From The Mind of Merc - Benefit Cuts

Sometimes I find my mind wandering over various eclectic topics and occasionally I am inspired to write some of them down.  Today I was thinking about the recent fracas concerning Mr Osborne’s latest budget.
(This originally appeared on my Facebook wall but proved so popular I thought I’d share it further)

Wouldn't it be great if the recent Benefit Cuts proposal was a test and any MPs who voted for the cuts have failed (as human beings) and have to clear their desks/offices, repay all claimed expenses and disappear off to the middle of nowhere?

Alternatively, let's put the MPs on a performance-related pay scheme - if they do nothing, they get nothing, if they do something but it makes things worse, they get a pay deduction and only if they do what they're supposed to do (i.e. something that has a positive effect or impact and obeys the basis of democracy and listening to the people) would they get paid. Then maybe a) they’d realise how ludicrous so many of their schemes are and b) what it’s like for the rest of us who can’t allocate ourselves ridiculous pay rises.

Or maybe they should try Life Swap (the MP equivalent of Wife Swap) where they have to try to survive on the average living allowance of a family on benefits with no expenses claims, no second home and no power to mess up anyone else's life. (And no ‘Get Out Of Sh*t Free’ card – otherwise known as ‘Phone (or Bribe) A Friend’)

The country's in debt? Here's an idea to fix that:-
a) get rid of MP expenses - you want it, you pay for it because you certainly don’t need it – if tampons are a luxury then helicopters definitely are,
b) no MP can vote to give themselves a pay rise (or if they can they have to up the minimum wage by that amount too) and, most importantly,
c) if you’re going to cut something, Mr Osborne, how about taking it out of MPs wages rather than those of people who need them (doctors, teachers, disabled people, low income families. Most MPs have second jobs/inheritances anyway and, as a little history reminder, in the beginning an MP's salary was precisely £0 so the fact that it is now £74,000 is absurd and, quite frankly, disgusting.

Voting to save money - fine. Voting to save money at the expense of those who really need it by those who really don't - definitely NOT fine.

Here endeth the lesson.