Jeremy Paxman to David Cameron: Could you live on a zero hours contract? | Battle For Number 10

Jeremy Paxman asks David Cameron if he could live on a zero hours contract during the leader's interviews.

[bri_____]

Mps should be put on zero hours contracts. They only get paid if they bother to turn up and vote in parliament

[DaDez]

Every time an MP is asked about zero hours contract they always resort to saying they work for students but do they not realise that employers out there don't offer them to students only, they are now seen as convenience to employ working people on a lower wage and to ask them not to come in when there is no work thus not adding to their pay check. In addition you can't buy a house on a zero hour's either. You see the problem here? All the young people out there who want to get on with their life can't buy a house or have a regular schedule with hours being changed while they work on a zero hour's and they wonder why there's a rise in mental health with young people....

[NextLevelGaming]

last shift I had was last Tuesday and they just said all my shifts cancelled this week. Of course he couldn't live on zero hour contract cause not even a homeless man could.

[jonbaxter]

Such bullshit, I'm a student and would hate to live off a zero hour contract, it wouldn't work.

[ThePostalGril]

i think his answer was fair, he's right.

[whoisme]

What is wrong with PART TIME CONTRACTS? some if not all students must prefer to have a job where hours are regular and they know when they will be into work and when they will be finished....unless the employer makes the request for O/T...zero hours are a scurge on the UK and those who want to work hard to provide for their families .

[philipmccue]

Surely he only says he couldn't live on an EXCLUSIVE Zero hours contract? Not that he couldn't on a non-exclusive?

[darkwatson]

watch him stumble so much over this question, he's buggered it well and truely now 

[forzabowe]

Nothing wrong if you want flexibility, but for somebody who needs the money it’s not good

[ab]

What a load of bullshit. Its putting people in work that's not secure. It's also happening in the NHS. People working on the staff bank.

[weepingangel]

If you’re from the north stuck on a zero hours contract then jump on a train down south and sleep in a tent there’s PLENTY of money to be made doing basic warehouse work after the tent for 3 months you can buy a car to sleep in and carry on. Sounds awful but I’d rather that than be stuck in the north wasting your 20s and 30s hoping you’ll be called in to work.

[JohnCashin]

The real point got lost because the question isn't being put in such a way that it gets to the heart of the matter, namely, quality of life not just life, anyone can 'live' on a Zero Hours Contract, so the answer to the question as it is, is yes he could 'live' on one but his living would be greatly diminished.

He would have to give up the life style he will be accustomed to on his guaranteed PM's salary and live on the basics, so the real question to him should have been could you maintain a DECENT and SECURE standard of living on a Zero Hours Contract?, answer, definately no he could not.

David Cameron made it even worse for himself by avoiding a question that he could have just said yes to without a problem Lol, the trouble with him, just like all the politicians is that they are afraid to just answer a question directly and straight because they assume it's a trap the interviewer is setting which it probably was the intention but the real trap whether intended or not wasn't in the way he thought, the real trap he fell into in my eyes was him being made to show what lengths he will go to in order to avoid answering a question when he BELIEVES the answer he gives won't make him look good, that's what really tells me how disingenuous he is.

[activebryantsystems]

he could not live on one but like us do it he need to have pay cut he has £4000.0000 in bank and can live on £142, 500 but he get £142, 500

[JohnMartin-ohbf]

That is why we didn’t outlaw ‘zero hours contracts’
And no I couldn’t live on one and that is why we outlawed them.

[GetToDaChoppa-kr]

Please please please for the sake of Great Britain, get rid of the Tories this election.

[DaytonaHills]

look at cameron fumbling over himself
pathetic