OUT OF ORDER, ORDER
Parliament staff whine about grub subsidised by taxpayer
PAMPERED peers, MPS and their staff are bleating about the quality and price of nosh in Westminster’s taxpayer-subsidised canteens.
Gripes include undercooked bacon and too few rashers in sarnies, soggy jam rolypoly and eggs taking too long to fry.
And a veggie Christmas sarnie was deemed too expensive at £3.10.
The complaints, published by the House of Commons under transparency rules, emerged as taxpayer-funded subsidies for bars and canteens hit £3.1million last year.
The contribution was up from £2.9million in 2017. And the list of gripes, covering the 12 months to summer 2018, sparked a call for Westminster to “appreciate” its perk and its hard-pressed caterers.
One person mithering about soggy jam roly-poly sent in photos of a “properly cooked” example.
Another grumbled about coffee and muffins, writing: “Please make sure your baristas can pour a flat white, my previous 5/6 orders were significantly below the standard I have come to expect. Muffins, colleagues are concerned about selection.”
One diner unimpressed by their sausage sarnie said: “The way it is done is not good. I had to butter the bread, get the sausages cut in half then put them on the bread.”
Another disagreed with “proper English mustard” being replaced “with a disgusting ‘mild’ mustard”. And one user moaned: “Is there any prospect of you returning to cooking the bacon properly instead of waving it briefly over the griddle?”
Other beefs included salty shepherd’s pie and coffee being from a machine. One diner would prefer mince to steak in their
Mexican quesadilla, while a lasagne was a touch dry.
One diner blasted the “pathetic offerings of haggis, neeps and tatties”, saying: “I was given portions which filled 50% of the packaging.
“The point is it is a filling Scottish dish of veg and meatoatmeal, meant to be plentiful. By giving miserly portions, you fail to understand its background, its roots.”
And another diner said: “A bit of unnecessary sexism: ‘shepherdess pie’, Quorn topped with mash. ‘Quorn shepherd’s pie’ would have been clearer. There’s nothing inherently female about a veggie option.”
Duncan Simpson, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “The only possible excuse for the subsidy is the twisted timetable catering staff work to fit around parliament’s peak hours and late sittings.
“So perhaps politicians could appreciate this before putting in complaints.”
A Commons spokesman said feedback comes “from a range of pass-holders”.