In theory communism is a good idea. In practice however with corrupt people always heading for positions of dominance it is an entirely different thing.

One thing is for sure though capitalism doesn't work either.

Apparently Cuba is the only country in the world to have a sustainable economy. Or was it that country which booted us out of the world cup? (Sorry can't remember its name - was it Brazil?)

Politics these days reminds me of this gem from Douglas Adams.

"It comes from a very ancient democracy, you see..."

"You mean, it comes from a world of lizards?"

"No," said Ford, who by this time was a little more rational and coherent than he had been, having finally had the coffee forced down him, "nothing so simple. Nothing anything like to straightforward. On its world, the people are people. The leaders are lizards. The people hate the lizards and the lizards rule the people."

"Odd," said Arthur, "I thought you said it was a democracy."

"I did," said ford. "It is."

"So," said Arthur, hoping he wasn't sounding ridiculously obtuse, "why don't the people get rid of the lizards?"

"It honestly doesn't occur to them," said Ford. "They've all got the vote, so they all pretty much assume that the government they've voted in more or less approximates to the government they want."

"You mean they actually vote for the lizards?"

"Oh yes," said Ford with a shrug, "of course."

"But," said Arthur, going for the big one again, "why?"

"Because if they didn't vote for a lizard," said Ford, "the wrong lizard might get in."

nice quote, but nowadays elections can be rigged, for example a wee while ago in Glenrothes, Labour took a seat in a by-election, which surprised most people in the Fife locality, as they have suffered years of poverty and social decline from the policies of the Tories, and then Labour. SNP called for an investigation into the voting and mysteriously all the vote records held at Kirkcaldy sheriff court had vanished.

http://www.telegraph.co.u...-by-election-records.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/7867022.stm

Yes, and with a straight face, our politicians pontificate to the rest of the world about how to run fair elections.

yep, I think it is more a case of  "Do As I Say (Not As I Do)"

Let's see how they wriggle now that Sir Christopher Kelly has produced his report.  Some of them are squealing already

So now they think they're worth an extra £40k a year, in compensation for losing their expenses. What's the betting they will get it as well?

They just don't get it do they?

Let's hope they do at the next general election

fingers crossed 

Oh they get it alright, they're at the top in jobs that THEY WANTED helping themselves to our hard earned cash and then complaining that they should have it as a right because they work long hours and do lots of travelling etc.

Hang on... No-one has forced them to take the job! They wanted it, they put themselves in as candidates, got themselves voted in and took the job. Then they have the nerve to complain about it?

What is the matter with these people?

One of the biggest problems with politics nowadays is that most politicians forget that they work for us, rather than us working for them

The present salary for an MP is 64766 which is about 3 times the average UK salary.  This doesn't include their expenses of course   When they took the job they knew the salary so why are they moaning about it now?

Ah! presumably because they were advised how they could supplement their salary. Which is very largely the motivation when it comes to elections I feel, rather than any do-gooding considerations for the electorate.

It is true that "some" could get much bigger pay packets outside of parliament, but then they have to work for their living, and "some" don't much relish the idea of that.

I've always wondered how much tax payers money could be saved by reducing their wage to 30,000 which is still a decent wage, it would also mean that more people going into politics  would be there for political reasons rather than financial reasons

http://www.dailymail.co.u...ord-council-official.html

I'm about to shoot myself in the foot here, but I can't help it 

The local news this week pointed out that the Chief Executive of Essex County Council pulls in around £250,000 pa.  I'm not sure if this is for both her jobs (She's also Chief Exec of Brentwood District Council), but either way - not a bad wack, (most local government officers get less than 10% of that)

I suppose, on the counter argument,  she runs a "business" which employs around 35,000 people and has an annual budget of billions, so compared to a CEO of a comparable organisation in the private sector, this is probably quite cheap. 

John