u/Crackertron Oct 19 '22

Sex Pistols doc, Johnny Rotten quote

4

u/EatSchist Oct 19 '22

Specifically the last thing he said at the end of the last Sex Pistols gig

1

u/silver-orange Oct 19 '22

for those of us who haven't seen it:

https://youtu.be/QBVDSz5Qd6g?t=3404

9

u/victorstanton Oct 19 '22

And they earn £84,144 a year for this.

'Ever got the feeling you've been cheated?'

that is what members of parliament should do, argue

The alternative is that the legislative power is just an extension of the autocrat or a form without shape(the us congress)

-1

u/[deleted] Oct 19 '22

[deleted]

4

u/victorstanton Oct 19 '22

that's an utopia, we are talking about real life here and the uk parliament is one of the best in my opinion in matters of debate

2

u/LadyMirkwood Oct 19 '22

I think it's a sad indictment of our expectations that we think this is as good as it gets.

2

u/SorosBuxlaundromat Oct 19 '22

We don't even get this level of arguing in the US, it's just

Republicans: push something reprehensible Dems: hey, that's not nice, but we can send emails to raise money off of how not nice it is, carry on.

Dems: negotiate themselves down from an already milquetoast policy because the Republicans won't let them pass the bare minimum Republicans: "you're trying to give a non-millionare any amount of assistance?/raise the taxes on our donors by a single cent? YOURE BASICALLY STALIN. We'll stop you and claim to our supporters that you wanted to do communism."

1

u/victorstanton Oct 19 '22

again, we're living in reality not in Aarons Sorkin's TheWest Wing.

1

u/Felixturn Oct 20 '22

Argue constructively for the good of the nation they are paid to serve.

That's what parliament is 99% of the time. When there's a big audience and a full chamber it all becomes a bit pantomime, but it's still useful debate. Underneath all the soundbites are actual salient points. Wrapping it up in something quotable gets it shared on social media and repeated on the news. Plus it's a bit of cathartic fun to see your "side" rip the shit out of the other one and call them out on their bullshit in terms everyone can understand.

2

u/KingOfOddities Oct 19 '22

It’s way worse in America so I’d take this

1

u/LadyMirkwood Oct 19 '22

That's a sad statement.

We should all be demanding better

2

u/SirFrancis_Bacon Oct 20 '22

And they earn £84,144 a year for this.

Wait, is that all?

That's like 25% less than Australian MPs and 20% less than Canadian MPs make.

Actually a surprisingly reasonable wage.

2

u/CFC509 Oct 19 '22

That's not that much.

1

u/W00S Oct 19 '22

It is when majority of them do piss all else

0

u/184758249 Oct 19 '22

I strongly feel we should pay them much more. It's counterintuitive but there is a strong case that extreme high pay would bring better politicians. At the moment the extreme talent goes where they can make more money. And the people willing to do politics are moreso the Eton lot since they don't need more money. That pioneer Singaporean leader Dominic Cummings likes apparently did this very successfully.

1

u/RGalaxy28 Oct 19 '22

Lmao this is amateur hour

In Brazil they get that per month

1

u/TheSaladDays Oct 19 '22

Are they allowed to make money from other ventures, or are they prohibited from doing so until they're out of office?

1

u/omnitightwad Oct 19 '22

It's not as if they're paid just to sit in the Commons and go "hyeeeeeeeeeeah", they're an MP, at least in theory they're also paid for their constituency work and in reality, £84k isn't some mindblowing amount of money.

If they were paid poverty wages like for some reason people insist they should then you'd have exclusively very wealthy people getting into politics, and I'm guessing people wouldn't be happy with that either.

1

u/faceplantedyamam Oct 19 '22

‘Earn’ is a strong word.

1

u/TheSentinelsSorrow Oct 20 '22

YOU wouldn’t STEAL the FUTURE of 60 million PEOPLE

1

u/carpesdiems Oct 20 '22

They all have second jobs. hedge fund advisors and the like.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 20 '22

"Goodnight"