The respective frontbenchers will not be taking their grand pay rise but as sure as pigs squeal the backbenchers will be.  They will say it is fair and was recommended by the Senior Salaries Review Board and is based on comparisons with doctors and judges and such like.

Hang on a second – becoming a doctor requires years of training and is a high stress position where you literally make life and death decisions.  A judge is is a position of ultimate responsibility at which you arrive after many years in the law and for which you will have studied hard for years.

Any scoundrel can become an MP with no training and no experience.  Guido will cite the example of the lovely Chloe Smith, a nice enough person, but it is fair to say she became a Tory candidate after a gap-year working for former Conservative education secretary Gillian Shephard before going to university where she did a bit of summer work for Bernard Jenkin and was a graduate trainee at Deloittes for a couple of years before she became an MP.  She is now on a compensation package from the taxpayers of over £100,000 a year in her mid-twenties.  Nice work if you can get it…

MPs don’t deserve a raise, 52% of them were guilty of over-claiming expenses, the country is broke, the rest of the public-sector is facing pay cuts, the private sector is facing tax hikes and reduced incomes. They should be considering belt-tightening along with the rest of us.  Take the trouble to ask your MP: “Will you be taking your pay rise?  Why do you really think you deserve a pay rise?”

Forward any responses to Guido to publish with pleasure…