Mps Pay Rise

[BayBoy1]

It has been suggested that MPs should have a thirty two percent pay rise,bless them , They deserve every penny of it .They all work very hard for us. They are not selfish ,and they only want to look after the plebs.

[rockyracoon]

Surprise, surprise.

[Sqad]

32% rise, would make it about £100,000 per annum.

That is the MINIMUM that i would want for dealing with the British Public.

[jno]

the Tories were the ones who felt most underpaid, apparently. That sounds very plausible.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20978487

[B00]

"32% rise, would make it about £100,000 per annum.

That is the MINIMUM that i would want for dealing with the British Public. "

Yep, that's my annual salary at the Co op too- gotta love working with the public!

[jno]

and all the Greggs mince pies you can eat, B00?

[sherrardk]

The don't seem to go anywhere near the British public.

[ludwig]

We're all in it together.

[ichkeria]

I don't know about 32% bit why not pay/allowance increases for local representatives. We complain that there aren't enough 'ordinary people' in politics. Increased pay might make it more attractive for the 'non-careerist' to give up the day job for what us often a pressured and short term appointment.
As an aside: Strange how we love to damn MPs but jump to their defence when the evil European Parliament is mentioned (!)

[FredPuli43]

MPs do meet the public. They have regular "surgeries" in their constituencies.

But they are grossly underpaid. About £250k per year minimum is what is needed. You wouldn't get many directors in public companies working for that. We might see a bit less ingenuity over expenses if that was the rate; a blind eye was being turned to some practices because these were a way of giving a pay increase by the back door.

[Scylax]

Politician... the only profession for which one needs no training, no qualification and no experience - and it shows.

[jno]

FredPuli, why would we compare them to directors? Ministers maybe, but bog-standard MPs are paid plenty for listening to constituents and turning up in the House occasionally. Their job isn't directorial, managerial, administrative (apart from hiring spouses as interns) or anything very senior.

[LazyGun]

The average wage for your average member of the general public is around, what, 24K per annum? So were we to keep the MPs salaries as they are, they would expect to see at least a doubling of their salary.

Then you have to factor in the tax free allowances - £160 per week, then allowances for travel, reclaimable expenses for 2nd homes etcetc.

Then they get I think its around 100K per annum to cover their office costs,including PA and research assistant.

I think they do very well for themselves, and right now with the country undergoing austerity measures, there is no justification for any kind of pay increase.

What they should be pushing for is reform, especially a reduction in the number of MPs.

[Duncer]

Hasn't it occured to any of them that, in these times of restraint, they might lead by example and refuse a pay rise at all?

Now then, I'm away to shoot down a few of those low-flying pigs overhead.

[ChillDoubt]

Oh well, only 31% above mine(which has been frozen for 2 years) but I'm sure they do a sterling job and have earned such an inflation busting rise in the teeth of austerity.

And someone asked me the other day why I've never voted.......

[DaisyNonna]

What a copulating cheek!

[DTCwordfan]

I agree - pay MPs peanuts and get dumb monkeys.

Double the salaries and cut the house by two. Why the blazes do we need 650 MPs for 60 mln people whereas the House of Reps in the US has 435 for 350 mln.

Too many, too poor quality both in terms of content, ethics and morality.

[LazyGun]

I still maintain our MPs are actually remunerated pretty well. If you are a junior or cabinet minister, your salary goes up commensurately; And many MPs hire wives or family members as paid PAs, or assistants, boosting their household income considerably. And always remember that the 65K is just salary - All MPs get around 1ooK oer year to run their offices.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/7719739/Coalition-Government-David-Cameron-announces-pay-cut-for-ministers.html

And their pay is better than for their counterparts in some other countries, worse than a few - but this is not some sort of macho contest where whoever pays their MPs the most has somehow won.

http://www.theweek.co.uk/politics/22399/are-british-mps-underpaid

[ludwig]

They're trying to compensate for the fact that it's harder to fiddle the expenses these days.
It's fair enough actually. There should be fewer of them, better paid, with corruption properly policed instead of actively encouraged by the fees office as it used to be.

[jake-the-peg]

Their salaries are reasonably low by European standards (hate to think what US senators get)

Italy Over €16,000 (£13,345)
France €14,000
Germany €12,650
Greece €8,594
UK €6,562 (£5,475)
Spain €4,650

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/italys-mps-have-a-fight-on-their-hands-to-keep-16000amonth-salaries-6284541.html

I'd not be against that being brought up

I am agaisnt the final salary pesion - at a time when everybody else is losing that, it is indefensible for new MPs to continue to get that

Especially when the ministers pension scheme is career average

[LazyGun]

We are not in a race to the top to give our MPs the highest salaries in the world, are we?

So what if other countries pay more - that bothers me not at all. I do not want a bunch of MPs who are solely motivated by the size of their pay packet running the country- its bad enough already that we are seemingly run by a bunch of party apparatachicks who transition from public school to university to intern to assistant to being parachuted into a safe seat, running roughshod over potentially very good local candidates in the process; All these candidates, from all these parties, with a few honourable exceptions, might as well be interchangeable.

One needs to justify a pay rise, especially a 30% pay rise, in a time of austerity. What will they do better, what will they do more of, to justify such an increase?

The idea that somehow we will get a whole breed of capable gifted individuals suddenly deciding that now politics can pay them what they are worth, they will now take up the reins and run the country competently just does not stack up; Those seeking office are not fundamentally motivated by the salary, whereas those principally motivated by earn great wedges of cash will find better opportunities outside of politics.

I want politicians motivated principally by ideals, concepts and public service - not how much they will take home at the end of the week. Just so long as any salary paid allows for anyone from any walk of life to do the job, and the existing salary quite generously allows for that.

Keep the salary more or less where it is.