Tory complains at high prices in parliamentary dining rooms

[Mr Bloom]

Are you not a civil servant?

 

But you'll support the current government for trying to get rid of subsidised meals for you, your colleagues and MP's, yes?

 

 

To be fair, he's got a very poor choice of words, but the substance of what he said was bang on. Yes?

 

Is it? Our kids get the cheapest lousiest garbage to eat in schools and have not enough time to eat it due to the financial pressures in schools and more money is spent per meal on prisoners yet this joker thinks his exquisite dining experience should be subsidised even further?

[Manlinose]

according to a report in the Telegraph

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9031084/Healthy-appetite-for-moaning-despite-MPs-5.8m-meal-deal.html

 

we pay nearly £6m a year to subsidise our MPs meals, which the Telegraph calculates as a top up of £7.60 on every £10 they spend

 

although £2.60 for a pint of bitter and £2.35 for a glass of merlot is not unduly cheap if you're used to frequenting Wetherspoons pubs, i'd be surprised if many pubs in or around westminster sell drinks so cheaply

 

i hate using the phrase, but it does beggar belief sometimes that some mp's still don't get it - some still seem to believe they have an entitlement to take as much as they can get away with

 

---------- Post added 21-01-2013 at 14:17 ----------

 

http://www.parliament.uk/documents/foi/Strangers%20Bar%20Tariff%202012.06.22%20v2.0.pdf.pdf

 

drinks menu attached

[eckerslike]

according to a report in the Telegraph

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9031084/Healthy-appetite-for-moaning-despite-MPs-5.8m-meal-deal.html

 

we pay nearly £6m a year to subsidise our MPs meals, which the Telegraph calculates as a top up of £7.60 on every £10 they spend

 

although £2.60 for a pint of bitter and £2.35 for a glass of merlot is not unduly cheap if you're used to frequenting Wetherspoons pubs, i'd be surprised if many pubs in or around westminster sell drinks so cheaply

 

i hate using the phrase, but it does beggar belief sometimes that some mp's still don't get it - some still seem to believe they have an entitlement to take as much as they can get away with

 

 

But isn't the point that most of the cost of a meal is the wages of staff who prepare it and serve it. So if no MPs whatsoever used the canteens they would still have the same wage costs.

If you read the MPs comments it was that there were 3 staff for every diner. Perhaps rather than reduce the prices to attract in more customers the House of Commons should simply sack 3/4 of the catering staff and that would make everyone happy. Except perhaps the catering staff.

 

Better still sack the entire catering staff. They are probably not members of Unison anyhow.

[Tony]

He doesn't seem to be asking for subsidy in the report, although he may like the idea for all I know. He's suggesting that cheaper prices might result in more people in the dining room and there are all sorts of ways of achieving that.

 

(He may also be a joker)

[Mr Bloom]

 

(He may also be a joker)

 

I was being polite/kind in using the term to describe him.

[eckerslike]

He doesn't seem to be asking for subsidy in the report, although he may like the idea for all I know. He's suggesting that cheaper prices might result in more people in the dining room and there are all sorts of ways of achieving that.

 

(He may also be a joker)

 

What it boils down to is there are too many public sector workers without enough work for them to do. Taxman has highlighted a canteen in the House of Commons where the staff have no customers to serve. It looks like a great place for cuts to be made and money saved. I don't know how many staff the house of commons employs but I'm sure it could manage perfectly well without most of them.

[Mr Bloom]

He doesn't seem to be asking for subsidy in the report, although he may like the idea for all I know. He's suggesting that cheaper prices might result in more people in the dining room and there are all sorts of ways of achieving that.

 

Yes there are. May I suggest that they call in the catering firm that provide the school "meals" (I use the term very loosely) in my child's school, and charge the MPs three quid a day. I'd love to see them have to eat that.

[Tony]

What it boils down to is there are too many public sector workers without enough work for them to do. Taxman has highlighted a canteen in the House of Commons where the staff have no customers to serve. It looks like a great place for cuts to be made and money saved. I don't know how many staff the house of commons employs but I'm sure it could manage perfectly well without most of them.

 

You're bang on. It's easy to jump to a conclusion in order to have a dig at MP's of a persuasion that you don't agree with.

 

But the only logical conclusion for a restaurant without customers or subsidy, is closure. Something has to change, unless political point scoring is more important than the service and the people who provide it.

 

I was being polite/kind in using the term to describe him.

I did realise that.

 

If the people who look after MP's catering can find ways for them to eat well at reasonable prices, why can't the people who organise school meals?

[tinfoilhat]

What it boils down to is there are too many public sector workers without enough work for them to do. Taxman has highlighted a canteen in the House of Commons where the staff have no customers to serve. It looks like a great place for cuts to be made and money saved. I don't know how many staff the house of commons employs but I'm sure it could manage perfectly well without most of them.

 

Here's a thought, why don't we drop the subsidy, and MPs who all earn a minimum of £65k a year, plus expenses plus any other jobs they might also have CAN PAY FULL MONEY and the low paid serving these arseholes can keep their jobs ? Let's try that.

 

Besides, won't they just claim it back anyway ??

[Mr Bloom]

 

If the people who look after MP's catering can find ways for them to eat well at reasonable prices, why can't the people who organise school meals?

 

But as I understand it, from reading the article, MPs get a subsidy on average, of 66k a year on their dining, but hasn't the subsidy been removed for schoolkids? Perhaps if the the commons dining experience was put out to private tender and had to make a profit, as in the case of school meals, then the Tories would learn first hand that privatisation means you pay the premium but don't get the goods and service as it goes in profits.