We are watching you DUP & UUP

I have been reading the Belfast Telegraph today 16th February and there is another story on the blaring of the lines between Seymour Sweeney and Ian Paisley junior, over the ownership of a constituency office in Ballymena and the issue of rent being paid or not as the case maybe and to who?

Not only can MLA's clam thousands in expenses but they also get subsidised meals up at Stormont!

The Honourable Members at Stormont can enjoy meals in the Members Dining Room. Sumptuous three-course meals are available for under £20 per head to MLA’s according to the Telegraph. These meals are subsidized by the hard pressed Northern Ireland Tax payer to the tune of £850 per day or £211,241 form May to December 07.

I would expect the nose in the trough old Unionists et al to be happy about this subsidy. It's now time the DUP and UUP have a root and branch review of the perks and expenses of the assembly.

I don’t get a free or subsidized meal from the government and I work for them. I pay for my own Christmas lunch the government don’t pay a single penny or provide a single mince pie to my Christmas meal, so why should I subsidise meals and drinks for people who earn a lot more than I do!

I also use my own car to do my job. I receive motor mileage however, that figure was set 4 years ago by the Inland Revenue, this was to cover the cost of fuel, depreciation. Since then there has been a 25% increase in fuel, I also have to put business use on my insurance, I then have the buy new tyres and service my car more often. So all in all the government are getting a dam good deal out of my car, and I take all the risk. Here is another issue the government have a budget every year and as sure as night follows day they put the fuel duty up, then there is the barrel price going up at a horrendous rate and then in this years buget 2008 the swine in 11 Downing Street put the cost of road TAX up again however, the only thing that doesn’t go up are my expenses to run my car to do the work of government.

Some of these bottom feeders in Stormont who are members of parliament get more in expenses £40k, for a second home that they allegedly need in London. They use this house/flat to stay in when they are going to parliament. £40k, is more than I get in salary a year!!!

When it comes to selling these houses they can usurp the rules to avoid paying capital gains tax so another nice little earner. In Northern Ireland these same bottom feeders pay rent on a portacabin on their own land to their wives so in these days of equality I want the same perks that these berks get?

The politicos also pay rent to their wife for a constituency office that their wife allegedly owns, not only that the wife works there and gets paid form the Tax payer as a constituency office worker!

As every week goes by we are being more and more disillusioned by the perks, expenses and the goings on up with the folks on the hill.

From the age of eighteen when I was eligible to vote, I have voted Unionist at every election. I seen it as my duty as a Unionist, and when the DUP have been on the ticket I have voted for them. However the day is fast approaching when I will be abstaining form voting. I am starting to get very disillusioned with Unionism and with the DUP and the UUP, as are my family and friends. We feel we have been used by the Unionist parties as a meal ticket

To be a good Unionist I was taught that one must look after and maintain the Union. However it does not permit the elected Unionist representatives to forgo the working class Unionists, and to line their own pockets at the Unionist Tax payer’s expense.

In light of the By-election defeat at Banbridge, here are a few thoughts form family, friends and myself to the DUP.

We are increasingly unhappy with the way the DUP are holding the hand of Sinn Fein/IRA.

We are also increasingly disturbed with the machinations of both Paisley 's. Both Paisley ’s are now being seen as a major hurdle to the future success of the DUP by family, friends and me. I personally can’t stand that pompous off spring Ian junior. I have never met this man but his manor is both condescending and arrogant. What does this man know about what its like to be brought up in a poverty filled low education attaining housing estate, were the people live from hand to mouth; on a day to day basis were mental and physical sickness, despair and an early grave are your daily companions!

The Seymour Sweeney debacle and the way young Paisley is strutting around denying a close business relationship with Seymour his arrogance knows no bounds and is alienating us as voters.

We are not happy with the way Jeffrey Donaldson seems to be trotted out by the DUP like some sort of Chawawa Rottweiler type spin doctor.

Poots, and the National stadium or not as the case maybe, and the raft of other decisions that seem to be put on the long finger, however quick decisions on traffic/parking attendants are seen as indicative of an administration that can't take controversial decisions yet can bring in traffic/parking attendants who are seen as issuing another stealth tax on hard pressed motorists.

We see the money generated by double and triple hated MP's, MLA's and Councillors as avarice at its most vile. The sums of money in salaries and expenses are 5 or 6 times my government wage. This is feeding the impression of, typical old Unionist party. The view is that the MP's, MLA's and Councillors are not in it for the Unionist people but lining their own pockets.

Peter and Iris Robinson are not setting a great example with their 40k expenses for their London home, that’s more than I earn a year!

Nine of your team at Stormont are double hated earning huge sums of money and then there is the question of relatives and friends working for MP’s, MLA’s. The sums of money being bandied about most of your working class electorate can only dream about, or is only attainable through a lottery win; this is feeding the impression of avarice and nepotism.

The other factor is how can one person do two full time jobs and give of their best to the Unionist electorate?

We don’t care for the PSNI they don’t care about the Unionist population and they are not the ‘B’ Specials, we don’t care for the 11+ it is seen as a middle class attempt to keep working class Unionist people in their place, we don’t care for money for the UDA, they are drug dealers and killers of Unionists within the Unionist community.

What we do care about is proper policing, better education for working class Unionist areas, well paid jobs, no more stealth taxes, the NHS and proper housing for Unionist low income earners.

We read the news and blogger sites on the Internet, the quality London papers, local press and listen to the local phone-in radio shows.

Turning into the old Unionist party of the past will not be tolerated and trying to hide from the Unionist electorate will not be as easy as it used to be in the bad old days of the old Unionist party. In the bad old days the only time you seen a Unionist politician was when they were banging the big drum, looking to get elected and after being elected they did nothing for the poor and the working class Unionist population!

The DUP appear to be moving away from the working class Unionist population who put the party were it is today.

What is being discussed is not voting at all at the next election. This is not based on a few conversations but almost all of the people I have spoken too.

So be warned, if the DUP are not seen as whiter than white and don't get their act together you may find that the working class electorate will vote with their feet and stay at home!