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Ah to be a member of parliament. Not only do you get an average, basic salary of £67,060, expenses to cover a second home, staff and other -not always relevant – costs, but as of the May election, when everyone returns to work, they'll be given a free iPad Air 2 and laptop. The cost to the taxpayer will be around a million pounds over the next five years.
According to parliament however, this isn't to make it easier for the likes of David Cameron to play Fruit Ninja on his train journeys, but to cut back on the amount of paper that MPs use. Despite the year being 2015, many members of parliament still print off almost all of their bills and acts that they need to read through. With the tablets and laptops distributed to them, it's hoped that they will stop doing so and save around £3 million a year on printing costs.
‘You see guys, The Room 3 is coming out soon and we need the extra processing power'
However while most seem happy with the idea of MPs being given free hardware, not everyone is pleased by the fact that parliament's IT team has chosen Apple tablets for the upgrade.
“It’s great that Parliament is becoming more digitally literate but choosing a vertically integrated proprietary system at a time when GDS and indeed the digital community is pushing open source, open standards and interoperability raises real concerns,” said shadow cabinet office minister Chi Onwurah, in a chat with ComputerWorldUK.
However the House of Commons Commission stated that since a number of MPs already use iPads and other Apple hardware, that it would be disruptive to replace them with non-Apple devices.
Head of the commission, Liberal Democrat John Thurso saod: “Our requirements are for a secure, SIM-enabled tablet with a good life expectancy and capable of supporting future upgrades.
“The Apple iPad Air 2 meets these requirements and is competitively priced when compared with similar models.”
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KitGuru Says: “Competitively priced,” isn't something often associated with Apple. If you guys were working in that commission, which tablets would you recommend for MPs to use?
Image source: MrGarethM/Flickr
Wouldn’t be asking much to get them to buy their own laptop and iPad.
why do they NEED an ipad air2 just to read stuff?? they would be more than ok with an ipad 3 or 4.. or just the Air.. will save a shit load of money,
Or a shield tablet or microsoft surface… As I imagine the system will be windows based so just keep it all windows…
Or instead of a laptop AND a tablet get them Surface Pro’s, my Computing teacher has one and their are brilliant
With the wages the majority of them earn, this will hardly dent their wallet.
The reason for getting something from Apple is because they all follow the crowd lol, Pro’s are good I admit that, we have 2 maxed out spec ones here at my Office… I see the point in getting them something Apple based, but i must admit, a Laptop and a Tablet? Nice one… greedy bastards lol.
It’s not like they’ll play Candy Crush Saga on it during meetings?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30375609
What? They will? Well.
Bear in mind, a Surface Pro 3 will cost over £1300 as they’d only buy the top of the range. Not much different from buying a laptop and an iPad Air 2.
Ban them immediately, they might get hacked… by terrorists. Or you know, all those Dominatrix contact details might fall into the wrong hands… it’s to protect the children.
Never heard of Apple being “capable of supporting future upgrades”
Would you like it if your employer told you immediately after he hired you, that you have to spent 2k on new hardware, because you will not be able to do your job otherwise? And that you have to do that, because he wants to cut his own expenses?
I don’t see a problem with employers providing their staff with the necessary tools, even if that employer is the government. Of course, the costs have to be reasonable and the tech stuff should stay property of the government. Not sure if those conditions are met in this case.
It’s public money and all these people can afford their own iPads. Just another expense scandal.
If this saves two million a year, how is it an expense scandal?
Because these people can afford their own iPad and laptop. This is not some private company. This is public money. They’re already paid handsomely for the job.