So Gordon finally ma ma managed to speak in the House on Monday. Like any good MP he should be trying to put a question to the Prime Minister today, that is what he is paid for after all. Paid very well in fact.

When he finally found the courage to speak it was 179 days since he was elected. Given his backbench salary is £65,738 he would have far so far received £32,238.63 of that. Brown spoke for 4 minutes 32 seconds in his speech, he then asked one question of 5 seconds. That is a total of 277 seconds.  Therefore, he has been paid £116.38 for each second he spoke, or £6,983.10 for each minute. Not even Blair can earn that sort of of cash.

Can anyone think of any day job that pays that well?