12 Jul
10:37am, 12 Jul 2024
25,092 posts
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larkim
I can't get too excited about it, but agree it's an obvious and "simplistic" line of attack along those empathy lines.
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12 Jul
10:41am, 12 Jul 2024
5,827 posts
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paulcook
It's plain wrong, but I'm sure MPs - I know Lee Anderson for one has in the past - would make some justification for it. So rhetorical-ish question. Should NHS staff also get staff discounts in hospital canteens? Do teachers get free meals at schools? |
12 Jul
10:43am, 12 Jul 2024
5,442 posts
|
J2R
Yes, it seems wrong, but unless the money saved actually went to helping people in need it's a kind of empty gesture politics, which I don't think is helpful.
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12 Jul
10:54am, 12 Jul 2024
8,652 posts
|
um
The MP's catering is a bit of a diversion. It seems (HoC reports, fact checkers) that the annual HoC catering subsidy is ~ £6m But, it's not just MPs, there's 13,000 other people with passes to HoC and able to use the (many) catering outlets and bars. Plus guests/visitors. So it really equates to about a £2 / day subsidy per potential user. Which, I suspect is typical of many 'works canteens'. As for the wine, valuations imply £2m, not £7 billion. Still a nice little nest egg, but again, for a catering outlet servicing more than 13,000 people, not an overly excessive stock. The real measure would be (in supply chain terms) 'how many weeks of stock is that'? |
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12 Jul
10:58am, 12 Jul 2024
5,828 posts
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paulcook
I think some of that was Lee Anderson's thoughts!! Particularly about other staff using catering. 13,000 other people with passes genuinely blows my mind.
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12 Jul
11:13am, 12 Jul 2024
8,653 posts
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um
From 2020, parliament.uk |
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12 Jul
11:16am, 12 Jul 2024
5,829 posts
|
paulcook
Gym membership only <5!!!
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12 Jul
11:31am, 12 Jul 2024
3,723 posts
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Big_G
Exactly. How can it only be £2/day per person, with things like the gym and some of those meals basically costing a quarter of what you’d pay in a nearby bar.
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12 Jul
11:37am, 12 Jul 2024
25,094 posts
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larkim
You'd have to look at the subsidy level and the frequency of utilisation of that subsidy to make any rational judgement. At a guess, the ancilliary staff probably accrue far less of the subsidy and yet make up a substantial amount of the pass holders. So £2 sounds like a figure than is deliberately low balled to protect the subsidy. In the grand scheme of things, £6m is tiny; but it is symbolic! |
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12 Jul
11:39am, 12 Jul 2024
8,654 posts
|
um
Big_G - I'd assume and hope that the ratio of 'snacks' and take way meals (sandwiches, bento box like things) etc is very high compared to the sit down 2 or 3 course fairly formal lunch or dinner. So the subsidy may be somewhat skewed or obfuscated? And the accredited media are also on the list, so it's either fully open and above board, or they're mostly keeping quiet for a reason. |
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