sadoldgit

Money is supposed to be the root of all evil. As an inanimate object you might wonder why it could cause so much trouble! The problem is not with money as such, it is with certain people's attitude towards it. Give lots of it to people with feelings of self entitlement and you will probably create monsters.

aerosol or ball type?

wraps

Yes I do. You are clearly the Cape Crusader of Camden Town and one of the many Superheroes that we are so lucky to have looking after us. Quite frankly I am shocked that you only get paid a paltry £50k for the work you do for us. It is a scandal.

I thought his leaving had more to do with a fall out with his bro? I believe his work is based in New York where they pay more don't they?

He kept us up just about but for me was far from convincing when he was here. Granted he wasn't here long,

If MPs salary was raised significantly all that would happen is you would get the same people you have at the moment earning much more money. I think it is the same as the nursing profession and the like. "Decent" people, as Batman calls them shun the job because of many other reasons other than salary. They would be either further removed from the issues that ordinary people face. As Pap says, if you want more and fair social change, put MPs on an average salary. They wouldn't have to go and speak to the oiks like us every 5 years then. They would know exactly what the issues were for ordinary folk.

I agree but they do tend to overspend on players in general. I think we should play hardball over the fee. He has to be worth more than £15m to them.

So the only people in the public sector who should get a pay rise are the MPs. The rest of the public sector who have had their pay frozen for several years will have to pay more taxes to pay for the MPs pay rise. Is that fair?

Okay lets look at what people earn - The average wage here is about £26,500 Washing dishes on a submarine £50,000 MP salary due to go up to £74,000 plus expenses Care workers £12,804 Nurses £26,616 Ambulance Staff £22,854 Civil Servants £20,330 Adele £27,540,000 The Queen £36,100,000

plonkers

Not ITK in the least but I think he will be off to Utd in the summer. He wants to leave and Ron wants players who want to play for the club. Given what they paid for Shaw I would say the Clyne is worth more than £15m but we shall see.

Agree with this 100%

If there is money to pay MPs more then it can only come from somewhere else in the public sector. They have voted themselves a payrise when they are cutting staff numbers and have frozen pay for everyone else. I would be more than happy to pay 40% tax if I was earning £50 like Batman. Ok, so Batman wouldn't get out of bed for the £67k as an MP. So what kind of money do you think they should earn? How much would attract people out of the City? Bear in mind they would want a company car and all the benefits they currently get too. Without putting up taxes where do you think this money will come from UJ? I can tell you don't work in the public sector, if you did you would know all about the Government cuts and how they are affecting public servies. Why should MPs get more. Why not nurses. support staff in the Criminal Justice System, the Police, health care support workers etc - all the people who have had to take the brunt of the Government cuts over the last few years. I can tell you that incremental pay rises have just been scrapped so people starting out now on £17k pa do not know when ands if they will ever get an increase. But, who cares, we need to worry about people earning £67k. In my book Batman, that is a big salary for what they do. If they are any good they will get a better job in the Cabinet and then the perks really start to mount up - plus the opportunities for more on the side. Tony Blair may not have made a fortune as PM, but by God he is racking it in know, as did Thatcher. Have you seen what he earns for pitching up and talking b*ll*cks at functions?

Nigel clearly doesn't know what he is talking about. Doesn't he know that the Board has no ambition?

At 61? It is highly unlikely. I am currently looking for a new job and will be lucky to get around £20. I have no problem with him earning what he does. What I have a problem with is his skewed view of wages in the public sector. It is very easy to say pay someone more when you are earning twice the national average yourself. Has he offered to pay more taxes or take a pay cut though? No. Where does he think the money comes from? It comes from the rest of the public workers who have to face more and more cuts - some of this money goes to pay MPs more. Fair? Why don't MPs have to face cuts when the rest of us do?

Batman, ok so you think that MPs should get more money. Where do you think it comes from? Are you prepared to pay more taxes or have your wages cut to the national average to pay for it? Government spending is constantly being cut (yet MPs still voted to spend more on their wages). Our agency will not exist soon. People are leaving on a regular basis. My wife and I are leaving at the end of this month because we have had enough. We have four children between us and earn around £55k pa between us. No doubt we shall be earning less when we leave and find new jobs. Every year we have been asked to save £2m. The only way to do that is to get rid of staff and offices. When you do that you reduce your efficiency. We are getting to the point where we can no longer function properly. If MPs want more money they need to do the same. Close buildings and get rid of staff. Fewer MPs, more money. Mind you, they wont have so much time to write books or work as consultants will they? Trust me, even if you pay them more they will find ways of earning more.

Nothing stopping them going for jobs in the private sector. Funny that, no matter how badly some of you think MPs are paid there is never a shortage of applicants is there?

You really need to get out more, do you know what the average wage is? As I have said before, if MPs are so hard worked, how come so many of them find time for second jobs?

Well good for you. I think you will find that a lot of us would love to earn £50k. My wife is a senior manager in the CPS with 30 years service and earns £35k with no perks. The principle is the same isn't it? The public sector pays for less than the private sector. Surely you want "decent people" in public sectors jobs across the board? If so why not pay them all better money and not just feckin MPs. £50k for sitting around in a tin can all day, no wonder you have a warped view of the world. I get £25k for working 10 hours a day managing staff who are totally demotivated, underpaid and overworked. Poke it.

Heroes might be too strong a word, but to carry on when you pay is frozen year after year but you can see friends in the City taken home more in bonuses than you do in a year makes it tough to keep the commitment going day in day out. If being an MP is such a touch and time consuming job, how come some of them find time for other jobs? I am sorry but I don't agree that the standard of MP would improve if the salary went up. I think there are probably a lot more reasons than just salary while more decent people (as Batman says) don't want stand. Having to toe the Party line, having to reapply for your job every 4 or 5 years, having to deal with constituents etc. It takes a certain type of person to want to become an MP and I don't see any proper high flyers wanting to do it whatever the salary. Why don't we value our politicians? Because many of them lie, put themselves first, use their position for their own personal gain, suck up to the Whips so that they can get better jobs rather than vote with their conscience, are only widely visible when they want us to vote for them, are out of touch with "ordinary" people, are too busy slagging off the opposition or in point scoring to actually deal with issues sensibly. I could go on. I don't believe paying them more money would make any difference sadly.

morals

You really believe that it we paid them more there would be no more expenses rip offs, no more "secondary" jobs, no more dodgy consultancy fess etc etc? How much would you have to pay people like Richard Branson into the Commons? Aint gonna happen. The same people will seek out MPs jobs only we will be paying them more, that is all. Also I agree that they don't need to be in the Commons all of the time, but it is interesting to see how few are there when there are important debates and how many are then when they are discussing their salary. I work in the public sector. I see people working dreadfully long hours with no support day after day for £25k a year. None of us get a vote about our wages and most of us haven't had a pay rise for years. These are the real heroes. I am sorry but I don't by your MPs are hard done by stance.

Really FFS? How many people do you know earning over £70,000? I know lots of "decent" people who would love to earn that kind of money. We are talking about MPs here, not Cabinet Ministers. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to be an MP. FFS.

He seemed very irritated to me and was trying, not very well, to contain himself. He gave it away big time at the very end. He may think the waxing/waning question trite but the other guy is paid to do a job just as he is. Just watched it again and he looks like a bloke ready to blow to me.