Counting the hours
The Scottish Daily Mail fished this story out of the news toilet today:
So “man with major and important job gets paid the same rate for a full day’s work as Britain’s 800+ Lords and Ladies do for signing in for five minutes and then going home“ is apparently a shock-horror scoop now. But it gets better.
Because who should the Mail have roped in for a suitably outraged quote other than our dear old pal, Tory sub-buffoon Annie Wells MSP?
“Scottish Tory equalities spokesman Annie Wells said: ‘To many people, this will seem like a lot for a chairman to be paid in stark contrast to those the organisation is trying to help.
‘It’s absolutely vital that jobs like these attract the right people with the right experience, but public money must be spent thoughtfully. Ultimately, whoever takes this job must be worth the pay packet.’”
Zounds, the irony. But what exactly does she mean by “a lot”? The paper lists the new chairman’s hourly rate as £38. And just out of curiosity, we wondered how much Annie Wells got for the task of sitting around thinking up moronic things to say about the Scottish Government.
An MSP’s current salary is £62,149. That’s a little over four times the minimum wage, which at £7.38/hr comes out to £15,055 a year for a 40-hour week, 52 weeks a year.
But Annie Wells doesn’t work 52 weeks a year. Holyrood sits for just 30 weeks of the year, and while MSPs are expected to do constituency work during some of the other 22, list MSPs like Wells don’t actually have constituencies, so they can get away with knocking out a one-hour surgery every two to three weeks because most people will go to their constituency MSP first, especially if they’re not a complete imbecile.
That’s assuming you can find when Wells’ surgeries actually are – her Twitter account directs you to her website for dates, but the website inconveniently doesn’t exist, and as far as we can tell never has.
Her Twitter bio gives a totally different address – she doesn’t seem to be sure if she’s at anniewells.co.uk or anniewellsmsp.co.uk – but that one doesn’t exist either.
But let’s be really really generous and say she works full 40-hour days for half of those 22 weeks when Parliament isn’t sitting. That would make her hourly rate, by a quite remarkable coincidence, £38. (£37.90 if you want to be picky.)
In other words, Annie Wells – who thinks anyone earning less than £33,000 a year doesn’t work hard – reckons that the exact same wage SHE gets for dossing around carping about the SNP “seems like a lot in stark contrast to those the organisation is trying to help”, and that serious questions should be asked about the discernible results achieved by anyone getting paid that much.
For once we’re in complete agreement, and we look forward to reading the long list of her achievements in poverty reduction on her website. If she ever manages to get round to making one, of course.
Brilliant analysis Stu, as per. The Wee Cretin becomes even more cretinous.
Stop picking on Annie Wells, she’s a great role model for idiots and an inspiration to anyone with an IQ of a cornflake who wants a top paid job in politics, no matter how useless they are.
Looks like a fake/dodgy address was used to register that domain. No surprise for a tory.
The domain is currently suspended until a vaild address is supplied – whois output from nominet.org.uk :
Domain name:
anniewells.co.uk
Data validation:
Nominet was not able to match the registrant’s name and/or address against a 3rd party source on 31-May-2018
Registrar:
GoDaddy.com, LLP. [Tag = GODADDY]
URL: http://uk.godaddy.com
Relevant dates:
Registered on: 31-May-2018
Expiry date: 31-May-2023
Last updated: 31-May-2018
Registration status:
Registered until expiry date.
*** This registration has been SUSPENDED. ***
Name servers:
ns43.domaincontrol.com
ns44.domaincontrol.com
carers allowance is £64 a week for 35 hr of care!
‘It’s absolutely vital that jobs like these attract the right people”
So how do you that without paying them the going rate?
The current ‘SNP tsar’ is or was, as far as I know, a fully paid-up
member of the Labour Party.
Quality journalism…
Search on nominet for anniewells.co.uk reveals that:-
– anniewells.co.uk first registered 31 May 2018, expiry in 2023
– “Nominet was not able to match the registrant’s name and/or address against a 3rd party source on 31-May-2018”
– “*** This registration has been SUSPENDED. ***”
Seems she/her office can not manage to register a domain name correctly!
Hi Rev,
Ot, sorry.
Third last para says “full 40 hour days”.
Blimey! She works so hard!
(Sarcasm).
Does anyone know why Annie Wells went into politics in the first place?
(Some people claim to know but I won’t repeat their testimony here so I’ll rephrase the question…)
Can someone who knows for sure *verify* why Annie Wells went into politics in the first place?
Tories just don’t do joined up thinking.
The Glasgow regional list for the Conservatives was ….
1 Adam Tomkins
2 Annie Wells
3 Sheila Mechan
4 Kyle Thornton
5 John Anderson
6 Graham Hutchison
7 Thomas Kerr
8 Taylor Muir
9 Thomas Haddow
Only the top two were elected from the list. Given the quality and competence of those two, what are the other 7 like!?
Or, have I got this all wrong? Perhaps it’s an essential prerequisite for selection that BritNat politicians shouldn’t be capabable of deep thought. Too much thinking and they might come to conclusions.
I despair at the calibre of politician we have in Scotland, but also have to wonder at the mentality of the neep-howkin’ diarrhoea-mouthed teuchters that would still blindly vote for her and her party, just because, well y’know, independence is bad ye ken?!
It’s a real apples and oranges comparisson that the Daily Mail makes – because althought the consultant’ss headline rate is £300 per day – that is most likely on a freelance basis (i.e. probably works through his own Ltd Co.).
In other words, he is responsible for his own training costs, travel costs, pension costs, providing for his own sickness benefit etc. out of the £300 per day. He can then withdraw a salary – on which he will pay Income Tax and have to cover both employee and employers National Insurance. Any profit left will be subject to Corporation Tax. If he chooses to withdraw any remaining money that he has left in his account from that bit of work via a dividend, he will pay dividend tax on it.
So while £300 per day isn’t to be sniffed at – he sure ain’t putting £38 per hour in his pocket.
Be fair Rev
She probably spends a lot of time makin her “AIN”Sanwitches ..
It seems tae be her only principal
Working “full 40-hour days” is indeed a very generous assumption 😉
Annie Wells is a Scottish Labour Party ( sic ) plant – she’s there to make dunces like James Kelly look smart . Yes . I know , Mission Impossible – but at least they tried !
Annie Wells is a figment of her own imagination
Game set and match to the Rev!
How about our Kez somewhere in the Labour jungle?
I believe she got over £30,000 and her MSP salary
While on free board and lodgings with Ant & Dec.
I’ve always been curious if she tipped Ant over the edge?
How about Alistair Darling an his cosy wee number in the Lords
And his part time Bank advisor job with a quarter of a million annual bonus.
For the crap the Daily Hail churns out, do you think any of their muppet journalists
Make less than £50k per annum for a couple of hours typing?
Re Chris Downie
“neep-howkin’ diarrhoea-mouthed teuchters”?
Eh??
Annie Wells represents Glasgow, doesn’t she?
I wasn’t aware that “neep-howkin’ diarrhoea-mouthed teuchters” applied to that part of the world.
Maybe “selfish Tory voters” is a more accurate term?
🙂
Does anyone know what Ms Wells did prior to sticking her undeserved nose in the public trough? Being based here in Dundee I’m not au fait with the glitterati of Weegieville.
Brilliant Stu. She is an absolute idiot. Stands up to no scrutiny whatsoever. This is the calibre of politician that represents the tories. Please keep exposing these space wasters.
@Muscleguy
“Wells is a single mum from Springburn who identifies as a lesbian.[2][3] She became involved in politics during the referendum on Scottish Independence by joining the Better Together campaign and stood as the Conservative candidate ….. For the 12 years leading up to her election she worked as a retail manager for Marks & Spencers in various locations throughout Glasgow. “
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_Wells_(politician)
Aye, a long tradition of Tories from Springburn. 🙁
Glass house’s springs to mind here. Stephen Kinnocks wife, yes those Kinnocks, earns £300,000 per annum. At 40 hours a week, that’s £144 per hour. I’m sure we could find a few blue Tories as well.
These people, troughers, are there for effect, nothing else. They are also there to undermine the Scottish parliament.
The likes of Annie get your sanwich Wells, are a waste of public money, and literally taking the rip out of the electorate.
The political system stinks. Designed to undermine democracy.
You would be hard pushed to get any professional for less than £300 a day. My local garage labour rates are £40 an hour. Non executive directors usually command about £400 a day and try and hire a management consultant and you would be looking at £1,200 a day.
I could Grant’s point if a local council were hiring people to sweep the streets at £300 a day per head but someone to front a Government initiative? It sounds awfully like he is saying that only someone sleeping on the streets should head up a poverty initiative or that no one should earn more than the minimum wage. I certainly hope he wasn’t paid more than the minimum wage for the article.
Wells sounds like she is trying triangulate around the issue because clearly as a Tory she isn’t against high pay per se.
Jeez oh what a moron Wells is, every time she opens her mouth, it’s a gift to the Yes movement.
She’s so thick that she doesn’t even realise that she’s landed a plum salary, without having any talent nor brains, and a voice which sounds like a squeaky hinge.
It shows how much the Tories care about equalities when they made Wells the spokesperson.
Shock horror disbelief no propaganda on Reporting Scotland this lunchtime. Only positive comments on Dundee’s new museum. Someone in the BBC is not doing their job. Disciplinary meeting will soon be upon them.
Wonder how long it will be before “critics say the museum is rubbish etc etc”
“Scottish Tory equalities spokesman…”
Aw no, anither rabbit hole! Beyond a sick joke. Beyond sick satire. Sick britnats beyond redemption.
End this sick union with England!
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/rhi-scandal/live-rhi-inquiry
Which is worse, the Tory party in Scotland or their coalition partners, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) in Northern Ireland?
Take your time, all you BritNat voters.
In four articles by Andrew Learmonth in todays National he leaves the last word to the Unionists, what’s happening here, as if the Unionists don’t get the biggest crack of the whip already. Not good enough by a very long chalk!
OT, but still all part of Tory lunacy …
https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/secret-cobra-committee-meets-over-brexit-1-5692057
Cobra meetings. These are normally reserved for natural disaster and terrorist activities. Now the Tories are calling meetings for self inflicted harm!
Here’s something for Wingers to contemplate. Should a No Deal Brexit happen, will a state of emergency be called? In such a situation, what do you think the chances of being able to hold IndyRef2?
surely no-one would be silly enough to register those domains on annies behalf?
Annie Wells=A legend in her own lunchtime.
Oh Jings! Ms Wells is on a roll. 😀
Giving Goose @ 13:13,
Alas I can’t pass the IanB test, and it’s just pure speculation, but I have always wondered if Ms Wells ranking in the Tory list had something to do with the Orange Order.
Or more plausibly, perhaps, that the powers-that-be in the Tory party thought that a person with some claim to “street cred” might attract more list votes in Glasgow than yer typical identikit stuffed-shirt-in-a-suit, especially from Labourite “no to indyref2” voters. She’s a Tory token pleb in Tank Girl’s litle army.
But alas for us all an empty barrel with it. (Ideal thus for the dead tree comics.)
One may just hope that before next time around, people will have drawn suitable conclusions from her many fatuous effusions.
Is it true her site is registered with godiddy.com?
galamcennalath @ 14:23,
I still tend to the view that the “no deal” talk from all but the Tory mentalists is intended to set up a straw man to (a) soften-up the general public so that when a deal is concluded, everyone will say “whew” and overlook the fact that it’s a sellout for the Leavers and (b) soften-up the EU27 by making them think the UKGov is prepared to walk away without a deal. All about UKGov trying to get the best play out of a rubbish hand.
Of course, with Norn Irn apparently still the big sticking point, the bluff may be called and the worst happen.
The fuse is long lit and burning. All the more reason then to get out of the room before the barrel of gunpowder explodes, rather than hang about in the wan hope of getting some benefit from the aftermath.
A smug, idiotic, poisonous and hypocritical CHARLATAN.
That should just about cover it.
Do these troughers have no integrity or shame?
On a positive note, and to be helpful, maybe she should consider a career with the Pharisees.
Politics Scotland this afternoon. Margaret Curran on as a guest for goodness sake. Is that the best they can do – next thing it will be Murphy. Retread failed politicians. Curran saying anti Semitic members should be expelled quickly. If they expelled all the anti Scottish MSPs in labour there would be none left. She totally lost the plot re EU – didn’t have a clue – embarrassing – almost felt sorry for her for a moment but it didn’t last.
Kirstene Hair for the Tories Universal Credit is brilliant – 82% are satisfied with UC she says. So that’s alright then.
Liar Carmichael still getting a spot on the programme. Lib dems still saying we want a 2nd eu ref but you can’t have a second Indyref even though there is a clear mandate for the indyref but not the Euro ref. The chancers have the word DEMOCRAT in their name.
Reporting Scotland – Pathetic pathetic programme. Tired tired production, interviewers and guests.
BBC Reporting Scotland you are not just a propaganda broadcaster but your programmes are rubbish.
It looks like Wells enrolled British nationalist colleague Jackie Baillie to help her with the arithmetic.
Annie Wells: ….. “… It’s absolutely vital that jobs like these attract the right people with the right experience, but public money must be spent thoughtfully ….”
Annie Wells has no idea who’ll get the job. Let’s face it, it could be one of her ex-colleagues from Marks and Sparks. That should do the trick.
Meanwhile Annie Wells whom no one elected, who doesn’t believe in the sovereignty of Hollyrood, and contributes less than nought in relation to the Scottish public, continues to rake it in. Real thoughtful of her.
The only thing that you can say in her favour, is that as her boss Dirty Money Davidson goes into hiding, she Ms Wells has taken over (watch your back Ruth, lol) by opening her big claptrap and seems to be enjoying basking in the limelight. Ignorance is bliss, as they say.
https://mobile.twitter.com/pwmartin_leith/status/846867034914852864
Isn’t that an oxymoron, Scottish Tory equalities spokesman?… The equalities that is…
I’m still laughing at Stu’s description of her as an “echo-skulled Tory mousewit” on the previous thread.
You’ll be giving her a complex at this rate, Rev.
Memo to Annie: just keep your mouth shut and quietly handbag your money so no-one notices how useless you are.
Conservative PR person chastises the BBC for responding to licence fee payers queries. Apparently the Tories believe the BBC exists as their PR publication unit, this confusion is understandable of course as they never face real scrutiny.
This would be Scotland if the Tories were in power, a quasy dictatorship with the BBC as their publicity unit.
Rev
…I’m gaining the impression from the posts above that the value of Annie Wells contribution to politics and Scotland maybe in question.
My own view is that she is doing a great deal to promote the case for Independence and her contribution in making that choice easier should not be underestimated.
Aye that’s the problem with Holyrood if only she had become an MP she could have become like that legend in his own lunch time, Willie Rennie and just gave the impression of an MP. She would have had to be elected though, and that probably wouldn’t have happened. Given the quality of the Tories both here and at Westminster, I seriously worry about the state of the electorate who vote for them.
Graham Grant…agenda much…….
This arse cannae help himself fae dressing up ANY story to ultimately end up as another ……….SNPBAAAAD article.
You would have to be either the thickest of the thickest, new to this planet,on the same wavelength and thus equally as biased as him, another churnalist lowering his standard by whoring oot your service to jump on the anti ‘nationalists’ bandwagon or a willing candidate for a lobotomy due to your brain being an obsolete unused organ within your body …if you cannot see a pattern in his pathetic constant attacks on the SNP…and actually see it for what it truly is.
If you read this article and BELIEVE it, take it as honest journalism and see no agenda in the printing of this story then , you are someone who must go through life being frequently shit on by many….and will deserve , in some cases, to be shit on.
Nothing in life is black and white but the press frequently assume you will accept that it is. They write to manipulate and influence those who , for various reasons, simply accept that something is as presented….that is until they, those very same people, are themselves the target of the press then a steep learning curve educates them into understanding not all is as it seems and as presented.News sells when presented in a format that is controversial and sensational irrespective of any semblance of truth or fact that backs up what is actually being written.
How many people read a newspaper article and think every aspect is true and indeed plausible via the information that is included in the article and thus conclude it is presented objectively with no hidden agenda….so it becomes a reality.
From their reading of that article do they then communicate what they have read to others as if it was factual .
Do those people they communicate this to then also pass on same information to others based solely on NOT what they themselves have read but via another’s account of that article. In most cases YES .
This is why we need to constantly challenge the media because the danger they pose is that they rely on articles/news items that they write/say being accepted as ‘truth’ and will in turn be communicated as true to others.
How many of us have been recipients of information via others information courtesy of Chinese whispers.
Nothing is relayed word for word or , in some cases,the exact source information acquired from, thus we rely solely on the person telling us to have completely trusted, understood fully , believed as true and sourced this information from a credible and trusted platform….whether that be social media , the press or televised media.
We live in a world where we are being manipulated and influenced by both media and prominent individuals whose motives are driven by a selfish agenda dependent , in many cases, on their political and social status. It is easy therefore to condemn their behavior….. as it stems , not from any consideration for the ordinary working man, but from a position of a self serving agenda to ensure their own survival and power.
One does not need to be educated to see what is happening in the world today with the emergence of dubious factions with dubious intentions rising to prominence.
One only has to NOT just blindly accept that everything one reads, hears or watches is true, without firstly considering searching for an alternate source that will either verify or dispute the news, as presented, as being either fake or real.
This churnalist has form in dissing the SNP and if one bears that in mind then surely his true motive is not in presenting truth but is indeed in presenting his version of what he wants the reader to believe as true. That is NOT journalism but merely blatant propaganda with an objective to smear a target who he is obviously vehemently opposed to.
Therein lies his, this churnalist, achilles heel in credibility, in that he is terribly transparent in his perpetual grievance themed articles towards the same target.
Thus his overall lack of objectivity and bias is exposed and ultimately he will be ignored by those of us who can see that tis not facts based articles he is producing, but merely contrived politically motivated character assassinations and corrupt political motives being badly played out by a second rate churnalist employed by another section of the gutter press.
The ultimate motive being, of course, to publicly denounce a political party that he himself is so against. Badly done Grant…badly done…yet again….and so obvious that it is cringe worthy embarrassing.
In her own words Annie Wells will be at Holyrood 3 days a week and for the remainder at home acting as the constituency MSP. That is other than when she might be doing other interesting things, like getting to be a marine for the day.
What is it with Tory MSP’s that has them straddling tanks, firing guns, lifting landmines and throwing grenades when they should be getting on with the day job?
Has life in Parliament been as you expected it to be?
http://archive.fo/l21qS
Naomski @ 12.48 – you are absolutely right, but you also missed out the big one – pension! No problem there for Annie, I am sure as a ‘list’ MSP she’ll be well catered for courtesy of her employer (regrettably that’s us) but as a contractor you are on your own there. The rates are good, and that’s what people look at, but the outgoings are pretty hefty as well.
Wee typo in para under last graphic Rev. Should be ’40 hour week’
Political anagrams time:
Annie Wells = well insane
(There’s more where that one came from … ? )
Fred at 2.20
That’s because that is the way to provide balance while allowing your own view to have an advantage as the earlier parts of articles are more effectively absorbed. This method is used by our opponents against us in their publications.
@ Dave, Pacific Quay are the masters of this shit, you don’t expect it in the National, either deliberate or laziness!
Slightly O/T
Have to relate:
I was listening to the radio just before 9.00 am this morning.BBC R4, Today programme and the subject turned to Dundee and the new V and A design centre about to open; so they introduced the item and then crossed to their reporter in remote Dundee………………….. ……………………………………………………………………………………… oh, and we’re told there is a delay on the line…………………………………………………………………………
FFS!!!!
Notice it didn’t seem to affect any other broadcast from Dundee throughout the remainder of the day, but then the later ones were probably just a recording of the morning discussion.
Can’t tell you what they said because I turned it off in disgust.
Delay on the line to Dundee – come on BBC — you can do MUCH better than that.
Sorry,Fred ,but the National will not appeal to any other than the already convinced if it presents as an SNP or YES tract.
It is a newspaper and as such it is expected to give a variety of points of view.
Aye Dave, we had quite enough variety from the likes of Angela Haggerty, she worked wonders for the Sunday Herald.
Geoff black. 4.58pm. Only good thing geoff is , i dont contribute to tory annie’s pension. My savings are in a euro account in dublin.(thank you rees mogg). So f**k the brits i contribute f**k all to your war chest.ha ha ha f**ck you warmongering yoon bastirts
Bobp, We Brits can freeze your account and you will need a visa to enter the UK AFTER BREXIT. stick your euros up yer erse Paddy me boy.
“Name (required) says:
12 September, 2018 at 12:03 pm
carers allowance is £64 a week for 35 hr of care!”
Aye, and if the person being cared for isn’t considered disabled enough for the higher rate of DLA or PIP (despite being unable to leave the house) you get nothing but NI credits to top up your HB/CTB.