tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3881762807913180318.post3348770752308235601..comments2024-01-23T16:53:02.428+00:00Comments on Mark Thompson: Are MPs paid enough?Mark Thompsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00744387583593537268noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3881762807913180318.post-73098447258651454252009-11-01T13:59:16.919+00:002009-11-01T13:59:16.919+00:00Another point - on the Abbot and Portillo show (st...Another point - on the Abbot and Portillo show (still annoyingly interrupted by the Neal person) - Miguel said that there is a notion that the present difficulties will lead to an improvement in the people entering politics but that this was wrong. We will end up with parliamentarians who are either ex-think tank apparatchiks, ignorant of the "real world" and driven by personal ambition to the exclusion of purer motives and cares, or millionaires indulging their hobby.<br /><br />Both bleak prospects if those groups appear in large numbers and dreadful if that is all we end up with. A decent financial reward would not necessarily help attract decent others, but for taxpayers to be parsimonious will be self-defeating.Cardinal Richelieu's molenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3881762807913180318.post-87404949987077500312009-11-01T13:54:42.481+00:002009-11-01T13:54:42.481+00:00Agreed. I ran a Fun Online Poll on what the salary...Agreed. I ran a Fun Online Poll on what the salary should be (inclusive of expenses) and it came out at £60,000 or so.<br /><br />That is more than adequate to run one-and-a-half homes.<br /><br />The point is, there is a market rate for everything. Seeing as for every seat there are five or six candidates, and within each party five or ten people battle it out to become the candidate in the first place, there is clearly no shortage of people who want to be MPs.<br /><br />So their salary should drop and drop until we reach the stage where only one or two people are trying to become the candidate for each party.Mark Wadsworthhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07733511175178098449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3881762807913180318.post-51748590248122724772009-11-01T13:48:29.168+00:002009-11-01T13:48:29.168+00:00Yet pay ought to reflect skill, expertise, commitm...Yet pay ought to reflect skill, expertise, commitment demanded etc..<br /><br />The difficulty with that notion is that those qualities are very variable in fact as between different MPs.<br /><br />Yet absent some fair (!) system of performance-related pay for each one, MPs might be considered to need skills on a par with, say, a decent professional in a serious occupation - so solicitor, accountant etc.. By comparision, they are then not well-paid now.<br /><br />Yet the comparision might appropriately be "glorified social worker" and (avoiding debate on what social workers are worth), they are generously rewarded.<br /><br />As the ones we have now can be seen to be expense claimers, busily troughing in place of busily holding this rotten government to account, standing by as the country has gone to hell, it is they who should be paying us rather than the other way around.Cardinal Richelieu's molenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3881762807913180318.post-36345049254596496322009-11-01T13:45:29.012+00:002009-11-01T13:45:29.012+00:00I wonder what Kelly will say - hopefully rental fo...I wonder what Kelly will say - hopefully rental for a family +1 - ie if you have three kids then say four-bedroom flat (same as someone single can have one bed flat) - 2nd class rail fares or something a bit more exotic for various Scottish MPs.Johnnoreply@blogger.com