Should politicians be banned from employing family members?

Following the controversy this week surrounding Conservative MP Derek Conway overpaying his son, many have suggested that politicians should be banned from employing family members.

Tory leader David Cameron says he intends to require his party's members to make any details of their employment of relatives available to public records, while PM Gordon Brown says he wants more transparency but isn't clear about what form this will take.

What do you think?

politicians should be banned from employing anyone imho.

I think as long as the person is adequately fulfilled to fill position I don't see why not.

Yeah, there's no problem at all with hiring your family. How many family firms are there? Lots and lots. And in fact many MPs run a lot better for having trusted people working for them- wives as secretaries etc.

The only problem is if you just GIVE your family money for doing nothing, out of the public purse. That's what Derek did. There's no need to be over-zealous, just cut out those abusing it.

Well, it's always been taken that a politician is a family person just like any other family person in society and our communities. So, it works in some ways.

Case in point I'm sure a politician despite his own personal goals would love his family just like most of us do.

the problem wasn't that they hired a family member...as this is common practice...the problem was that he hired his son who was a student and was paying him the maximum money he could claim (from taxpayers money) which was £250 ($500) a week (£13,000 a year) for the equivalent of 2 hours work a week...so i think "overpaying" doesn't really cover it adequately...it's just another way that UK politicians take the taxpayer for a ride

their basic annual salary is over £60,000

they get a "cost of living away from home" allowance of over £22,000
a london supplement (if applicable) of another £2700
office running costs of £22,000 (which doesn't include stationary as that can be claimed seperately)
staffing costs of £87,000
a "winding up" cost when they retire or are voted out of office of £33,000

none of those take into consideration travel costs

so all in they get around £250,000 a year...there is 650 mp's in the westminster parliment so that means a grand total of £162,500,000

not to mention they get ot vote on their own pay rises annually which is regularly above 10% (despite the fact the most people in the country get a below inflation pay rise (around 3%)

but these are entirely seperate issues...they all point to the same thing though...mp's are overpaid and fleecing the taxpayer for everything they can get...and dont get me started on actual cabinet members perks

They can hire whoever they want.

Originally posted by Ushgarak
Yeah, there's no problem at all with hiring your family. How many family firms are there? Lots and lots. And in fact many MPs run a lot better for having trusted people working for them- wives as secretaries etc.

The only problem is if you just GIVE your family money for doing nothing, out of the public purse. That's what Derek did. There's no need to be over-zealous, just cut out those abusing it.

Second.

There is nothing wrong with employing family, so long as they are treated the same as all other employees

Hiring people fro you8r family is a mafia like activity, its bad enough that in places like the US, sons & now possibly wifes of presidents become president, not much of an equal opportunity situation is it.

Originally posted by Bicnarok
Hiring people fro you8r family is a mafia like activity, its bad enough that in places like the US, sons & now possibly wifes of presidents become president, not much of an equal opportunity situation is it.

Why not? As long as you hire who's best for the job it doesn't matter if they are family or not. And I'd imagine that in politics family is the best for the job, simply because most people tend to trust their family members.

They should be able to hire whoever they want, but their actions should be monitored by an outside source via public records, that way whether it's a family member, a best friend, or just some guy off the street, they can be put into check. I think that's how it's done anyway.

Originally posted by Lord Coal
suggested that politicians should be banned

I second the motion.