It is common sense to give MPs a pay rise

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Not as educated. Wtf are you talking about. A degree is not everything in life you know.

I understand that there are some nurses who let the profession down but isn't that the case in anything. FYI 90% of nurses in the NHS are band 6 or below

Posted from TSR Mobile

Actually how eductated you are does mean how successful have you been in the education system. Just about every doctor will have been much better eductated than almost every nurse.

Nobody said a degree was everything, just that it means you are well educated (for the most part anyway).

Reply 41

n00

Original post by Iamyourfather

If MPs feel they're "underpaid", they'll find ways to make money elsewhere

And when they get a pay rise and still feel underpaid? This isn't going to stop them finding ways to make money elsewhere.

Reply 42

User1014865

Original post by n00

And when they get a pay rise and still feel underpaid? This isn't going to stop them finding ways to make money elsewhere.

True, this new action however is in the hope that they'll be satisfied with their salary. But like you said, it might not stop them from finding extra cash elsewhere.

Reply 43

DeeWave

We should want to attract the brightest and most dedicated people to stand for election to parliament. People who fit those criteria could earn much more than MPs by working in the private sector. Rightly or wrongly, money is a big motivator, since financial capital greatly determines one's experience of life and the ability to provide for one's family.

Therefore I support a pay rise for MPs. It's a demanding job, and it's in all our best interests to attract the best to do it.

Reply 44

Drewski

I've got 2 views on this.

One says, you pay peanuts; you get monkeys. An MP has an important role to play, so pay them accordingly. BUT, make it illegal for them to also be directors/board members or in any way have other incomes. If they have the spare time to do other jobs, they're clearly not taking their Parliamentary duties seriously. Introduce term limits. No single MP can serve longer than, say 10 or 15 years. And, though this will be harder to enforce, an MP must have 'worked' in their life. No more straight from university to politics drones, we want people with actual experience of having run businesses in the real world.

Other view says, pay every MP the national average wage: £26,500, provide barrack-type accommodation of the exact same standard any member (ok, officer) of the Armed Forces would live in, even if living and working in the centre of London.

Reply 45

tooedgy

Original post by ssxx

There have been a lot of stories about MPs being recommenced a pay rise of 15% in the basic salary of a backbench MP from £66,396 to a sum closer to £75,000.

There have been a lot of backlash to this idea due to people who work in civil service having pay rise capped at 1% a year.

But if one just uses their common sense they will know that giving MPs a pay rise is a good thing for democracy.

There used to be a time when MPs were not even paid at all and only the rich came into politics.
And this salary of £66,396 is still lower than senior civil servants, head teachers ect.

A job of an MP carry's more responsibility than a head teacher of one school!, A MPs decision impacts millions of people in this country and the pay should be much higher to reflect that.

A lot of highly intelligent people who are not millionaires do not enter politics because of the relatively poor pay compared to other jobs they could be doing such as CEOs of big companies earning 200K.

Increase MPs pay and bring it inline with the responsibility the job carry's and bring people into politics who are not millionaires.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-23122628

Absolute nonsense nobody has refused to enter politics because of low pay. If you are passionate about politics you will want to become an MP regardless of the pay.

Reply 46

tooedgy

Original post by DeeWave

We should want to attract the brightest and most dedicated people to stand for election to parliament. People who fit those criteria could earn much more than MPs by working in the private sector. Rightly or wrongly, money is a big motivator, since financial capital greatly determines one's experience of life and the ability to provide for one's family.

Therefore I support a pay rise for MPs. It's a demanding job, and it'sh in all our best interests to attract the best to do it.

The problem with politics is that they have too many privately educated Oxbridge graduates not that they don't have enough! Giving them a pay rise will only attract more of these out of touch individuals that don't understand ordinary people.

Reply 47

ssxx

Original post by tooedgy

Absolute nonsense nobody has refused to enter politics because of low pay. If you are passionate about politics you will want to become an MP regardless of the pay.

That's like saying if you were passionate about healing the sick, you would become a doctor regardless of the pay!

Get in the real world, people want to be rewarded for their special skills they want to have a nice house and security and they don't want to limit themselves as if we live in a communist system.

I hope you get your passionate job then the boss cuts your pay in half and says, "well if you were passionate you would still do it". I would love to see your reaction!

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 48

ssxx

Original post by tooedgy

So now being highly educated is a no no!

What do you want? Tom, dick and Harry from your local council housing block because they know how it feels to be common? Are these people really in touch?

You are so naive!

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 49

Idle

Personally I wouldn't mind MP's being paid 100k+

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Numerous people such as head teachers get paid more, it would make sense that those actually with the biggest responsibility get paid the most

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It would attract more intelligent people to stand, if you can make 500k in another job why would you leave to make 50k IF you get elected?

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Having to balance your time between London and your constituency working 70 hour weeks with high pressure sounds like the kind of job that in the private sector would be paid in 6 figures

Reply 50

Xotol

For people that are supposed to 'represent' us, surely it would be more sensible that their pay bears some semblence to the current climate of the economy and struggles of the people, rather than a dick measuring contest between doctors or whoever else about who should get more salary?

Reply 51

Drewski

Original post by Idle

Personally I wouldn't mind MP's being paid 100k+

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Numerous people such as head teachers get paid more, it would make sense that those actually with the biggest responsibility get paid the most

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It would attract more intelligent people to stand, if you can make 500k in another job why would you leave to make 50k IF you get elected?

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Having to balance your time between London and your constituency working 70 hour weeks with high pressure sounds like the kind of job that in the private sector would be paid in 6 figures

Agreed.

But is it too much to ask for a bit of common PR sense? The news should be: "we agree MPs should get a rise, and as much as we approve it, it'll only come into effect at the beginning of the next Government. You, the electorate, can decide who's worth the extra money". Far more sensible way of presenting it.

Reply 52

Idle

Original post by Xotol

Because similar jobs running large companies get paid 6 or 7 figures, you have to offer competitive pay to make those who I'd personally want running the country to enter politics.

Some will argue that you should do it because it is your passion etc and that is true to an extent but personally even if I loved something if it was going to offer me substandard pay for the stress and time I was putting in I would seriously consider just doing something else.

Original post by Drewski

I do agree they could have gone about it in a better way!

Reply 53

Unkempt_One

In order to allow them to concentrate on politics and for there to be no wealth-bar for entry they should have no worries about finance, but £66000 is plenty.

Reply 54

ssxx

Original post by Idle

Personally I wouldn't mind MP's being paid 100k+

•

Numerous people such as head teachers get paid more, it would make sense that those actually with the biggest responsibility get paid the most

•

It would attract more intelligent people to stand, if you can make 500k in another job why would you leave to make 50k IF you get elected?

•

Having to balance your time between London and your constituency working 70 hour weeks with high pressure sounds like the kind of job that in the private sector would be paid in 6 figures

Well said

Reply 55

Steezy

Remuneration packages should attract, retain and motivate the employee.

A gauranteed pay rise will not motivate an employee to work in the best interests of the shareholders (or in this case, the public). It will only act to retain them in that position.

Carefully thought out performance related pay which motivates the MPs to act in both the short and long term interests of the public would be better suited than a gauranteed pay rise.

Reply 56

uktotalgamer

We're all in this together remember. Although I do remember pay freezes in the public sector. Obviously MP's don't count as public sector...

Reply 57

ssxx

Original post by uktotalgamer

We're all in this together remember. Although I do remember pay freezes in the public sector. Obviously MP's don't count as public sector...

To be fair, the MPs did not ask for this pay rise.
An independent body did and the pay rise does not start straight away, if it is carried out.
And public sector pay freeze is only temporary.

Reply 58

uktotalgamer

Original post by ssxx

To be fair, the MPs did not ask for this pay rise.
An independent body did and the pay rise does not start straight away, if it is carried out.
And public sector pay freeze is only temporary.

Temporary or not it hardly seems fair that while some a barely scraping the breadline with their wages in the public sector others get pay increases? Nevertheless, life isn't fair, and the same could be said about the bankers. Just don't this it's just is all.

Reply 59

tooedgy

Original post by ssxx

Special skills? A degree in history is not a special skill. These politicians usually walk into university do some fancy named politics degree (which isn't even a real degree if you ask me do a real subject!) then they end up working for the party putting leaflets through doors until they are deemed worthy enough to be on the ballot as an mp. You don't need special skills to understand politics, I do Computer Science yet I understand economics and politics better than a lot of politics students.