MP's Pay
 

Going to be approved next week apparently, 11%, unbelievable, seems like austerity is just for us plebs, still come the revolution

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...n-mps-pay-rise

Re: MP's Pay
 

That is just ridiculous.

one by one, and many by many are starting to see that they're screwing us rotten.
day by day, hour by hour that revolution will come.

viva la revolution!

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Well this ain't going to go down well with Joe Public.

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In fairness to MPs - and I feel I need to scrub down with carbolic soap after saying that - they have no control over how much of a raise they get (or whether they get a raise at all).

However it would be interesting to see how many (if any) MPs donate their extra 11% to charity.

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I personally do not believe that

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The thing that amuses me when this comes up on shows like Question time they say the recommendation body is independent, how many of us would get a pay rise is someone independent looked at our pay.

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I'd have to. The commission set up to oversee these things is independent. With the number of scandals coming out these days if there was anything underhanded going on with them then heads would roll from an infeasibly high level.

---------- Post added at 10:16 ---------- Previous post was at 10:13 ----------

It was set up that way because (IMO quite justifiably) MPs cannot be trusted when it comes to setting their own pay and perks.

I've always said that whereas MPs don't make these decisions, those with a conscience could make an admirable gesture of donating it to charities. I've never seen an MP on the breadline and I very much doubt any of them can now look forward to finally having a comfortable Christmas knowing their pay is going up by around £500 a month.

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To be fair to them once you take the costs of transport, computers, running an office, London accomodation and meals away that juicy £74,000 salary will be down to £74,000. :mad:

Honestly I wouldn't have a problem with this pay if they weren't topping it up with expenses claims for things that most other people pay out their own pocket.

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As Alan Duncan refers to it, "living on rations".

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They will accept it some will put on a show of disagreement with it but only a small minority if any will not take it. Meanwhile most will continue doing far harder jobs for substantially less pay and be lucky if they get any pay rise this year and next. This will just add to the massive numbers of people already apathetic to politics and further damage our democracy maybe that's the plan I don't know.

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Please, independent my backside, they know which side their bread is buttered, you couldn't make it up, THEY can't be trusted so have to be compensated with a pay rise

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I agree, just a back door way to exonerate themselves from blame but I can't say guilt, I don't think politicians have any.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-25287108

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so how much should we pay someone to run the country ?

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if they run the country effectively and efficiently then a million as they screw it up and never think ahead minimum wage

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Given much of what we all pay for out of our flat income they claim as expenses and they already have a salary twice the average I don't think it's expecting much for them to forego pay rises as most in this country have for the last five years. When the country turns round and normal workers are back to getting pay rises then they can as well after all as Dave used to say "were all in it together".

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Trouble with that idea is that people who don't benefit from a parties term of office will think the country is being run badly and what about MP's in opposition ?

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Spot on Rizzy.

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Many expenses have been removed and they haven't had a pay rise in recent years .

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the system is wrong we do not need 2 or 3 parties we need independent brainiacs who do it for the right reasons. Paying a group of adults to sit in a hall and argue with each other or shout at each other while talking to a guy in the middle is beyond stupid imo

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Most workers didn't get a pay rise this year and unlikely to get anything decent next year why should MP's be different and they seem to be claiming expenses as well as ever so doubtful they lost too much probably found new ways round new rules.

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because that's how democracy works

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http://news.sky.com/story/1179344/po...not-paying-off

I suggest members read this article. It doesn't matter what independant body say the pay should be increased by 11%. This is totally disgusting, when the rest of the country is suffering large cuts.

I have just has my FIRST increase in wage in FIVE years. Its was 1%. which is £35.00 per month increase. We take our budget right down to the wire each month.

What all parties should be doing is to donate this increase to the food banks, charities etc. But l guarantee they won't.

David Cameron SHOULD be saying that this will not be accepted by any member of his party. But l am sure they will say that this is well deserved.

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worth a read

http://parliamentarystandards.org.uk...9eb2d1d3&ID=24

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Arthur, David Cameron (and Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg) are saying that this should not go ahead.

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Indeed and they should be praised for that but the trouble is with many going through difficult moments financially to their own living standards and pay the vast majority of the public ain't going to be looking at it that way.

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it does not work

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The fact you write that proves it does

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What I would like to know is, who set up the so called independent body which advises on MP's pay? It wasn't the MP's themselves was it, or is that just my cynical thinking. I just don't feel sorry for them not having a pay rise for a few years. Neither has most of the country.

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Your not required to feel sorry for them but they have the right to a fair wage for what is a pretty big gig ,obviously there has to be restrictions though ,i accept that, but a job with no job security needs to have a decent wage attached to it

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Forget MP's, consider the eurocrats:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...-revealed.html
:dozey:

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They don't run the country ministers do and they.get considerably more

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No MP's have a big part in running the country ,they represent us in Parliament so the ministers know what we want

Re: MP's Pay
 

Then the government listens to the corporations and whip the MPs.

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so I am free to express my opinion but that does not mean democracy works. We vote for elected representatives but I do not see much representation I just lies to get people to vote for them next time. That imo is not a workign system

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Being an MP must be the best job in the world.
100.00 grand per year for pushing a pen, fly round the world on the taxpayer, expenses from anything from a newspaper to a porno mag to luxury holiday.

And above all free booze, free accommodation and long holidays. And now a super pay rise. And this is all by ticking a box with a cross.

Can't be bad cannot it. Trouble is, there are no vacancies for five years as the job is filed by stipid idiots who think they can rule the world.

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That works out at £800 per week.

welcome to the club Arthur :)

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Lol, they do what there told, ministers would rather listen to lobbyists, party backers, big business, newspapers and their own ideology than listen to what the little people have to say and if they grow a pair and stand up for us not only do they wreck their careers Mr whippy might just get busy on them.

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Which brings it right to the point when in the last few years it has been on the news and in the papers about how MP's are making cut backs and not having a pay rise like the rest of us to help the country out. so while the rest of us are starting to see a 1% increase they make up for all them years lost by 11% increase.

Makes me sick to be honest

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Why do you think they are stupid Arthur? They are in the main ordinary people who put themselves up for election, something that you could have done over the years. But hey oh it's easier to whine and moan about everything and everyone I suppose.

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So you're earning about £28,000 after tax? Way to go Arthur, I'm sure there are many on here who aren't. Yes, I know you're living in London which is a high cost area.

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My wage will stop at the top end next year 17.4k I don't know where they get the average earnings of 20k from

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Time to reform Parliament, I think we should only have 1 MP per county and the heads of every County and Borough Council (at no extra pay) should have more input and report to the MP. This will save tax payers a load of dosh.

As for the MPs pay rise - NO WAY.

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Sounds good to me.

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I don't really understand how they deserve a pay rise, they do less and less work each year thanks to Brussels

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According to the Coalition Agreement, by now we should have been looking forward to a Commons made up of no more than 500 MPs - a reduction of about 150 from today's numbers. Unfortunately, Nick Clegg threw his rattle out of the pram when Lords reform fell through and ensured Commons reform also failed. This despite commons reform being a Lib Dem manifesto pledge in 2010 and a long-standing Lib Dem wish for years even before that.

The Liberal Democrats are duplicitous, cheap-talking opportunists and (horror of horrors) I am beginning to think that single party government is so much more desirable than coalition that a term of a purely Labour administration would be preferable to any government in which any Lib Dem played a part.

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The Liberal Democrats pulled commons reform as the Conservatives pulled Lords reform breaking the agreement they had. It's neither throwing your 'rattle out of the pram' nor 'duplicitous' to withhold your side of the agreement if the other party has already broken theres. Additionally the manifesto commitment specified they wanted to reduce MPs by changing the voting system, not by boundary reform as the Conservatives wanted. So when the referendum failed they came up with the agreement to reform the boundary changes in exchange for their other manifesto commitment, Lords reform.

You may wish the Liberal Democrats were not in Government but they are as the Conservatives failed to secure a majority even when set up against a unpopular and ineffective Prime Minster presiding over one of the largest economic busts in decades. As a result the Tories need to govern in coalition with the Lib Dems and if they cannot do that, if they are presumptions enough to expect to break an agreement whilst still getting what they asked for in return, then they're going to see some of their policies fail. :shrug:

Besides manifestos are largely useless. The Conservatives had a commitment to protecting civil liberties and rolling back Labour's intrusive state. What a joke that turned out to be.

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I'm sorry but that makes about as much sense as throwing a hissy fit because you don't like the colour of your bus in the morning. It will still get you where you need to be - in the case of the Lib Dems, they either believe in reducing the number of MPs or they don't. They had the opportunity to achieve it but put score-settling on the agenda instead.

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The Tories could have prevented it by upholding their side of the agreement. What's the point of making your support of something conditional on getting something else in return if you go ahead and doing it anyway when that agreement is broken? It's just an invitation to not be taken seriously for the rest of the Parliament.

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As the headmaster said to the pupil, whilst thrashing him with a cane, "this is hurting me more than it's hurting you ... " :dozey:

This actually has nothing to do with the Tories at all, unless you're happy to swallow the Liberal Democrat excuses for ratting on their principles in order to score political points.

Certainly, in the context of reduced numbers of MPs, and therefore a lower parliamentary wage bill, it could have happened. It would have happened. The one and only thing that stopped it happening was the withholding of Lib Dem votes.

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It was a mistake for the Lib Dems to make such an agreement in the first place if it's something that they would have wanted regardless. Maybe they thought it was a win-win scenario and maybe the Conservatives thought they were bluffing so felt confident in scrapping Lords reform.

However the deal was made and the Tories do share the blame for reneging on their part of the agreement. Once that happened it would have been bad politics to go ahead as the Tories could have pulled support for other parts of the coalition agreement they didn't like in the belief the Liberal Democrats would fold on every issue. Agreements are useless otherwise.

The Tories were told quite clearly the consequences of breaking their side of the agreement and went ahead anyway. They can't then play victim that the Liberal Democrats didn't then support their side of the bargain. It's a naive, almost arrogant, approach to politics the type of which probably explains why they found themselves needing a coalition in the first place.

EDIT: Actually thinking about it this was probably what Cameron wanted anyway. No one really cares about commons/lords reform. He probably would have had trouble with his party over Lords reform so he could just ditch it, blame the Lib Dems for commons reform, and no voters care enough anyway.

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Just to add there would only be 84 MPs in the whole country. What a difference this would make instead of 650 at present.

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Apparently us plebs support the pay hike according to ipsa chairman, Dave can win the election if he follows through his threat and scraps the authority, he might even get my vote.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...e-mps-watchdog

Re: MP's Pay
 

... at which point we're back with MPs setting their own pay.

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And the other option is rewarding them with a payrise for previous dishonesty, who'd have thought they'd end up getting paid more when they were caught with their fingers in the cookie jar.

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Sounds a good idea - only problem is the expenses part.

They will be away from home through the week - when I worked away from home (which I did quite a lot), I got my travel, hotel, and food expenses paid for by the company; not sure if that is sustainable for a five year period.

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Lets make one thing clear, I am on a basic wage of 19kg per year, l get a london weighting allowance - l do a bloody hard job looking after the vulnerable people of our society. I had MY first pay increase of 1% which means an increase of 35 quid per month. So l do not know where people think l am on 28 kg per year. I wish l was.

These prats that we vote for are taking the people of this country for a ride, by 'saying we are in this together' what a bunch of hypocrites.

You tell the people that are forced into poverty, you tell the people who cannot pay their rent due to cost of living, yes l am whinging about the government.

Osborne said in the papers today, that he will make more cuts to to benefit system. At Xmas the government will sit down to the best food and booze possible, and all this will be on the taxman - at our expense.

Bloody disgusting

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They where under the impression you got paid in money not sugar

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If £35 per month is a 1% rise, then the salary it was based on is £3,500 per month - £3,500 per month is £42,000 a year.

£19,000 a year is £1583 per month - 1% of that is £15.83 per month, not £35 - looks like it was a 2.2% rise, not 1%!

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I can assure you it was 1%, l am part of public services. My union is trying for 3%, but l am happy to settle for that.

I would rather have a job then not at all. asking for 3% is like asking for gold, but after reading about MPs getting this pay rise, it just makes me vomit

Re: MP's Pay
 

So that's in line with inflation then

Re: MP's Pay
 

Pretty much.

I wasn't sure about heero_yuy's suggestion about matching MP's pay to headteachers - many headteachers earn a lot more than MPs.

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Arthur does tend to get his facts mixed up

MP's pay as with any job should be high enough to attract the most skilled .We want skilled politicians (even more so now in the current social and economic climate ) so we should be prepared to pay for them ,that doesn't mean we should just give them an open cheque book as has been the case in the past ,they should be open to scrutiny when spending public money as they are now

Re: MP's Pay
 

I definitely agree there should be some kind of benchmark.

In my opinion it is, however, difficult to match the 'gearing' to the role - headteachers, for example, usually only attain that position after several years experience & training. An MP, when first elected, has none of that - perhaps a sliding scale based on number of years in the job could be appropriate?

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How IPSA arrived at the figure is here ,makes for some interesting reading

http://parliamentarystandards.org.uk...9eb2d1d3&ID=27

Re: MP's Pay
 

Thanks for that, it is interesting reading - especially the comments afterwards !

---------- Post added at 21:38 ---------- Previous post was at 21:34 ----------

My personal view is that the salary should be pitched at a level that discourages people from wanting to do the job, 'just for the money', but not so low that talented people, who could make a difference, don't bother.

- not easy!!

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I don't give a monkeys as to what people say, MPs do not deserve a pay rise, when people in this country are suffering due to there cuts.

If they can get that sort of money as a pay rise, then then can stop making cuts. Its US that sare paying this money to them in our taxes.

And NO, they don't deserve this extra money. WILL, they be going to a food bank for Xmas dinner, will they hell. All they worry about is themself. WILL they give this extra money to charity, no. One MP said he deserves the pay increase.

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Don't know what your whinging about you got yourself a pay rise twice that of most people in the public sector, including MP's

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Do we want the best or the greediest, anyone willing to take a pay cut would be ideally suited to public service imo

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This is what really infuriates me. MPs say they are entitled to get this pay rise.
Lets look at it this way.

MPs get everything and can claim on expenses. They don't need a salary. If they have to pay for staff, this is probably on expenses. why pay them a salary.

Why not pay them a commission, like sales rep. They get paid for what they achieve.

I know of a company in Middlesex, that takes on staff on commision basis only.

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They should link their pay to the minimum wage.
if they want more them up the minimum wage, if the economy can't afford it then they haven't done their job.

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Mr boo from ipsa says it's going ahead, Dave might get my vote if he stops frowning and says goose to a boo and abolishes ipsa like he said

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/news...hdog-says.html

Re: MP's Pay
 

I would sooner IPSA or a similar body be responsible for MP's pay than the ridiculous situation where MP's vote themselves a pay rise

Re: MP's Pay
 

Cut the number of MP's by a 3rd then give them a pay rise.

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Peg their pay to 2 x the national average wage.

Let's face it paying extra hasn't vastly improved the calibre of MPs in recent years. Having a relative in one of the main parties is still the easiest way to get into Westminster.

Re: MP's Pay
 

Or a famous father like Fred Dineage..:rolleyes:

Re: MP's Pay
 

what led to the expenses scandal, who'd have thought their thieving crooked ways would've led to massive pay rises all round, how independent are ipsa anyway, about as independent as CEO's remuneration committees I'd bet, where they all sit on each others.

Re: MP's Pay
 

I think it has to the lesser of two evils .At the moment IPSA for me are the better alternative ,not ideal just better.I have no doubt that if it hasn't already the "old boy network" will creep in but at least things are a bit more transparent than they where when the expenses scandal hit

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This really makes my blood boil. We have every signle person in this country is suffering due to lack of money. Last month, i got paid my normal salary, that paid the overdraft off and by the end of the month l was down to my last £1.50 And yet MPs get a pcksky pay rise - and they claim they deserve it. Absolutely crap. They get expenses, that pays everything from a pen, down to porn channels - plus a whopping great salary. This 'we are in this together' is like an insult if MPs accept this. Maybe they should donate there pay rises to the emergency services, food bancks etc MPs are a bloody disgrace. I worked at the House Of Commons, and they dont get food etc from Tesco's, they get the real mccoy, plus top quality booze. And most of this is either thrown out, or down there guts. Go down Pall Mall, in London. And see all the MPs that come the MPs sociail clubs and you will see the MPs all rat assed - and we pay for that.

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Consider this, Ministers including the Prime Minister, come from the pool of MPs or House of Lords. They are not positions where you join at the bottom and take 20 years to make your way up to MD. The right sort of people need to able to consider becoming an MP, because they could quickly find themselves making important decisions as a Minister. They may be MPs that are not up to the job, but there is no way of differentiating between those that are and those that aren't.

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Put it this way
My pay, a basic pay of 24.000 per year, NO OVERTIME ALLOWED, my shift allowance was cut, my last pay rise was last year of 1%. My rent went up, so bingo my 1% disappears, l pay normal resouces of water etc. And live on an overdraft

MPs gets 75.000 grand per year, expenses account to pay bills, and pay for a second home, pay for staff, normally there own family.
They get a pay rise each year, and now they are granted a further increase
They get a food expense account in the commons. Get discount on what they pay - then charge it to the expense account - didn't someone claim for drawing pins.

MPs dont do what the voter asked for, they bring out appalling policies etc etc

I believe that IF we the voter, the MPs should as well.

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And it's up to £74,000 plus expenses. A nice wee 10% bump when everyone else in the public sector is held to a maximum of 1% (plus their pensions being decimated)

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At least they'll now be dragged out of abject poverty and able to afford to buy their own flat screen TVs, luxury scatter cushions, posh sofas, duck houses, porn subscriptions...

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We're all in this together. Well the plebs are, MPs are far too important to not get more. :mad:

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Being in law enforcement the irony of getting financially rewarded for gross expenses fraud won't be lost on you either I'm sure

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MPs and Tube drivers are grossly over paid.

Nurses get treated like crap, but the two nurses looking after my mum deserve more than they get.

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We really don't want more MPs... ;)

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What's that saying? Ah yes.

You get what you pay for..

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Oh what a hypocrite especially when he said "we are all in this together" several times over.:td:

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...y-rise-for-mps

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Yes, but it's not in his gift to set the pay rates for MPs no matter how much you may despise him or want to say that he's a hypocrit. It's down to a supposidly independent committe that was set up in the wake of previous pay scandals that were perpetrated by MP's setting their own pay rates.

Don't get me wrong, I think it stinks but that's the way it is at the moment in the absence of a better method like linking MP's pay to a multiple of the average wage for example.

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You must have missed this bit in your outrage...

And there was an interesting point made by the IPSA Chair in the last paragraph

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Perhaps my glasses got steamed up this morning Sir.;)

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Absolutely hilarious, except the jokes on us, they get punished for fraudulent expenses claims by getting a big pay rise you couldn't make it up

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If you set up an "independent" body then you abide by its ruling. If they were awarded 1% and voted to refuse it everyone would up in arms that they don't follow the ruling. They are awarded a "big" rise, accept it and everyone complains that they do so.

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And if the same "independent" body were to recommend that frozen public sector pay should increase by 10% would the Government accept that too? Except we'll never find out.

We're all in this together my arse.

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We've already discussed how independent the panel was and the conclusion I drew was not very

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IMO it would be naive, to say the least, to reach any other conclusion.

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Well according to some a panel of Lords, failed politicians and senior civil servants is independent.