god bless ’em, one and all
News that MPs are to be awarded an 11% pay rise from the term of the next government has obviously gone down like a bacon-butty at a Barmitzvah. Seeing the average base salary of your common-or-garden MP rise from upwards of 66,000 to a smidgen under £75,000, is giving the red-top tabloid headline writers every opportunity to enjoy a right royal field day. 1% for you, 11% for them, et al. Perhaps surprisingly though, I’m all a bit sanguine about it.
Following the gone-but-not-forgotten-nor-forgiven expenses scandal, MPs quite rightly ducked out of their own salary determination process, delegating that responsibility to an ‘independent’ body. Good move for sure but, and I make no bones about this, it was done insincerely and manipulatively, as the MPs knew exactly what was going to happen. In recognition of doing away with the criminal misuse of expenses they would have to be recompensed by the independent body; my, they even went as far as ensuring that a veto was NOT put in place. The independent body was sure to award a massive increase and, get this, the MPs couldn’t refuse it! Unlike the, er, independent body that has just reported on the pay & rations of our firemen…which the MPs chose to ignore and who’s recommendations they refused to act upon.
Admittedly, the timing of this ain’t ideal but £75,000 for a good, honest, hard-working and truthful constituency MP seems about right to me. There’s no doubting, and perhaps contrary to the impression they give most Wednesdays at Prime Minister’s questions, it’s an intellectually tough and mentally challenging position, and one where long-hours and considerable time away from home appears to be pretty much the norm. So, mid £70ks, yeah I’m happy with that. Together with an extremely handsome allowance to run your constituency office, and a still overly attractive second-home and expenses allowance list, it’s a cracking job. And one that many able and capable members of the public would snatch their hand-off for – I don’t think for one second there’d ever be a shortage of future potential MPs accepting the role at this salary level!
But, here’s the catch, it’s your job, your one and only job. As a relatively well-paid job, is it too much for me, and your constituents, to expect you to devote all your working time to it? I think not. Therefore, no second or third jobs, no lobbying for bodies or companies, no directorships, and get your snouts out of whatever particular murky ‘consulting’ troughs they’re in. Ah, but MPs say this work keeps them grounded in ‘the real world’ and allows them to connect with ‘real people’. Oh yes, of course it does and to do your job as an effective MP that’s essential. So it is, you’re quite right, so of course you can do all of the above…you just can’t get paid for any of it, as £75,000 is more than enough and a full-time 40 hours job shouldn’t leave you much time to do much else. Shucks, not THAT keen on keeping it up after all then! Who’d have thunked it.
Anyway, enough of that, what’s really getting my political-goat this week is the apparent one-upmanship game Boris, Cammy and Gidiot appear to be playing – who can display the greatest amount of contempt for Joe Public in the least amount of time possible:
First up was Boris, the most dangerous man in politics today, who hailed “greed, envy and inequality as the best way to ensure competition and economic growth”. Ouch. Not to be out-done, step forward he-who-must-be-obeyed Dave who delivered a ‘permanent austerity’ lecture from the golden throne of the lord mayor’s banquet, taking time to joke that, due to the imminent Lord’s reform and the hunting ban, his father-in-law, hereditary peer William Astor, wouldn’t now have anything to do both during the week as well as at the weekend. Really? Chortle, chortle. And all this before Gidiot trumped both of them by announcing the imminent redecoration of the Treasury, to the tune of £8,000,000 of the public purse. No doubt one of the recommendations of yet another independent committee!
