Conservatives win for Mid Sussex

By herbie15 at 05:45 on 07/05/10

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No surprise that Nicholas Soames got back in, I suppose. Where does he stand in relation to the rest of his party? Hard to say. I wonder how many people voted for him becasue of his eassuring old school image, an image his party is trying to shed. Is he even representative of his party? He has, for example, been trenchant on immigration in a way that the Tory leader simply isn't. All very confusing. But whatever your political point of view, you have to admit there is something very cuddly about the man, so that probably got him a few votes too.

By syllabubbery at 12:01 on 08/05/10
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The Cameron/Clegg combo is all very heart-warming. The sight of them affectionately patting each other on the back outside No 10 almost brought a tear to my eye. So, will we be seeing the two parties co-operate at the local level? Presumably not. This could give rise to real difficulties; the centre will soon be putting real pressure on local authority funding decisions at the same time as it (the centre) will be making a big thing about the need to devolve decision-making. to the local level. Sparks will fly.

By syllabubbery at 08:53 on 13/05/10
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I felt a bit sorry for Serena Tierney; I’ve heard from people who know her that she is a very nice person. But I thought it was unfortunate that her campaign heavily concentrated so heavily on Nicholas Soames being a part time MP; this was unjustified because the sort of part-time directorships he has hardly take up any time, but also give him an insight into the commercial world on which this country depends. So he makes a packet out of it, but let’s try to avoid the politics of envy, shall we?

By syllabubbery at 09:02 on 13/05/10
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re: Nicholas Soames. According to the official data posted on the excellent website http://tinyurl.com/3pvqs9s , he has 4 highly paid jobs in addition to his very well remunerated job as an MP; I estimate his gross income for 2010/11 to be probably in excess of £500k pa. As for these other jobs "hardly take up anytime", well according to theyworkforyou.com , they officially amount to at least 492 hours pa or 41 hours per month or 10 hours every week, which is quite a significant chunk out of most people's working hours.
I agree it is useful for an MP to have experience of the real world, unlike so many who know nothing of the real world and are out of touch with the public. However, I do believe that if you pay a civil servant a well above average salary of £66k pa + expenses of £152k pa (2008/09) + very expensive taxpayer funded final salary pension scheme contributions in his case, then the least, we as the taxpayers footing his very generous remuneration should expect, is a full time commitment to the job.

By Chris French at 20:01 on 25/05/11
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Interesting thoughts Chris, thanks for sharing. Certainly sounds like a nice income. What do people think? How important is it that our MPs have varied employment experiences? Does it matter if they have less time to 'be an MP' whilst gaining these other experiences?

By Maisie28 at 13:38 on 28/05/11
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