Budget Cuts Options

[Jayjay]

I would imagine there is a marked difference in cost between the two, and the security would make their decisions based on safety and cost.

Do you think it is really because he is lazy?

No I don't think he is lazy, but I don't think it is a security issue either. David Cameron rides a bike to work, (albeit with a car carrying his bag and shoes) surely far more of a security risk than 100 yards along Whitehall. I think he is insensitive - taking a chauffeur driven car for 100 yards to a budget that takes the mobility component off disabled people in care homes. Or is he one of the MP's so full of their own importance that they were horrified that the cut in their expenses meant they had to travel in standard class.

[Iommi]

No I don't think he is lazy, but I don't think it is a security issue either. David Cameron rides a bike to work, (albeit with a car carrying his bag and shoes) surely far more of a security risk than 100 yards along Whitehall. I think he is insensitive - taking a chauffeur driven car for 100 yards to a budget that takes the mobility component off disabled people in care homes. Or is he one of the MP's so full of their own importance that they were horrified that the cut in their expenses meant they had to travel in standard class.

I think my speculation is more believable than your spleen you have just delivered anyway.

[On the edge]

I think my speculation is more believable than your spleen you have just delivered anyway.

Really? Seemed quite a reasoned response. Having met some of the MP's who felt it wholly unreasonable to make them travel 2nd class, it is quite believable.

[Jayjay]

I think my speculation is more believable than your spleen you have just delivered anyway.

Therer are about 650 MP's

It is fact that he took a car 100 yards along Whitehall. It is fact that the coalition announced the same day that the mobility component would be removed from disabled people living in care homes.

There are around 650 MP's, assuming that only Ministers took chauffeur driven cars, that is 120 journey's. You may be happy to pay this from your taxes, but personally I am not.

Spleen? I was quoting facts, but if you mean I am bl**dy angry, then yes I am.

[Iommi]

Really? Seemed quite a reasoned response. Having met some of the MP's who felt it wholly unreasonable to make them travel 2nd class, it is quite believable.

OK, you agreed with me, now you don't; which is it?

Do you think there is affinity with a 100 yard dash from a minister about to deliver the most important document in recent British history, and MPs objecting to 2nd class travel? To me they are different arguments and I still maintain that I believe the reason for the car was out of practical security issues, than Jayjay's idea that it was simply out of arrogance. Security's biggest head-aches are often for high profile people who don't follow their advice (risk and costs go up).

In any case, regardless of the truth, I think it a trivial matter to get excited about. I would expect this from and for cabinet ministers. I quite agree though, that MPs should seek the most cost effective and practical method to go about their duties.

May I bump my quote from earlier...

I don't think one can win; had something happened, then the argument would have been: 'what were they thinking'. Wait until the cuts start to bite; I think they might have to step security up, not down!

[On the edge]

OK, you agreed with me, now you don't; which is it?

Do you think there is affinity with a 100 yard dash from a minister about to deliver the most important document in recent British history, and MPs objecting to 2nd class travel? To me they are different arguments and I still maintain that I believe the reason for the car was out of practical security issues, than Jayjay's idea that it was simply out of arrogance. Security's biggest head-aches are often for high profile people who don't follow their advice (risk and costs go up).

In any case, regardless of the truth, I think it a trivial matter to get excited about. I would expect this from and for cabinet ministers. I quite agree though, that MPs should seek the most cost effective and practical method to go about their duties.

May I bump my quote from earlier...

Yes it is a trivial matter. Security well over stated but is a separate but related issue and probably deserves a separate thread. This one is simply about common sense. There vhave been at least two incidents where people going into Dowing Street have been caught displaying confidential diocuments. The first time understandable, the second excuseable, this is the third. So if it wasn't deliberate it must have been something else.

[Iommi]

I suspect it was deliberate and I also wish this coalition would break-away from how the last Government did things. This includes the way the Chancellor would mix and obfuscate his statistics at the despatch box. If it wasn't deliberate, then people should be censured over it.

[blackdog]

David Cameron rides a bike to work,

Not any more - he lives above the office these days.

[On the edge]

I suspect it was deliberate and I also wish this coalition would break-away from how the last Government did things. This includes the way the Chancellor would mix and obfuscate his statistics at the despatch box. If it wasn't deliberate, then people should be censured over it.

Quite so. Lets have the raw facts - I can't quite see why they were so confidential in the first place. Most of us realise we are in a complete mess economically.

[Phil_D11102]

The points I was making about using Regus, MP's sleeping in their offices etc, is that I truly don't believe that a deep dive was made into seeing where cuts and savings could be made without totally screwing over the tax paying population in the UK. When you take a look at VAT will be rising, more tax on petrol, etc, simple cuts such as killing the child benefit for those paying 40 percent tax will just take more money out of our pockets.

The gov't talks about having to make "hard" choices and decisions, but who is fitting the bill for the PM's upcoming 3 week Christmas holiday to Thailand with his family. Sure, he will be paying some of it, but what is the true breakdown of who is paying what. How many MP's will be making trips aboard on "fact" finding missions to see the whats and how out there to improve the economy and boost trade.

I am sorry, but I don't think that this was thought out and the easy cuts to make are the ones that affect people the most.

You will see in the U.S. a serious message given to Barack Obama in his first mid term elections, as people are not happy with the way the "powers" are handling this economic crisis.