Tuesday 8 September 2009

Tories to Kill Cheap Beer for MPs

If the Tories win the next general election, it seems they will knock subsidised food and drink for members of parliament on the head.

That's shot RedNev's fox!

8 comments:

Stonch said...

A shame. When I worked for an MP I used to drink in Bellamy's, mainly. I think it was about half of the price of a normal pub. A good place to start a Friday night.

Who's "Red Nev"? Is this a political story I've missed?

Tandleman said...

Just another chippy Northerner!

Neville Grundy said...

I've only done 3 or 4 posts on my blog and had a couple of letters printed in the local papers on this matter. Surely you're not implying I'm obsessed?

Tandleman said...

Not when you put it like that!

Stonch said...

The cheap booze has always been primarily for the benefit of Labour MPs of working class backgrounds from the North. They're the ones who crowd out the bars and got sozzled all day and night, creating an atmos something like a working men's club (and yes, I have visited a working men's club). In my own experience, Tory MPs are rarely seen in the subsidised bars.

Tandleman said...

Are there actually any working class MPs any more? Not many horny handed sons of toil now I'd suggest and with the hair shirt mentality now pervasive, fewer still in the future.

Not only is RedNev's fox shot, but if what you say is so, then no wonder it's the Tories proposing to abolish it - it won't affect them, therefore it's a true Tory policy. The converse is consequently true too - you can see why Labour didn't lead the way. Dirty business politics.

PS I am having a look round there a week on Monday. Any cheap beer I wonder?

Neville Grundy said...

I'm not persuaded by the argument the subsidies are for Labour MPs, seeing that all MPs receive the same basic salary of £64,766 (plus expenses and subsidies, of course). On that money, why would Labour MPs need subsidies?

Stonch said...

I don't think subsidised bars in Parliament are for the MPs, really, although they do help the staff who often work long doubt hours without being rewarded. The allowance for staff isn't very big, I recall, and if a member employs more than two people there just isn't enough to go around. It's easy to get whipped into a frenzy by the Telegraph and pure envy, but the reality's quite different.

Still pleased to see Alan Duncan get the boot, though. He was a bit of a tosser in my experience.