Nice job if you can get it
 

I've been trying to find a link to this story which appeared in the Sun this morning, a friend brought it round to show me knowing I'd be interested. The story appears under a blog by Guido Fawkes it read,

One group of jet-setting MPs has found the perfect solution to Britain's sub-zero temperatures. Tories Graham Stuart, Guy Opperman and Oliver Colvile, plus Labour's GRAHAM JONES:eek: , flew off to Jamaica to enjoy a week-long stay in the sun. Cricket on the beach and a meeting with Jamaica's prime minister were included on the £12,000 junket, generously paid for by the Jamaican tourist board.

Now is this the same Graham Jones who screamed and shouted about these junket's not that long ago, well think it was Harold Wilson who said a week is a long time in politics, I now know just what he meant.

Re: Nice job if you can get it
 

say one thing do another

sound familar with this bloke?

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It was probably this trip.

A cricket trip to Jamaica by British MPs pays big dividends | Decca Aitkenhead | Comment is free | The Guardian

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"The visit didn't cost taxpayers a penny"

Jaysay's gloat over:p

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That looks like the one Dave although it doesn't mention any names, its a bit like that old joke really ain't it, a little kid says to Jones Mr Jones where's your other face, my dad says your two faced:rolleyes:

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Well it just goes to show what a joker we have for a MP.
Shame the other parties cannot get their act together and find a better candidate.

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Well if its cost the taxpayer sod all, Bitching about it is rather pathetic in my book.:rolleyes:

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i think jaysays issue is that graham has slagged off this sort of behaviour then gone and done it himself.

what the hell is he doing with two tory mp's we all know what tory mps like to do i hope he packed lube or he may be in for a rough ride lol

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Aye but was he slagging it off when it costed taxpayer? cos that would be a different issue to me.

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if i wanted to get extreemly picky i could suggest the tax payer is paying his wages while hes galavanting off and not representing us in parliament or doing his duties as our mp

but i wont :D

in this case i will email the Jamaican president and see if he can extend his kind offer from 1 week to a year

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Perhaps they are two Tory M.P.'s that want a referendum?
So he's organised this little holiday in an attempt to talk them out of it?

You'd think he'd have actually arranged a stay within the market boundaries, then at least their spends could be used by the onion.

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Nothing wrong with the payment sores, but Jones has always decried these junkets irrespective of where the money comes from

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So while he is away, sunning himself how is he supposed to do parliamentary and constituency business? with a Rum punch maybe?

Strikes of double standards, if he were a Tory Mp there would be all hell to pay, remember Nadine Dorries anyone.....

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Someone did comment he was out wi 2 Tory M.Ps?:confused:

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Fair enough Cashy, but lets be honest they all eat in the same trough.
Despite our political differences this is typical of all our MP's today whatever their party.
as they say Power Corrupts and Absolute Power corrupts, Absolutely:D

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Quite agree BG, and there are also his LCC commitments, and also his £10K advisory payment.
Only recently Sir Ken stated that GJ deserved a higher salary because he put every possible hour into his parliamentary and constituency work - yet now he finds time off from that and his advisory work to go on a junket to the West Indies :confused::confused:

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what i want to know is what these three mp's are expected to do in return for this holiday because although no cost to the tax payer has occured iv yet to hear a story where a MP gets something for free and dosnt have to do a favour in return.

no such thing as a free lunch as the saying goes

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iv always been under the impression that parliament shuts down at a certain time of the year to allow mps to get holidays etc out of the way so that they can get on with parliamentary duties uninterupted

it dosnt look good that in a week where labour council HBC send out letters telling a hell of a lot of people they are going to face even more financial hardship and worry because their rent and council tax allowance is going to be cut our labour MP is sunning himself in jamaica .

HBC lines have been jammed today and i dare say a few have been trying to get in touch with their local MP for help also.

as to be balanced theres two torys out there doing the same

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The two Tories aren't our MP:rolleyes:

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i know but would hate to be seen as been selective

mind you its amazing isnt it how you cant get the two partys to work together instead of bickering to make this country better but they can work together when it serves themselves .Like grabbing a freebi for example

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Oh they'll have been arguing out there in the sun accyman, about who's turn it was to go and get the free drink:rolleyes:

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if the police havnt to take freebies as it could be seen as making them appear bought or impartial maybe polititions shouldnt take freebies as part of their job also

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Agreed, but we are dealing with a bunch of crooks, almost all are on the take.

Remember the MP's expenses scandal? The information was leaked, the MP's did their upmost to stop it.
If there had been press regulation the Telegraph would never been able to print it.

Shower of ....... Comes to mind:D

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I don't think I did, actually.

I believe I stated that I don't blame MPs for finding work beyond their life in parliament and that even though their salary is tasty by average northern standards I still wouldn't have their life.

There is very little personal time as an MP, even in recess.

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No they weren't, there was an internal fault with the switchboard which has now been rectified.

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There was no internal fault when my Granddaughter rang last week, maybe if HBC got things right in the first place they wouldn't get so many flaming phone calls:mad:

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Internal fault with the switchboard.....yesterday.

We don't get many complaints about the Council itself actually.

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An internal fault - or deliberate finger trouble so that the complainants give up trying to get through?

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Why would we do that Barrie? What possible good could come of that?

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If you had been the M.P. would you have gone on the trip to Jamaica if you were given the chance ?

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Your still avoiding my question or don't you have an answer;)

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Was it anything to do with Cannon Street?

HBC's voice fibre terminates in Cannon street and is then distributed to Scaithcliffe, Town Hall, Willows Lane etc. As part of the close down of Cannon Street all these fibres will have to be pulled out of the building and terminated in the street. I am guessing the new distribution hub will be in Scaithcliffe. All that work must be costing HBC a lot of money.

It makes me wonder if it would have cost less to keep Cannon Street open, demolish that eye sore on Broadway and relocate what few staff will be left from the Town Hall to Cannon Street

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Do you actually believe that?

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You did not ask him a question, you made a statement.

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Know sod all about such stuff, But if correct,my question is, Has Neils thought "Even" been considered?:confused:

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when i eventually got through the person said that the long time to get through was because a hell of a lot of people had rang up because they had recieved the same letter that my pal had who was using my phone.I was then advised tehre would be quite a considerable wait if i chose to hold so yes it was busy yesterday

maybe this internal fault was caused by an overload from the high volume of calls from people worried about not been able to buy food anymore as from april 1st

the number 01254 388111 still appears on letters and if enough people ring it the line will be constantly engaged preventing you from getting through to the multiple option menu or the person who transfers you to the menue option

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Yes it will have been. A major reorganisation is currently ongoing as well as a review of all Council buildings and staff location. Scaitcliffe House itself has been at the heart of it and is now being used much more economically.

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I've missed your question then. What was it and I'll answer it gladly.

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Well if Barry is correct the Electricity bill will have been less, is that the economical saving?

I actually doubt anything would have been done to stop calls getting through, the system in place with it's waiting times does that already.

P.S. almost 6 weeks since I was forced to put a new claim in for rent and rates, I put the letter in the postbox myself, I have been told in the past a letter can't be lost, but somehow I think they've done it again.

I wonder will they blame me again!
:rolleyes:

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What good comes from so many things that the Council do?

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i have no doubt they will and this is exactly why i insisted on seeing someone face to face with my passport and driving licence because if they lost them they wouldnt admit they lost them or even if they did admit it they said they would not replace these expensive documents

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Do they have a room stuffed to the gunnels with documents that haven't been lost?
:mad:

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maybe this new regime should bring in performance reviews for its staff because some of their mistakes and actions when dealing with peoples situations that can severly effect if someone keeps a roof over their head are out right disgusting.

the council can quite easily turn what they say will be a 2 week period for a decision into 3 months but what they dont realise is that landlords and some housing associations start sending out threatening letters regarding the process of reclaiming teh property/evicting someone after only a matter of a few weeks which just adds further worry to a problem while the council try and blame everyone else but themselves for messing up.

this is how it has always been its not a party problem its a staffing problem

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just as an indication of what you are expected to do with expensive documents that prove who you are such as your passport,birth certificate,driving licence and proof of your identity this is what you have to put them into which does not have any information as to who you are on the front of it and is kept closed by a tatty re-used bit of tape about 1" in length tops.You then have to take your tatty unsecure pouch outside then dump it into a mail box which is large enough for someone to reach into especially if tehre is a pile of these in the box and they wonder why documents go missing ?

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Ya but he usually jumps all over me for making statements about HBC, his response is conspicuous without an answer, after all he seems to be the council mouth piece on here

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My Granddaughter has started paying council tax in her own right, she opened a DD so she could pay it directly though her bank, she likes to keep up with her finances and complained that HBC hadn't taken the money to pay her CT, She then received a final demand from HBC saying she had not paid her CT and if she didn't pay by 20th March she would become liable for the full amount on that day. She rang HBC but was told that there were 23 people in a queue and it would be half an hour before somebody cold deal with her enquiry. One can only imagine that the finance department got their act together and collected money from people who have done everything they've been asked to do to make collection simple, then maybe, just maybe there wouldn't be 23 people waiting on the telephone to sort out a problem

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That's not a question - it's a rant.

You perhaps would have got answers from your own councilor, rather than expect a Rishton councilor to make enquiries for you.

You should have added at least one ? somewhere.

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Why, I've pointed out the problem if he can't work that out, is it any wonder we have these cock ups

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You pointed out a problem, but didn't prompt for a reply.

I did similar via email to the town hall asking what had happened to my claim,

It took several days before I got a reply stating they couldn't deal with my question until I gave them, name, addy, N.I. No., claim number and a variety of other things, all except N.I. and Claim number I'd had to fill in just to send the email.
Then the email goes I suspect to a general pool who either block it or pass the question on to to the relevant department so that they can block it!

They know already what peoples emails are going to be about, so why not a drop down menu before you fill it in stating what will be required if you wish for a worthwhile answer?

P.S. I know it isn't Kens fault, but it would be nice now and then when he comes on site to defend the Council if he did at least do his double talking avoidance of any useful facts once he's read my feeble input.
:)

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Seems like its have a go at Jay day, simply because he forgot to use some grammar in his question to Ken and the council.

Jay, you should know in order to get anywhere with politicians you need to use clear simple English, a sack of money and a baseball bat, one of those usually works. Well it did in Morocco

Re: Nice job if you can get it
 

What you actually said was that being an MP was a full time job and the thread certainly was inclusive of our local MP

[QUOTE=Ken Moss;1025243]

I think what I should have been more clear about is that being an MP is very much a full time job and every waking hour becomes devoted to community work. QUOTE]

The two quotes do seem to be somewhat at odds with each other and once again we are provided with another example of selective memory by politicians.

Re: Nice job if you can get it
 

I was up at the Council Offices yesterday and all this has been noted with the switchboard already. There was a technical fault which hasn't helped matters over the past few days because there has been a much higher volume of calls regarding Council Tax.

In fairness, information action regarding the forthcoming increase to certain residents has already been sent out some time ago but it appears that some people have not fully understood what it has meant to them.

In terms of a central email pool, there isn't one as such. Enquiries emails are logged at the switchboard and then sent to the relevant department, in this case Benefits. There has been enough confusion over this to trigger a second look at how we do things and review procedure.

Believe it or not, we do listen to complaints.

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That sounds like one that slipped the net Jay and I will apologise on behalf of the Council for the error but of all people it could have happened to it just had to be a member of your family....

:rolleyes:

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Think its called sods law Ken, but it is a bit much ain't it, the lass was doing the right thing then gets a nasty letter from HBC

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Lets not be silly, this kind of thing has been going on for years, long before You took power.
It's a bit like the Accrington Pals but not something we should be proud of, every family within the Borough has been affected by it!
:(

Re: Nice job if you can get it
 

From a report in this week's Accrington Observer .

Graham Jones joined the Lords and Commons cricket club on a visit to Jamaica to raise the profile of the impoverished Treasure Beach .

The MPs donated £4,500 of kit which they paid for personally .

Graham Jones said : " The trip was during the Parliamentary recess to officiate the opening of the Lords and Commons Pavilion at the BREDS Foundation Project .
"We went in our own time and it didn't cost the taxpayer a penny because we paid for it ourselves .
"Any criticism of this is idiotic . At the end of the day the whole purpose was to support a charity . "

Link to BREDS :- www.breds.org

Nothing wrong with that .

Re: Nice job if you can get it
 

Surely the £4,500 pounds spent on cricket kit and the personal expenditure of each of the "cricket team" could have been spent on providing facilities in UK for more underpriveliged children to partake in sports.
Another example of Foreign Aid perhaps?

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Whist yeh may have a point, No-one will ever tell me how i should spend me own brass.:rolleyes:

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You buy Wyn a pint at the next home match:rolleyes:

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well im sure some will be thinking graham is owed an appology but lets not forget he still hasnt appologised to his constituants for stabbing them in the back and for insulting them when they asked why he lied about the way he would vote on been allowed a referendum to win a few votes.

by the way in the report it higlighted the plight of jamaica saying it had roads full of potholes

anyone drive through hyndburn lately the state of our roads cold give jamaica a run for their money and our potholes are full of water too :rolleyes:

ok at the moment full of snow which still isnt good for your car when you drop into one