Should MPs get an 11% pay rise?

Yes, if they agree to give up all their other paid work. Otherwise no.

Oh and hi Nice! :)

@tinks wrote:

too many pay cuts and job losses …..MPs surely should lead by example…….for a change

I take great issue with our elected representatives taking a pay rise in these times of great austerity. The argument that they tend to posit in support of the money they earn are generally twofold. firstly, there is the claim that MPs wages appear to have fallen considerably when juxtaposed against comparative professions. Secondly, we need to provide sufficient remuneration to attract the best candidates.

Both points put me in a tizzy. The job of an MP is like no other, a particularly unique privilege with particularly unique obligations. Politicians ought to be motivated by a sense of civic duty, not the desire to get rich. And when I look at my MPs I want – to some extent – to see a mirror image of society at large.

I want to be represented by people with second class degrees that have had to struggle a bit to get their first decent job. Likewise the economically-challenged single-mom with a knowledge of making an income below the national average stretch so she can buy the basics and a few of life’s so-called pleasures. A few charity workers or those with experience of poorly-paid jobs in NGOs too. Teachers, doctors, scientists that understand quantum physics, candlestick makers wouldn’t go amiss either. Although I might draw the line at the some of the more unsavoury users of JC.

I don’t just want to be represented by those that had the good fortune to excel in the current status quo and read PPE in the hallowed halls of Oxbridge. Give me a Cambridge educated MP with a PPE degree whom has realized, despite how hard they worked to get their first, they are undoubtedly very lucky in comparison to all those other capable people not afforded such opportunities – and want to address such inequalities. That person is driven by passion, and much more likely to get my vote.

Besides, so far there seems to be very little correlation between what we pay and what we get.