Cleaners

Today's news reveals that some politicians have a lot of cleaning done. Mr Brown has been claiming about £240 a month for cleaning.

What bugs me, is why can politicians have a cleaner on tax payers' money and I can't?

At university, the students get rooms in hall, or college. At Oxbridge, they have colleges that own their own premises and rent them out to the students. Cleaners come as part of the deal. No-one has to buy their own sofas, or arrange 'essential maintenance' because that's the colleges' problem, not the students', and it shouldn't be an MP's problem either. Why can't MPs have the same arrangement? Parliament should buy and own accommodation that is available to MPs, so there's none of this nonsense of expense claiming for second homes.

Paying for university

I thought it was bad enough that the government gave so few years warning that my children would have to pay to go to university. I don't see it as unfair to have to pay, but would have liked to have known when they were much younger. Son is now building up his debt, having a living expenses loan of £3000 a year, and £3000 a year paid to the university. So that's a lot at the end of a four year course.

He applied to five universities, and now his sister is going through the UCAS process and applying to study maths at Oxford, Bristol, Bath, Warwick and Surrey. Their aunt in the states has just emailed to ask

"Do you have to pay to apply to universities in Britain? (Son) paid about $300.00 per application."

Thank goodness that's one expense that we don't have to pay yet.

Daughter has an interview at Surrey next week, an acknowledgement from Bristol and Oxford, but not yet Warwick and the offer of an interview at Bath in January.