Poll: Should Northern Irish MLA’s Lose Their Salaries?
On to more serious matters for this week’s poll. ‘Big’ Peter Hain’s threatening to crack down on playground politics by taking away our politicians’ pocket money.
What do you folks think? Will a loss of salary sharpen Unionist appetites for a power-sharing executive with Republicans?
I’ll confess to having a quiet smirk at the volley of responses to Hain’s threat/statement. Not sure if it’ll hold water, or if he’ll even act upon it (since he hasn’t given any deadline for progress). However, people need to be aware that there’s currently no penalty for political dithering - these arses could debate until the Apocalypse and still get paid for it. Over to you…..
I’ve been calling for that for over a year now… in fact possibly since the assembly was suspended.
It’s ridiculous that they get paid when they’re not doing anything.
If I remember right the Tele ran a story about how the assembly, while closed, is still costing about ?30m a year.
MLA’s salaries alone are roughly 40k × 102 = ?4 million!
Beano: Welcome back! You having probs with EU? I saw your entry in RSS but can’t get onto the site…
Politicians here are like the ‘funny money’ our banks put out - you can get away with them in Northern Ireland, but they don’t have any credibility on the mainland!
I often thought the buggers should have been paying us for putting up with such them.
Thanks Levee. The hosts are having problems with their servers - AGAIN! This one server seems to be causing all the problems and I think I’m going to be moving to my own brand new hosting company when I get my exams and stuff out of the way.
And the best thing to come out of the Republic of Ireland joining the Euro is shops on the mainland aren’t so worried about our “Funny Money” - I handed someone a Bank of Ireland fiver in Glasgow recently before I even noticed what I’d done - but they didn’t so much as bat an eyelid.
Back on topic (slightly) - If I’d known the MLAs were going to get paid for 4 years of doing nothing I’d have stood for election myself!!
And the best thing to come out of the Republic of Ireland joining the Euro is shops on the mainland aren?t so worried about our ?Funny Money?
Mainland where? Europe? I didn’t realise shopkeepers on the continent took cash from northern banks.
“I didn?t realise shopkeepers on the continent took cash from northern banks.”
Well done, I wasn’t sure it was possible but that’s even less amusing now than the first time.
Oh and if you’re talking in an ever-so-porgressive European context then perhaps you’d consider talking about Northern Irish banks, since people might think northern means Scandanavia!
consider talking about Northern Irish banks
I thought about that, but then some unionists don’t like the term ‘Northern Irish’ as it makes them sound like ‘Irish’!
Its a disgrace they still get paid when they are not in talks, actually its a disgrace they are getting paid at all when they cant even sit in the same room as all friends.
Pay me and I’ll sort the North out!