Is It Any Wonder We Get Monkeys?

[ToraToraTora]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-47405259
they are determining the future of our country F\FS and they ain't even on £80K?
Time to half their number and double their wages?

[Old_Geezer]

£80k to be lobby fodder ?
No, leave those wages, and tax those on more income, enough to bring their greed level down.

[ToraToraTora]

oh dear, the old socialism argument OG, tax the "rich"! right oh!

[ichkeria]

You aren’t suggesting that you become twice as good if you get paid twice as much?!
Why not go the whole hog and have a single MP on 52 million a year. We’d rule the world :-)

[steg]

They’ve already had a rise of over £13,700 since the expenses scandal, who says crime dosnae pay

[ToraToraTora]

we have people on less than 80k deciding the future of our nation. Does no one find that disturbing?

[ToraToraTora]

"You aren’t suggesting that you become twice as good if you get paid twice as much?! " - think it through ich, if you pay more you get better candidates. It won't happen over night but may attract better candidates over time. There are a lot of seriously talented people around but they wouldn't take the drop.

[ToraToraTora]

90% of the commons would not get a job in McDonalds, so we end up with them running the country! F.F,S!

[Zacs-Master]

Yet you've voted for them to have complete control over us. How odd.

[ichkeria]

I don’t see how doubling the pay means we get better candidates.

[maggiebee]

Lot of dosh for sleeping on the job from a few photos I've seen.

[Ryzen]

TTT..thats for 'tax purposes' only..get a grip man!!

[Zacs-Master]

Me neither, Ich. French MPs get about E60k more than our representatives.....are they that much better?

[douglas9401]

Jeez itchy, then you'd get top operatives like Tora beating a path to the joining up room or wherever duffi go for employment.

[ToraToraTora]

so in ich world a better salary does not attract better candidates? Right oh!

[ichkeria]

And why do you think the existing ones are awful anyway? The Tory MP down the road is a brilliant MP. Mind you the Tory MP next door to him is hopeless but no matter :-)
MPs are elected not appointed. Nothing to stop a complete no hoper getting elected no matter what the financial rewards. There may be good reasons for upping MPs pay considerably but I don’t see that that is one of them.

[ToraToraTora]

doug, couldn't afford the drop or tolerate the agro

[douglas9401]

Or indeed keep up your commitment to q and a sites

[ToraToraTora]

if my public needs me.......

[Zacs-Master]

Tora, if your grasp of your professional undertakings is as poor as that of your political / economic acumen, it would seem to completely quash any idea that paying someone a fairly high salary is a guarantee of competency.

[Kromovaracun]

It will certainly attract greedier candidates.

The best argument for a high MP salary is that it makes them harder to bribe - which was indeed a serious problem in UK politics in the C19 and is part of the reason why salaries were introduced in 1911. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it), corruption in the UK is a very different creature now and is largely a function of special interests, lobbying, and party machines. Arguably more damaging in the long term but much harder to uproot. If you let MPs' salaries get too low though then the old problem will resurface...

So there's a balance to be struck between on the one hand encouraging people to go into politics motivated by duty rather than greed (which would suggest keeping them reasonably low) and making them difficult to bribe (which would suggest not keeping it too low...)