One rule for them another for us

Some of the headlines in the papers this morning are about the latest pay award that is going to be given to Members of Parliament in the UK.  All this has happened because a controversial pay rise of ten percent has been awarded to Members of Parliament by Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority who think they are being underpaid. They say that it is justified because the economy is recovering, but meanwhile the rest of us are seeing declines in standards of living.

Marcial Boo -  Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority

Marcial Boo, chief executive of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, said the economy was recovering and politicians should not be paid a "miserly amount". Before going on to say "All the evidence points towards MPs' salaries having fallen behind". Well I have one thing to say to Marcial Boo and that is every public sectors workers pay has fallen behind, including people working in the NHS, Education, Emergency services, Local Authorities and the Military. 

He might be right that  Members of Parliament do an important job and that even at £74,000, the new suggested salary level, might be at the low end for what they are asked to do, but the fact remains it is a good nine percent above the one percent the rest of the public workers are getting on the whole. Then you have to factor in that they get expenses and a lot of them have outside interests which can also add to their salaries. For once the leaders of the all the major parties agree that such a rise is unacceptable, but it will happen if they like it or not.

Maybe when the country is growing and people working in the public sector start getting real pay rises, or at least pay rises that match inflation, then we can look at Member of Parliaments wages. Clearly it is wrong that someone like the chief executive of Rutland County Council, "she who can not be named", gets more than the Member of Parliament for the same area. Or that  Marcial Boo gets paid around £120,000 when an Member of Parliament gets £67,000, however that is something for the future debate when things are looking up in the economy. Even then it should be done with regulation to force Members of Parliament to give up all outside remuneration from other interests which might influence their judgement.