With a new government looming, how can we save money ?

Maybe this will be first to go !

http://www.ukspaceagency.bis.gov.uk/default.aspx

And scrapping the Trident replacement.

oh yes scrap trident and then roll over to that hook nose gentelman in Iran

Well, MPs still get about £90,000 a year just for staffing allowance.

According to this website http://www.parliament.uk/about/working/mp/

The salary range is from £16k to £25k and they can have 3 members of staff.

If you multiply the average salary of £20,500 by 3, that comes to £61,500.. so where does the other £30k go?!! (plus, why do they need 3 members of staff anyway?).

MP's I believe should have staff to ease the workload, not make decisions but help sorting letters meetings etc.

I would much sooner give them a pay rise and stop all allowances.

Also I would build apartment blocks with 650 apartments with one designated to each MP, when the MP is no longer the MP for say Wirral South then they vacate and the new MP uses that as there place of stay in London.

Give them an allowance every General Election for decorating etc but they must furnish themselves from their salary.

The extra probably goes towards additionl costs such as employer insurance, national insurance, pension contributions, supplies and materials and office space.

If you want an MP to communicate or be able to be communicated to, he does need a bit of help with the paperwork.

Seem to remember something about 300 letters a day arrive. Then there is the PA work such as appointments etc.

Have to watch "yes minister" again to check out more

Stop the billions wasted supporting long-term bagheads and alcoholics... ie. dole, housing, continued treatment etc... a far as im concerned, if they can't get their lives sorted out after 12 months of support, why should the rest of us work to support them for the rest of their lives...

I know of bagheads who have never done a days work in their lives, but have been on methadone courses for over a decade, get their housing and council tax and other living costs paid for etc - if they have not got clean and sorted their life out within 12 months, they obviously have no interest in ever doing so, and therefore, are not worth the expense or hassle.

And for prisons, just throw the lot of them into dungeons and let them get on with it, no more of this molly coddled holiday camp shite, one square meal a day and bread and water is all they need, that should save £2 billion or so straight away by my calculations.

Why do we hard-working decent folk always have to pay for the ... in society.

When the rest of the world disarms, so can we. Until then, your vision of becoming an unprotected nation, open to attack from any nuclear power that wishes to do so, is nothing short of stupidity.

I know the media etc always throw the figure of 100 billion around, but thats over 25 years, and Labours own estimate was 15 - 20 billion iirc, so if its nearer Labours estimate, £1bn a year for protection from other nuclear states (Russia, China, Iran, Korea etc...) is a very small price to pay imho.

The social-security/welfare system is in place to reduce crime, if you have a load of people with no money, many will resort to crime. It must be still a financially sound case because we still have it.

DD - I forgot to mention MPs get an additional £21,339 for office supplies (separate to other allowances).

MattFC - I don't know much about drug addicts, but I agree that methadone doesn't seem to work. Surely historically, there hasn't been much finance support for proper drug treatment, so how can we say if it works or not?

It's possibly more to do with Labour's ideology of those who don't want to work, will never have to?

If there is a problem with crime, chuck the lot of them in dungeons too, they wont be missed!!

People who genuinely want to work, and are able to, but cannot get jobs through no fault of their own, and those who are genuinely disabled and unable to work as a resultoftheir diability, should be the people who are looked after, the rest of them are no use whatsoever to society imho, except being a burden on an already overrun social-security system.

Right now too many simply never have to work, and too many people play the disability system with massive financial gain, which leads to unfair condemnation of those who are genuinely disabled an will never physically or mentally be able to work.

anyone on the dole or bagheads should be given food vouchers and a very very small amount of cash for bus fairs infact give em a bus pass stop em waisting there money on drugs and ale if they want to go on the beer let em get a job like the rest of us! i know of a family ALL OF EM ON THE DOLE rent/council tax etc paid and they have more bloody holidays abroud than me and i work 6 sometimes 7 days a week

We should stop giving billions to other countries. We need to sort our own country out first!!

Bankers bonuses?

david cameron?

all those people who are on the dole and then go running to magazines boasting about all the nod cons and cars theyve got cos theyre better off on unemployment at the expense of the tax payer.

I wouldn't go on about all the people who are on the dole it could be you next.
Admittedly there are some who don't want to work but have any of you tried being unemployed and finding a job in Birkenhead.
Only jobs that seem to be going are through an agency (which often offer 1 day or 1 week's work which takes you back to waiting a couple of weeks for reclaiming dole or benefits) or part time and under 20 hours
My son applied for Tulip and failed but there is a very good chance he may get in thru an agency now

No jobs are secure at the moment (gone are the days when you thought you had a job for life - I worked 32 years at the same place before they closed and made us redundant - I wonder how many nowadays will be in the same place in 30 years time)


I am not unemployed either but I've seen the other side where I've had to support a family and pay a mortgage whilst unemployed

my hubby works his contract up to now is every 2 years. hews in public sector and hes not gettin a pay rise even though the cost of livings going up. weve been on social and struggled and gone without.

ps its the people who cant be ar**d workinjg and braggin about it.