Andrew Bridgen: MPs Are Underpaid
According to the Office of National Statistics MPs on £65,738 are paid more than 95% of the people they represent. Yet according to a survey carried out by YouGov for IPSA, they want more, an average of a 32% hike. These are MPs from parties with a policy of keeping other public sector worker’s pay frozen. Andrew Bridgen had the balls to tell the BBC the truth:
Pollsters YouGov were asked to survey MPs by IPSA to find out if they thought £65,738 was enough for their salary.
MPs were asked to anonymously suggest an appropriate salary:
On average Tories wanted £96,740, Lib Dems £78,361 and Labour MPs a mere £77,322. Labour’s policy is to freeze public sector pay for nurses, teachers, policemen and soldiers. The UK average income is £26,500. We’re all in this together, right?
Plus expenses
The political class are better than you so they need high salaries and expenses. Utter, utter scum they should be all rounded up and executed.
Including all those nice Tory MPs? Surely not, you know they are worth it, aren’t they? They could have that pay and then go without their expenses, more tax could be collected from them then, expenses are not taxed, only allowances are taxed, do think might like that.
Plenty of people queuing up to do the job at half the price.
Let the market do its work.
Yes, let the market decide who they will vote for. Name the stinking troughers who want even more!
Well underpaid. End off.
Lowest salary of most first world parliaments.
Pay more, get better people.
Why should I take a pay drop to work harder?
Plus, all the opportunities for caging money from businesses and unions, plus the opportunity to be part of a special committee, making an extra 20k per annum per committee, plus free travel plus free accommodation and meals (try getting those as a public or private employee!!). Plus the free congestion charge, plus the TV appearances, plus the rest….
pay peanuts and you get monkey – look at the bankers.
MPs should only get a productivity pay rise when their number is cut. Cleggy and his followers wanted to cut their number by 150.
“more tax could be collected from them ”
An excellent plan, but with one teeny-weeny flaw. Public sector workers don’t contribute any income tax.
You could argue that, but they do pay income tax ie those earning enough pay income tax but it just goes back into HMG coffers, mps tv appearances he money they get should but publicly stated but I bet the hourly rate is much lower than the hourly rate as an mp. Dave Boy and Teddy Boy and all their little chums are in the public sector so their wages should be pegged at 1% like the rest of the public sector, so far their salaries/wages have had higher than the rest of the public sector. MPs forget one thing it is not their “outstanding intellectual standing” that gets them the job of mp, it’s all those crosses on voting papers, and all but approx 200 constituencies have tribal voters who vote the same way every time, hence you get the parachuted party candidate easily becomes an mp, there should be a residential qualification of 5 years in a constituency before anyone becomes a candidate.
You get monkeys whether you pay them well or not.
Give ‘em peanuts.
Saves us a shilling or two.
If they cheat, lock em up or worse!
Most people would be happy to do the job for free.
I think we can get by with about 250 legislators earning £60,000 each and no expenses. Sack the rest
I’ll vote for that
Me too!
I would say 100 MPs is more than enough – but 250 would be a start !
MP’s salaries are about right at £66k. It’s high enough to attract good candidates, but low enough to deter (most) outright careerists. Public service should be just that. Any that want more can always hand in their notice (i.e. resign their seat) and seek better remuneration elsewhere.
Besides, many MPs seem able to become millionaires whilst ‘serving’ the public, so it can’t really be starvation wages, can it?
A bloke from Poland around our way will do the job for £30k a year ….
There are also some Afghans, Somalians and Pakistanis that will have a go for little more than the average wage…
Capita, G4S and others would also be interested in bidding for the contract to supply people to act as MPs for half the cost –
As one doesnt need a qualification, nor indeed scruples or morals to be an MP I think their salary should be opened up to the market forces they allow on other professions !
I think the only disqualification is a felon in prison or someone who has been sectioned (metal health)
Fuck that – good candidates are more likely to be attracted if the pay is zero – they’d do it for ‘public service’.
The current lot are largely just c***ts
Well said! They are indeed c**ts. Corrupt c**ts to be precise.
Wot has Mr Huhne got to do with it?
huhne – what the huhne in truro court this morning at 11.00 a.m.?
real soon now . . .
Government is just a mob racket, why is anyone surprised that the job attracts criminals?
+1000
What about linking pay to performance – a low basic salary, then a big bonus for economic growth, reduced crime etc?
Bill that would of course only apply to the ruling party/parties
Absolutely!
No….all parties. Then they would have to work together, constructively.
No Bill they are they area rare beast called a pushme-pullyou and end up going nowhere
Let voters decide on the pay level.
Each MP candidate names their pay on the voting slip.
I like that idea. Winner.
Personally I believe MP’s should get around £110,000 + £12,000 for office expenses but NO OTHER EXPENSES and NO other paid jobs at all not even for charities.
Those caught in contravention of these rules will be subject to criminal law and barred from any political work for life.
Ministers’ salaries fixed to MP’s rates depending on the respective responsibilities and accountabilities.
I also believe the national pension should be £1000 per month and inflation rated.
Magic Money Tree in your backyard?
Plus subsidised pies.
Guido, I’m afraid you are misrepresenting this. I heard the interview on PM. Bridgen was quite clear that he was not asking for a pay rise. The question was “What do you think is an appropriate salary for MP’s?” not “What do you think your pay should be increased to now?”
He was saying MP’s should be paid more, not that he wants as an MP to be paid more. Yeah, huge difference there.
OK, so give him a pay CUT then! No Moonlighting, for a start!
You a politician? You write bollox like one.
Plus subsidised food and drink plus huge pension.
Also aren’t MP’s salarys exempt from income tax at a higher level than ordinary folks eg ordinary people taX free allowance is £10 000 MPs is £25 000 so that £96 000 into their hands is worth more than £96 000 in the real world.
I’d also point out that the average wage is inflated by the wage of those at the top who now get a larger share of income than they did 30 years ago.
Cheeky fucker!
They should get 25-30k top whack
or just whacked
no, this is serious. I dont see why they should earn more than me when I sit in the security booth for hours 6 days a week and at least do something useful to keep the yard secure. What do they – nothing I tell you. They just sit there chucking back the free or subsurdized food and drink. It makes me really cross.
I bet they pay you peanuts, eh 8illy?
i get a fair days pay for a fair days work – not a lot but enough – I would turn down any big pay rise because i knows what my job is worth
You are just of them jealous Bill
English not your first language, either, eh?
sticks and stones may break my bones but you will never get near to 1058 firsts!
Cum, ok then, You are just jealous of them Bill, is that better old cock.
S’pose they have a case.
black and white tv licences.
What we call, our life fall, what is happening now, record for you sons and daughters history, or future history.
Scandie, she loved me her underage – sung my songs too,
She told me I am suppose to be the one across the lake at the end, as in across waters. Ok.
Anne my old friend on her harp, she is the one harp conducting them all from the middle, the one with spex,
Ach bugger it, this is actually her,
sorry, no, that wasn’t her, here she is in the middle, with the spectacles on, conucting the harps and their farts – a hell of an interesting girl/woman, let we tell you that for nothing,
It’s an auto-blography!
Will she agree to being the latest addition to my wank bank? Ask her and please get back asap.
@Sir William.
Yep, just the thing for a political blog, the autopissography of an obscure and bonkers taffy.
Anne? christ yes, happy bellend – it would make her happy. These seriously proper musical people know how to be proper in public, but behind closed doors, animals they are, total wild animals – you’d think they need shooting, away from their harp and piano.
totally OOO-OOO they are. Shameless.
Stop cluttering the place with stupid videos, you Cretin!
sord orf, nimbey.
nothing changes, the only thing they are interested in is their own fucking bank balance, it’s never changed in over 50 years, but you keep voting for the fuckers, so it’s your fault! so don’t moan!
As opposed to what?
Anyone other than Tory, Labour and LibDem. Use your brain for once.
Not doing the above I suppose
and whilst i’m here, you keep going on about our membership of the EU. When will you learn?
You will never ever get another referendum on it in this country, they won’t allow it. You really should know that by now, no matter what!
The forces surrounding it are far bigger than any democratic process or what any UK person(s) might think of it. It’s here to stay so get used to it!
This was agreed at the end of the second world war, you didn’t know that?
Yes, but with all the threats and predictions it is showing that our membership is worth something. In fact it seems it is worth a great deal to some.
The problem is like a start-up company. They need to grow and take the market, but when do they stop? All companies have to be redirected as markets change. Also a one trick company has no future.
Companies with too much market share attracts too many enemies and the basis of the EU will fail. If it really had a solid identity it would be able to let some members go and gather others up, eventually gaining the correct balance. But to imprison a member with threats is not a healthy state.
Alternatively it could become the “Shepard tone” of politics. Always seeming to grow but never actually does.
He may want a rise but he certainly aint gonna get more than 1 per cent,if he dosnt like it resign.He will be swamped in the thousands willing to replace him,Being a charitable chap Id pay them 43k max with rent allowance and 2nd class travel.
Three labour maps…why is it still bleak after their time in power……
Oh yes poor people vote labour so keep them poor keep them voting labour
many a true word eh
Yeah youre right but they will never lear ,cos theyre thickos.
Bugger the rent allowance, I would reduce the numbers to 3-400 or so, buy an old hotel with passable dining facilities and bus the swine in and out each day. Sod the mortgages, sod the rents, sod the long distance travel, so the ministerial cars. We just make them feel worth more than the scum they are. Somebody mentioned the atheletes facilities left after the Olympics – go for them if you like. But for F**KS sake stop treating them like they are anything more than our mouthpieces.
It would be nice to think that they were our mouthpieces – but they’re not.
Once they’ve got voted in they follow someone else’s agenda.
That’s what people vote for! They vote for a *Party* instead of an individual. So they get a party whose main aim is to look after their cronies and trough themselves to slobbering obesity.
Vote independent or not at all. Only give the mandate to rule over you to someone you trust, or no one.
Inept, look after themselves, not worth £20 a week, MPs, gods gift to themselves so no change then, time to sack them all.
MPs are vastly underpaid. Just think how much I could have earned if I’d pursued another career.
Sadly the BBC had already filled the vacancy for Test Card F.
I think they do have a case but increased salaries should be on a sliding scale that reflects what they bring to the job. PPE or archeology and anthropology degree plus a year or two in PR or as a researcher should equate to about 18K plus reimbursement of essential receipted expenses. 20 + years in business or a ‘coal face’ profession dealing with an unfiltered general public would entitle the MP to considerably more.
Fucking troughing c’unt. Ain’t he a public servant? My servants don’t get paid more than me.
Your fired.
Pay peanuts and you get monkeys…………….We need a far better class of M.P. preferably older people who have made ‘it’ and want to put something back.
The creeps that come up through the labour party -ex librarians, union officers, activists and there ilk are a dangerous breed – witness “Blair’s Babes”
So yes the job needs to be better paid or it will remain the ‘playground’ of the Marxist social engineers.
It’s not a job, though. It’s a public service. Or at any rate, it should be….
More like self service with these cun*ts
Why not stand at the next election then, if you think that way.
I would stand as an Independent with a good manifesto,in Sunderland I would probably get 500 votes and all the usual excuses but me grandad voted Labour all his life,I vote Labour cos they give me and the bairns a house and tax credits and free school meals etc etc!
that is why they need a sliding scale. At the current rate, becoming an MP is a good career move for somebody who is barely out of university. Several of the 1992 or 1997 intake seemed to use a stint as an MP, paid well beyond what they would probably have got elsewhere (especially given the expenses) as a stepping stone to another career. This contrasts with people who bring many years of experience and expertise to being an MP and who may be taking quite a cut in pay.
They’re supposed to be in it out of a desire to serve their country not looking for a lucrative career move.
Pay peanuts and you get monkeys
Pay to attract greedy sods who want to serve their bank balances rather than their constituents and you get ?
Can’t help but notice that the more useless they are the more they want.
Dunning Kruger.
I especially look forward to being called morally bankrupt for getting a bonus
That’s not moral bankruptcy. That’s amoral cupidity.
Be quiet, Little People. There is nothing to concern you here.
Go and eat fish fingers and watch your Graham Norton shows.
They really are a very nasty out of touch bunch of greedy people. Democracy and representing their constituents is anathema to them. If only Her majesty would reclaim her country.
Clegg and Milliband are both married to wealthy lawyers.
Their hypocrisy is breathtaking.
As a triple-flipper, I can sit on the moral high ground and live on a modest six-figure income now ( before expenses ).
Don’t get too comfy, lardarse.
Bridgen is right, MP’s should be paid far more. We would then start getting better quality candidates put forward instead of the muppets we have now
Drivel.
It seems the more we pay the better people we get , now lets see , banking, da management made millions in pay and extras, uncivil servants, local and Londonistan management, I presume all that money payed out has made us a very rich country , while other countries are in a bad way, time to make these fkin MPs hungry, cut wages, expenses by 70% and take the charge away from people who want to try and be an MP, plenty of even better people out there who will do it just to serve the people of the country, which I thought being an MO was all about.
Lets have a qualification for prospective MPs. I know, call it PPE, philosophy, politics and economics. Now you can ‘do’ this degree at university and this is the good bit, you can join a political party, any party it doesn’t matter as convictions just get in the way. Anyhow, you can just do a Nick Clegg and say you cant recall if you joined the Conservative party when at university.
According to 2009 figures [wiki] MPs averaged 145000 pounds expenses on top of their income / salary. [This does not include those with secondary employment or bungs from the media.]
Remove the obscene perk to employ family members other than that for a flat fee for basic office costs.
Give them the 32% increase, and let them overnight when necessary in a specific MP hostel.
Basic travel costs to visit their constituency when not swanning about abroad on junkets [paid for out of their own pocket.]
Failing that – shoot the basturds.[sic]
Goodnight modbot.
I cannot be bothered to check for algorithm pea or cue failings and repeat the comment
Peas are back on the menu, these days. You must have upset Modbot some other way.
Dear Gramma = maybe it’s just your moniker, modbot being very oddbod about monikers lately – I have several now and find if it blocks me and I change moniker it lets me post the comment. Have no idea why!!
Gramma – it’s the second to last word – not [sic], the other one. It’s quite happy with the ‘bas’ bit, but it doesn’t like the next four letters at all. Don’t know why.
Correct. Your explanation checks out, Engineer.
Their pay and expenses should be decided at each election and paid for by the voters of each constiuency by a direct levy voters, or via council tax.Too many MPs go native once they hit Westminster and too many MPs are beholden to the state for their income. Let MPs include their demands in their election promises and we’ll see what level the public will stand.
There is no shortage of candidates. Prices should be being pushed downwards through competition.
Compared to Council officers, civil servants, BBC, Union bosses, chief executives etc – they are NOT being paid enough – as someone has already mentioned the famous Sharon Shoesmith was on £220,000!!
Quite, but she was being grossly overpaid, as are many at the higher levels of council, quango and BBC management.
Indeed – we should be reducing their pay too …. like the pay reductions and freezes facing those on the front line who actually do the work in the public services
You have that perfectly backwards. The likes of Sharon Shoesmith should have their pay cut by 75%.
More
“According to the Office of National Statistics MPs on £65,738 are paid more than 95% of the people they represent.”
Certainly not true of Tory MPs. Not one of them would dream of representing anyone on less than 65k.
The Opposition are, of course, NOT motivated by personal gain.
We’re in it for the socialism boyo, innit? Ahhhhh, just smell the socialism….it’s luvvley jubbly!
You may be interested (or not!) to know that I have just unpacked my Karl Marx and Frederick Engels: Collected Works, in 3 volumes, and put them on my library shelves.
I acquired these since I emigrated and have read some, but not all of them. I have to say that I was not terribly swayed, which will probably come as a huge disappointment to you. But I did try to understand their arguments which, like so many others, are persuasive to start with…
You sad bastard,
What a coincidence.
Busy with books here too, especially the weighty tomes.
Marx and Engels though great for reaching the upper shelves I found Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico Philosophicus better. Not only in name and size; it was perfect for raising the carjack to support the tractor when I needed to remove one of the wheels.
“Our greatest stupidities may be very wise.”
” There can never be surprises in logic.” LW
6.51 Scepticism is not irrefutable, but obviously nonsensical,
when it tries to raise doubts where no questions can be
asked or a tractor.
Tractatus (1918, as amended 2013)
A very good morning Cat.
Sturdy hand made shelving, the new firplace, hearth and surround I could not resist the friendly jest. Sometimes when plans come together we want to shout our success for a long term project’s achievement to the world. Knowing you love Wittgenstein ,considered :-
“But some of the greatest achievements in philosophy could only be compared with taking up some books which seemed to belong together, and putting them on different shelves; nothing more being final about their positions than that they no longer lie side by side. The onlooker who doesn’t know the difficulty of the task might well think in such a case that nothing at all had been achieved.” but let it go.
Similarly the rebuke “Never stay up on the barren heights of cleverness, but come down into the green valleys of silliness.” with my love of the countryside would have been unfair, OTT, since I know you temper intelligence with a generous helping of wit.
Great early morning here. Looks ni-ce out today. Think I will keep it out…….
How does ‘ Not a machine’ do it.
Attempting a simple reply, devoid of expletives, yet hung up by the modbot ?????????????
Surely one spelling mistake ‘fir-place’ instead of fireplace cannot have triggerd refusal?
Will try again…..
I despair. Earth-wormed? Shirley not?
Fawkes- Getting your fucking finger out you dozy Hunt.
A very good morning Cat.
Sturdy hand made shelving, the new fireplace, hearth and surround I could not resist the friendly jest. Sometimes when plans come together we want to shout our success for a long term project’s achievement to the world. Knowing you love Wittgenstein ,considered :-
“But some of the greatest achievements in philosophy could only be compared with taking up some books which seemed to belong together, and putting them on different shelves; nothing more being final about their positions than that they no longer lie side by side. The onlooker who doesn’t know the difficulty of the task might well think in such a case that nothing at all had been achieved.” but let it go.
Similarly the rebuke “Never stay up on the barren heights of cleverness, but come down into the green valleys of silliness.” with my love of the countryside would have been unfair, O.T.T, since I know you temper intelligence with a generous helping of wit.
Great early morning here. Looks nice out today. Think I will keep it out…….
7?
Still waiting for the modbot to make up it’s mind
Got it earthbookworm, if I may conflate your monikers?
Thank you for your kind and amusing thoughts and may I return the compliment.
Be careful if using a chainsaw in that state, though…
I’m waiting for the film.
Monkey Business (1931)
I am sure you can download it.
the road to serfdom is a much better book.
Ah yes! Of course I have that too.
Certainly not true of the shadow cabinet
Something has to be done about these scrounging scumbags!
Each year put all their names in a hat.
Draw out 10 names.
Execute them in public.
Decimation.
There may be a teensy, weensy snag there. If we started executing them, applications for MP candidacies may drop off a bit, creating several vacancies. The only institution likely to rush in and fill it is the EU.
Sadly, until we’ve got the spectres of Rumpy-Pumpy, Barroso and their mates off our backs, the MPs and Parliament remain (ironically) our best defence. A pretty feeble one, I’d agree; but it’s up to us to stiffen their sinews a bit. Like by demanding our in-out referendum, for starters.
That is really not the right way to go.
Just capping their pay and perhaps performance linking it somehow is the way forward.
If MPs agreed to no private sector work in return then fine.
However, seeing as they have just screwed the economy up, perhaps now is not the best timing for that suggestion or for increasing pay. Perhaps adjusting them down to the GBP 50-55k level more appropriate.
Would you feel any differently if it was guaranteed that the first name out of the hat began Balls?
If you adjusted them down to an appropriate wage based on Ball’s performance that would be somewhat a relief for the public purse.
There is no point in being harsh as after all they are doing a job, or rather they are meant to be.
Even considering an inflation level increase would introduce serious moral hazard at present.
How utterly out of touch can a supposedly intelligent being be. Perhaps intelligent is not an appropriate word.
Is that all !!!!!
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
Is that all !!!!!
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
Erm… that’s not funny.
Is that all !!!!!
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
Is that all !!!!!
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
Is that all !!!!!
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
The religion of piss.
Is that all !!!!!
Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha
HOW FUCKING MUCH !!!!!!!!!!
I’d give them £100,000 if they gave up all the pettifogging expense claims and other dodges.
Between all 650? Sounds a bit generous.
Agree wholeheartedly. What would happen in Industry DOWNSIZE. In this era of ITwe don’t need 650 of these bastards – 250 would be quite enough.
I wouldn’t. I would link their pay to how much the deficit was reduced. The more it comes down the more they get.
Guess what? …………….
Anyway, it was a survey – not a pay demand.
Double their pay
Halve their number
Simples
The MP’s pay could be put up if they were actually doing anything.
Whilst most of the work is currently done in Europe, and all they do is essentially fill in time on the BBC and irritate the hell out of us, perhaps pay should be cut.
The ones who are worth the money usually either already have it, so the pay is a token anyway, or have several other board positions which make up the short fall.
I’m worth at least 500k, you jealous bigots.
I’d be interested to know how much the BBC interviewer is being paid.
News readers get around 100k p.a., yes just for reading auto-que.
Would you like me to create another auto-queue ?
Stock-pile petrol now !
FFS HOW MANY MORE TIMES??? It’s autocue. Why is that so effing difficult?
Why do you think the BBC are in panic mode over child benefit changes.
Most of their more senior staff and presenters, editors get well over £60,000 and claim child benefits.
Payment by results, like the probation service
If MP’s want more money for doing their job, would it be too much to ask for them to, ermm, DO their job? Those idiots, with their outside interests (which take up much of their time, as with a certain ex-Minister brother of a certain Party leader, for just one egregious example), would like to get a rise in pay?
People in hell would like a sip of cold water, too. And I’m tempted to tell those pol’s to go investigate that fact first-hand, FFS!
(And don’t even START, when it comes to Gordon Brown…)
Eh ?
What is it– you’re deaf as well as blind? You heard the man! ***”DO THE JOB YOU’RE PAID FOR”***! There– now did you get it, Mongo?
Yes! All Parliamentary days should be abandoned unless there are at least 200 of them present in the house throughout the entire working day.
Eeee lad, I’d tek a 100% drop in me salareh.
Wanker
If MPs were paid per lie and smear the biggest earners would be Bryant, Watson and Balls. Each would be on at least a million a year.
Who says we aren’t already?
Well , bu##er me with a barbed wire bog brush. Is it 1st April ? Must be. Or have I been tele-ported to the planet Zog ?.
This is not a wind-up I hear you say : well, it’s wound me up good and proper I can tell you.
My imagination fails to find adequately pornographic terms to express my utter contempt for these people.
Off with their heads and stick ‘em on pikestaffs along London Bridge.
Erm, not altogether impressed, then?
How about Blackfriars, wholly more appropriate no ?
Personally spe@king I consider the pikestaffs would cost too much. MP’s really aren’t worth it . And I don’t think I’d want to sully London Bridge with their heads either!!
Why don’t we use the Tower? Lots of space there – and it would again be fulfilling one of its original purposes.
Plus we could sell tickets too to offset some of the costs.
What’s not to like?
Look its pretty simple we locked the shirkers rise to 1% a year, which means that the real shirkers can cream it in now. Pay up or we will actually start to do something.
But 100 grand is what they’d be able to earn in industry right?
Right?
Oh…
You could earn £100k in industry if you had great qualifications, good people/management skills and well honed financial / engineering/ computing/ knowledge.
How many mp’s do you think would meet that criteria?! I can’t think of one!!
ME ! But I’m not about to take a cut in my take home.
What a laugh!!! bullyballs with people skills!!!
That’s like saying that gordonbrown had gravitas!!
Bigot
Do we have some industry left? Who knew?
Actually we do, and it’s very productive.
It’s possible I tell you.
And do a bit of MP-ing on the side as well.
I suspect most mp’s would rather keep the current system of lower pay and access to unlimited expenses that give them £400 a month for food, pays mortgages, first class travel to anywhere in the world, furnishes their houses and gives them a dress allowance not to mention an eating out with champagne allowance.!!
I favour the tory option of giving them £100k but no more money for anything else, not expenses, not offices expenses not travel – nothing!!
I favour £65K a year.
F**k all else.
Take it or leave it.
When inflation bites and starts to rip and roar
How long will it take them to vote themselves more?
Another round of quantitative easing
Will up the emoluments they deem pleasing
It is so sad to hear that they feel they are underpaid. But they do it anyway, counting with the fact you can´t vote for anyone else (since they ALL want an increase, differing only in an amount).
I think we should not even talk about it here. But wait, aren´t we their employers? So how comes we can´t decide how much they should earn? I know their salaries are not important for the overall budget. But they should show us that “we are all in this together”.
But why not rather turn against those who can´t defend themselves: Immigrants or poor people, against social programs that are keeping many of them alive, …
Canada is a rich Country with vast natural resources and an abundant supply of land.
The U.K., on the other hand, is impoverished by the idiocy of the Reign of Terror 1997-2010, is running huge deficits and is over-crowded, thanks to Labour’s multi-culti experiment.
I guess your moniker, therefore, is absolutely appropriate.
Canada is a racist shit-hole, quite literally if you go anywhere near Fort McMurray:
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/01/10/282727/canada-native-chief-wont-meet-harper/
And check out Sergei Serykh / C & MA child abuse.
Umm what about their gold plated pensions?
The rest of us don’t get one of those – when are we going to stop them getting one too?
I dont understand why Guido focuses on Labour at the end of this story. Surely they are all as bad as each other.
suspect the high profile troughers like bliar, gordonbrown, mandy and davidmilitwit are colouring everyone’s jaded view of politicians at the mo and they are all labour!!
Sorry I disagree. MPs are underpaid. When I was doing constitutional history at school it was considered a good thing that salaries were introduced for MPs in the early 20th century. Until then only people with inherited wealth could be MPs which rather restricted the calibre of the intake. £65K may be a lot more than the national average, but surely MPs salaries should be pegged to PROFESSIONAL salaries. The Head Teacher of the Primary School where I am a governor earns that amount (nice lady, but will NEVER set the world alight). Many doctors, lawyers, bankers, secondary heads, businessmen, architects, many local and national civil servants earn way over £65K! Stopping MPs fiddling expenses is one thing, but going to the opposite extreme and denying salaries commensurate with the job is ridiculous. (By the way I only earn £24K – but recognise that there should be differentials in salaries to reflect responsibility, status etc.)
Good points but how many MPs have, of their own volition, resigned over poor pay and gone into the private sector ?
All of them fight to get into the House of Commons. No-one obliges them to do the job.
All of them fight to get into HoC because of the bottomless pit of expenses and gold plated pensions that no-one anywhere else could aspire to,
Yes give them a £100k salary but cut out endless expenses and ridiculous pensions and make them live a normal life, budgeting, like the rest of us!!
If you knew the difference between ‘earning” and ‘being paid’ you might well be worth a bit more than 24k.
Wer all know MPs are puppets to The City, whatever colour and flavour, from up the road. So what chance has democracy got in our neck of the woods?
The City corrupts.
And here I was thinking it was mp’s at westminster corrupting the city!!
I don’t necessarily agree that they’re underpaid nor do I think they’re overpaid. However it is pretty rich of Labour MPs to want more.
VIDEO: Owen Jones savages the Coalition’s ‘Promises’ on BBC News Channel 9th January 2013… http://fb.me/2iwZUTT38
Really? And what is the junior owenjones’ claim to qualifications that would make his criticism of government credible?
Don’t get him started on a discussion, pleeeease!. He’s got a geography test at school tomorrow morning and he needs an early night.
A geography test!
Let’s hope he’s better at geography than sarah palin then, though I doubt it . She struggled to know where Africa was!!
I think I know where most of Africa is – London.
VIDEO: Owned Jones savaged over millionaire mistakes on BBC This Week.
Look owenjones is a boy pretending to be an adult and failing!
But then that’s true of bullyballs and militwit as well so guess that says something about the current state of the ‘labour’ party!!
Can I rent him for the weekend?
He is distinctly less impressive than Harry’s take down of fatbot last year.
Awesome work that.
“I promise I won’t totally f*ck up Britain’s finances” – G Brown, 1997.
“We promise you an ethical foreign policy” – Labour (shortly before launching an illegal war, killing 150,000 men, women and children).
“Everyone will have access to an NHS dentist” – T. Blair, 1997.
“I will end mix-sex hospital wards” – T. Blair, 1997.
“Education, education, education” – T. Blair, 1997 (shortly before arse-fucking the national curriculum, leaving an entire generation unemployable).
“No more than 13,000 Poles will come to Britain” – Labour, 2004.
‘No return to Boom and Bust’. G.Brown 1997-2010
‘British jobs for British workers’. G. Brown 2007.
What about :
‘ no more boom and bust’ gordon brown
‘British jobs for British people’ gordon brown
‘ I saved the world’ gordon brown
not to mention bullyballs’ grand plan of selling gold at brown bottom giving two days notice to the gold market!!
ould go on but won’t!!!
The granddaddy of them all:
“Things can only get getter” – Labour, 1997.
Reminds me that the USA sold 50,000 ounces of gold in the first week of this year – BBC missed that one as did most media.
Did they have Gordon Brown as consultant or do they know something that we do not?
They are trying to shove price of gold down whilst getting $ stuff sorted out.
You may have also read about Gold being seized in Turkey on place – bound from Ghana to Dubai. Most likely payment for Iranian oil.
I suspect they want to keep Gold < $1700 until they get debt ceiling sorted out otherwise $ is going to be toast, for real.
Didn’t know the lad was that agile:
LIAM Harvie was the Stoke Lane Under-12s hero against Bristol City JSC as two of the form sides in Division One met.
His team opened the scoring when Hаrry Cоlе ghosted in behind City’s back-line to finish with a swerving left-foot strike.
http://bit.ly/XePwsq
Аnd thеrе wаs mе thіnkіng thаt Раul Stаіnеs wаs а lеft-fооtеr.
Aren’t you a clever-clogs, dear?
Did you put yourself about in the swinging sixties, Elsie?
Did you put yourself about in the swinging sixties, Elsie?
Just a little, dear. The Fucking Fifties were really my time. Marks and Spencers was an extremely accommodating place to work in those days.
Too bad, that all these things
Can only happen in my dreams…
Celebrate the rich, multi-cultural diversity !
Where is Guy Fawkes when we need him ?
He’s in the pub.
I think the really big question for mp’s is – how are they going to win back the respect of the electorate now that they have behaved so dishonestly and badly that they are less regarded than slugs in the garden??!!
They could all resign.
Most of them will never win the respect of the British public after the debacle of 2009,it will take decades for that stench to clear.The political class are totally corrupt and I am genuinly pained by that assertion because I believe in Democracy.If you think they deserve respect watch QT now and see 3 of the biggest arseholes in the business,Prescott has already started and is making my point.
Come now, Nell, the slug is a noble beast
(Well, that’s compared with an M P, at least)
They may be slow but they aren’t arf tenacious
And not all as slimy or rapacious
You’re such a creepy man. +++laugh+++
Creepy? You ain’t seen our cat. The little swine jumped on the desk and made me omit “at” from “at all”.
But, unlike slugs, you cannot clear
Them out with a saucerful of beer.
So as not to scare more impressionable readers
Best not mention what salt does to the little chaps
Did your cat make you write ‘chaps’ instead of ‘bleeders’? Treacherous creature. Mine used to sit beside the keyboard and reach out a paw and press one key, so you got pages of q’s.
Long story. He used to live two doors up; his folks moved half a mile away and he just kept coming back here. Costs a fortune to get stitched up after the scraps he has defending his territory – and he’s supposed to have been neutered. When he can’t get what he wants with gentle hints with his claws and incisors, he tries wheedling, as in desk-hopping while you’re typing. Born politician.
Old “Steve B” that operates “Nell N.”
Types words coz he’s worn out his bell en’
He gets up at dawn
To make us all yawn
Who IS this sad man? I ain’t tellin’ :- )
Shit, by your standards.
Sorry I asked
That was the most interesting comment ever posted on this site. Well done.
What was?
ὀτοτοτοῖ πόποι δᾶ.
Ὦπολλον Ὦπολλον.
Pay us in fookin grub. I’ll do it fer 200 tonnes a year.
Christ, that hardcore tory beeb arse is still on QT. Nice to see Prezza on it.
Dimbers need pensioning seriuosly. Beeb forward looking? My arse. It is an anachronism of an organisation, as symbolised by that old twit, Dimbers.
Did Prezza’s diary secretary look forward to being Prezza-ed.
It’s not illegal to put a dummy up for Parliament!
Aberdeen ‘Helena Torry’ mannequin election woman Renee Slater acquitted
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-20970395
They voted Brown in. Case closed.
And I’d've been the only “Torry,” of any spelling (including Tori Spelling), who could possibly have been elected in Scotland, and they were afraid I would be.
The canyons were mined to make sure it couldn’t happen.
If a 1% increase cap is good enough for those on benefits, it’s good enough for the troughing greedy bastards in Westminster.
Down here in Portsmouth our Councillors are looking forward to a 3% rise in salaries – with more for portfolio holders. Good job I can also work as a Councillor and portfolio holder as well as being an MP. Still there’s always the fringe benefits of the Council of Europe and the trips to Russia. Even so the additional income from Parliament would come in handy as my boys are also finding the times are tough.
http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/local/crack-and-heroin-gang-members-face-lengthy-jail-terms-1-4668163
Sheeeet Hugh you’s a 24 carat ASSHOLE I’m tired o’ yo cussin’!
You got caught wid yo pants down.
Whut de hell wuz ya’ thinkin’
You’s is nodin’ but some honkyfool.
You be shittin yo pants at some BLACK pussy yo white boy pussy!
Fucking sideshow of Nadine Dorries going on fucking Jungle Fuckwittery. Who gives a shit? There are serious issues to discuss,such as same sex marriage.
…and whether Speidi are playing the game fairly, or not.
Well, Speidi is just some confection
And neither will cause an erection
They, basically, fillers
And, probably, killers
But fancy themselves for election?
On reflection
That’s rejection
For your crappy verse
Just gets worse
and we all get dejection.
FUUUUCK !!
John Prescott out-moroning himself on QT tonight. Who’d have believed it could have been possible?
You’re plucking at straws now, aren’t you?
He’s using his psychic powers, dear.
do what mate?
Ha ha, sunshine. You type like a ponce, mate.
Must try harder.
Do you get BBC in Albania?
no need to they are all over here
white Brits are now a minority in London, Luton and Leicester
I spotted a coloured gentleman in Rickmansworth last August, dear.
Didn’t I, Reg?
No, he doesn’t, which proves a point: QT would make better radio than TV. They could have The Dimblebores co hosting/fighting for air-minutes.
++laughs++
Did someone here book a death cab for QT ?
Greedy troughsnout bastards.They are already GROSSLY overpaid and they can claim 3 times as much in expenses. AND we need a reduction in their number. From 650 down to 150. The ‘upper shithouse’ should be cut to 100.They are all Frankfurt school traitors and deserve the rope. Contrary to popular belief Capital Punishment is still extant. Common Law is immutable.
++laughs/wanks herself stupid with a home-grown aubergine++
I had forgotten how beautiful Sharon Tate was. Polonski comes across as a nerd.
Just got home to catch the last 5 minutes of Question Time. Rather glad I missed most of it. Don’t think I could have stomached an hour of Two Jags tripping over his words and turning red.
Did he punch any members of the public ?
QT had a few truths thrown about tonight, still getting over the heart palpitations
Did you see it it Albania then, dear?
Good old Brillo’s back.
Anyone can Google the BBC’s schedules, dear.
£ 96 k ??? £ 96k ??!! What a pittance !
I am not paid enough as a (self) serving MP, I can’t even afford my own crayons. I get through a packet a day and nurse says they cost a whole shiny penny.
I think the Gordon Brown thing has run it’s course, dear.
yes but to go from £7500 to £10000 per question is just blatant socialism
Stop eating them then and have your dinner.
All this foul mouthed, fourth form ranting showing such vile contempt for MPs is a terrible indictment of both the education in UK and the perceived quality of our MPs. If those whom we elect , from our own ranks, to govern are to be of sufficient quality and experience and capability, then the rewards must match the task. An MP is paid a little more than a train driver but his job is not protected beyond the next election, he is open to every sensation seeking inquiring journalist, every haranguing interviewer and all the twisted interpretations of his intent in public; far easier to drive a train and go home at night with no bother. So why would a competent, experienced and sensible man or woman established in a career, of whatever sort, risk so much for such a modest rise / reduction in reward? Why does it presently attract men and women amongst whom so many appear to be neither suited to the task nor exhibit the qualities that would allow them to progress well in some other non-political career? Why are so many attracted out of low reward jobs, in which they exhibit just enough skill, to the higher role of being called an MP where they can enjoy a status beyond their normal hopes or natural capabilities. We need to attract the best from all areas, not just the no-hopers from public school or local councils.
Some suggest that the market should decide – clearly this would require a substantial raising of the rewards to attract more experience, talent and capability. I would suggest a flat rate per year, untaxed and for which no account need be given. How an MP spends this would his private affair, the money being to cover all rewards, expenses and costs, except for supply of a universal rail season ticket for two for all UK.
The only request I would make to balance this is that all ballot papers carried a candidate called ‘none of the above’, whose success would disallow all the ‘above’ from standing in a similar election for 5 years.
I thought I was the most boring person on here.
I knew I would lose my crown some day
‘None of the above’ would win by a landslide.
Indeed, and postal voting in all its forms should be abolished. If you can’t physically get to a polling station, you don’t vote. Tuff!
Damn right !
So why do so many people fight to become MPs ? If the remuneration is so poor, why are there long lists of aspiring MPs desperately trying to get into the House of Commons ??
What do we do when everyone elects “none of the above”? Mark you, would be worse off than we are now.
Did I hear right, some USA person ,called UKIPpers vile, on Andrew Niells programme.
Just a tiny tiny payrise.
Wafer-thin, of course.
Very good piece from Peter Oborne on EU in telegraph.
Enjoyed this week at 10… this is the way to ….. and Quentin Letts , even down to the jumper and styrofoam cup …. LOL
I had always thought Nick Boles was a bit smarter than the polemic of more greenfield building posed yet again , with food waste, however no jouro picked it up , its not the waste ,infering we have too much food , its the fact that what Nick Boles wants to do , is build on agricultural land and this rather spurious debate that we have plenty of spare greenfield land because people want houses with gardens . I would think people would much prefer to know that we have the capacity to feed ourselves and for some countryside economy to exist , rather than once only job of housing . It never does matter if you waste what you grow , it certainly does matter when in bad season or two , you cant grow enough to feed people. This housing demanded at an area the size of greater london , will take out agricultural capacity , it will also destroy certain rural ecnomic activities .
You can build very nice , very spacious aprtments ie go verticle , start deciding what you want to do with boarded up housing , and get those contaminated sites identified and clean them up .
Leave the countryside economy alone , if your not ignorant of how it works with dam chemicals and GM foods , to throw in the grubby lobbiest death by ministerial concrete demand , is just too ignorant for me , has any one of them got a degree in biology ! or do you need one just in brown envelopes to make it as an MP .
We may be in fix economically , but cant you see we will be in more of a one if you screw around with agriculture , increased food prices may be good for nice salaried set , but it will be a disaster for everyone else , see how good your balance sheet looks after youve poured the concrete and instead of price increase you actually short produce , we dont all live the dining , no idea where food comes from london life , some of us like working the countryside in a managable and suatainable way , with a bit spare just in case like this last year has been .
as for class 3 fruit and veg why not trying growing the sort of stuff , that if the supermarkets reject , can be made into preserves , the whole web of cheap UK grown food is dependent upon ,land being thoughtfully utilised and crops thoughtfully processed . Just to highlight what a monumental cock up has already been achieved , been noting price of milk powder , we would have had some market importance had , government no totally left small dairy farmers out to supermarkets and close farms , for somthing else . It may not be too far off when wool makes ecnomic sense , cant you see your tipping the future of the rural economy into material failiure and malfunction. Since when as the secure needs of food been trumped by money sacks property developments …. There is land that is contaminated and can be cleaned , get somthing sorted for all those bits , seaside towns not popular for some high rise , use stamp duty cash or somthing , but dont lose greenbelt or greenfield , all the money in the world wont be any good if you knacker the food production and its wider support land use . the people will never forgive you .
Oh, so you have no evidence whatsoever. Thought so!
You are a poisonous little k weer, just the same as Boles.
Don’t you talk about my little Nicky like that – bitch.
This morning for my breakfast I would like a bowl of porridge made with semi skimmed milk followed by baked beans plus a slice of toast .
Have you heard about Jimmy Savile ?
The worthless troughing shits can have- grudgingly -1% like the dole claimants. These deadbeats have never had real jobs so why should they get loads of cash for a job for which you need no qualifications (aside from being an arselicker) and for which there is an endless supply of people willing to work for less. What happened to the laws of supply and demand?
Aside from the inflated sense of self-worth of our MPs, I’m shocked by the lie that there are doctors who would be earning twice as much (ie £130k) if they practised medicine rather than being MPs – £130k is the top end of the consultants’ payscale – earned after about 20 years of hard work.
I’ve been practising medicine for 5 years and still earn significantly less than a backbench MP’s starting salary, and I bet my job’s quite a lot harder.
And with 3 years of 0% pay increases, I’m also feeling poorer every year.
I won’t pretend that I’m hard-done-by, but at least I can say I’ve earned every penny the taxpayer gives me.
It seems a lot of fuss over nothing. I am sure that if a survey was done of other unpopular occupations like journalists, estate agents, bankers, traffic wardens etc then they would all say they wanted large pay increases. It’s rather a silly question to ask on a survey as the answer is very predictable.
Be serious, chaps. MP’s should be paid more. They should be paid 100k a year.
This isn’t because they’re worth it. It’s because the little buggers will just take bribes, if they feel themselves underpaid.
It happens enough anyway. But underpaying MP’s is like underpaying police; it always leads to corruption.
At least on a huge sum of money, more of them will feel that they don’t need to spend the time hawking themselves around for bribes, when they could be spending the time, usefully busy plotting to become prime minister. Corruption is, after all, time-consuming.
I don’t think that you understand the psychology of greedy people.
Consider the life of Anthony Charles Lynton Blair for some helpful insights.
+1
Greed isn’t easily sated. They always want more.
Of course they will. But they also want power more. Time spent hawking themselves for bribes is time not spent getting ahead in their career. So … lift the bar such that most will just go for the power. Some, of course will be corrupt whatever we pay them.
The only time I have ever felt financially comfortable was when I was earning £109,000. I was for the first time in my life actually able to save money every month.
I’ll be in the HoC for a vote on a payrise!
Sod them all. Politicians have never been so hated in this country. We have the legacy of 13 years of Labour lies, which all fell apart, and now we have a Tory government that can’t even do what Tories are meant to do, with Osborne’s deficit reduction ambitions in tatters. 2013 will be a crucible, as the downturn continues to bite, without the distraction of the Olympics.
We are now entering a cycle of kick-them-out-every-time. Cameron will be booted out in 2015. Ed Milibland may get a shot, unless they come up with someone better, which wouldn’t be hard. Labour will be booted out in 2020. This should give MPs a five-year shelf life, which may focus their minds beyond the trough, even if only out of self-interest.
What needs to happen:
1. No funding of political parties other than individual subscription.
2. No outside jobs for MPs.
3. Expenses – set at the beginning of a parliamentary term, and if costs rise, then tough…. it’s their fault.
4. Expenses – published automatically online from a ‘smart’ credit card.
5. MPs lie… sack them.
6. Minsters lie… jail them.
7. No special advisors, lobbyists, PPE wonks etc…. civil servants only
How about a reverse Dutch auction? Candidates put in their salary demands along with their manifesto, i.e I will happily be the candidate for Kensington & Chelsea (or wherever) for £5k a year…or whatever. Let voters decide…
Then none was for a Party;
Then all were for the State;
Then the great man helped the poor,
And the poor man loved the great:
Then lands were fairly portioned;
Then spoils were fairly sold:
The Romans were like brothers,
In the brave days of old.
Shouldn’t the photo of Liam fox on a weapon be at the top of this?
I would have no problem with MPs being paid better if they were worth it.
I would happily see them getting a bonus of 100% of salary each year we hit the world average growth rate (4.8% or 6% if you exclude the EU).
200% if we grow 9%. No salary when in recession.
Well that shit his re-election chances dinnit?
MPs don’t need any qualifications, ability, common sense, inter personal skills or life experience which probably explains why they cut the pay of new Police recruits and claim so much in ‘expenses’, after all ‘We’re all in it together’.