[Livia]

Originally Posted by joeysteele

What amazes me is that these cuts will hit all over the place and people, but we can still afford to elect 650 MPs to westminster, there are a far greater number of councillors now elected in the UK than ever before, there is the devolved power and new MPs in the Scotland and Wales own government and also there is the MPs we elect to EUROPE too,.

Never has there been so mnay people needed as to the political interests of the UK as there is elected now,all on massive saalsries to boot.
Not forgetting the elected Mayors as well.

No cuts necessary there though.I wonder why?

The 650 MPs to which you refer represent more than 60,000,000 people (most of whom can't even be arsed to vote but still feel justified in complaining). My MP has a constituency of around 90,000 people and he is there to represent their interests whether or not they voted for him. He does that with three full time staff working virtually flat out. He also holds weekly surgeries. I know this isn't going to be a popular comment, but the majority of MPs work really hard for their constituents and far fewer of them abused the expenses system than the press would have you believe. Even with their expenses MPs get a lot less than a senior manager in the private sector.

Councils and parliament are two entirely separate things. Councillors get an annual payment of around £4,000pa and represent your interests at your local council.

MEPs are a necessary evil. If they weren't there, our interests wouldn't be protected and we'd be led by the nose by the other members of the EU.

The cuts are necessary because of the massive overspending of the previous government. If we don't do something now, future generations will have the debt passed on to them.