91Èȱ¬

Put them on performance related pay and watch the end of this control freak PC nonsense and the country come out of recession in half the time it would otherwise take.

Yes but ONLY when they pay back every single penny they took on illegal expenses claim

I question the independence of a committe that oversees parliamentary pay, when it's own pay is considered by parliament. It's called backscratching.

MP's do not do enough to be able to claim they deserve such pay. They don't even deserve to have any expenses. They are already paid more than double the national average wage. If they're to understand the plight of the pleb, they have got to live as one.

I haven't had a pay rise for 3 years and I do not expect one this year, that being despite my company making huge profits year on year.

Why should it be any different for MP's ?

MPs can have a pay rise, but no expenses.
MPs can have expenses, but no pay rise.

MPs MUST NOT be allowed to have both.

MPs are not doctors, refuse collectors, street cleaners, police officers, sewage/water workers, teachers, farmers/growers, nurses, etc., etc.

Members of Parliament are there by privilege and by consent of the people. Their job must not be compared to any of the above, without whom this country would grind to halt?

If this country lost half it's MPs and councils/councillers- this country would work more efficiently and enable a higher minimum wage?

MPs should not get a pay rise.
Many in both the private and public sector have already had freezes or cuts to their pay in the past year or so, and more are expected this year.

If MPs were to show any leadership at all they would be at the forefront of reducing the huge cost to us, the tax-payers, of pay and employment in the public sector. Public sector wages have risen faster than the private sector for some time, and public sector pensions are significantly more generous than the majority of their private counterparts, both in actual amounts and in being often inflation-proofed.

This makes me feel like royalty.

I'm not just DisgustedOfMitcham2, today I'm 'king Disgusted.

Eh, inflation has been negative for the past year so what criteria justified this given the present economic climate. My pension has risen by 1.25% as a concession because of the negative inflation, are there double standards still being applied to MP's?

No mps shouldn't get any pay rise, they should be getting pay cuts if anything.

It is quite incredulous that this has been awarded at all.........Certainly given the extermely low esteem in which most MP's are held?

Please don't be fooled by any attempt to compare to "private sector". Very few , if any , of these employees would survive in business. So. after all that. No they don't deserve a pay rise

No, why should they get a rise when well almost everybody is expected to show restraint.

After the past 12 months scandal how can they sit there in the commons and look at the electorate with a straight face after taking a pay rise? Please someone explain what has happened to this country in the last 12 years!

I am flabberghasted. We've seen avaricious MPs faking second home claims, claiming for everything from moat cleaning to wisteria clipping, joining boards of directors outside the 'day' job at the drop of a hat, enjoying perks few would imagine, and then - then - in the teeth of the strongest public backlash against this insensitivity awarding themselves a pay rise. Quite breathtaking. Perhaps they'd also like to extend allowances too and reduce ths nbumber of sitting days for parliament?

This is clearly so very wrong,MP's must show leadership when asking,or indeed demanding that the country at large must accept at best a pay freeze.

MMMeeeee Let me think...I've just taken a 30% pay CUT and didn't even have my snout in the trough.
Pay rise, I don't think so!

"Which workers have earned a pay rise?"
Our 'hands on' National Security & Emergency services, Charity workers, unpaid Carers.
MP's should not vote themselves a pay rise, they should not accept one and their pay should be frozen in this Recession. Because of the 'Expenses scandal', it would be seen as 'thumbing their nose' at the Electorate, and will badly damage their chance of being elected.
They should feel the 'squeeze' - just like the rest of us.

Yes of course, I mean there must be loads of money left over out of my taxes so what else would they spend it on.

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I'd hold Dave to his promise. If he doesn't cut ministerial pay he should be impeached. Sadly though in Britain we don't impeach and it seems that only Blair is subject to these demands anyway.

I'll probably be in the minority of 1 on this board who thinks MP's are underpaid. The best MP I ever had was former neurosurgeon Sam Galbraith. His NHS salary these days would have been well into 6 figures (and worth every penny if you have a brain tumour next to your motor cortex). The reason we have incompetent leadership is that the salary we offer is not enough to tempt really bright people into the job. Why would you want to be Chancellor on £150,000 a year and be subject to constant bile on HYS if you can earn a million a year as a city banker?

If we pay our MP's peanuts we'll only get three sorts of MP: incompetents who can't do better elsewhere, the totally corrupt who take bribes are in it to make deals for when they leave office and the incredibly rich already. We used to have parliaments filled with aristocrats (Winston Churchill was born in Blenheim palace after all!) and they didn't serve the people properly. Churchill genuinely couldn't see the point of the NHS......

Is this a joke ? After all the sleaze and expence fiddling they should seriously consider a salary reduction, not an increase. They should at least repay all that they have claimed that was not true out of pocket expences.

WOW the ministers are not going to take it....

As the pay rise starts in April?

And they will be out of goverment in May that means they are forgoing arounf £100 in pay before picking you their golden good byes for being a minister and if they are leaving parliment their even bigger golden good byes for being an MP!

And you can bet that they will not be foregoing their increased pension payments due to the payrise!

Lifes Good and Lifes even better if you are an MP

they absolutely should reject the payrise if they have common sense, or sense of decency! they are already hugely overpaid in my opinion, considering many of them have jobs outside the House of Commons and the huge expenses they are able to claim. i havent seen a payrise in nearly 2 years and neither have many others in the company i work for.

MPs getting a pay rise, thats a joke. The government today is useless, nothing but money hungry politicians with no concern for anything but lining their own pockets. After the expenses scandal, there should be no way they should get a pay rise considering they get paid too much already. Politicians should not have massive salaries as at the end of the day they are there to serve the people but the vast majority don't. They should all be living modestly and not in the opulent environments that we, the taxpayer, provide for them. Well seeing income tax comes right out of your wages as if it was left up to the public, a great many would choose to look out for themselves rather than give it to these penny pinchers. I don't even have any particular party in mind - they're all rotten. What we need is complete political reform, scrap the government as it stands just now, as it is now far too much about the wheeling and dealing and dodgy politics than it is about the people. Should MPs get a wage rise? No - they should all be given their P45 and shown the door.
GENERAL ELECTION - VOTE NONE OF THE ABOVE!!!

They should be reducing their pay as a show of appology for the expenses scandel. The fact that these people are the reason for some people not being able to work highlights the need to direct their excessive money elsewhere

On the contrary, MPs should take a pay CUT along with the entire Civil Service, as a contribution towards getting Britain economically back on its feet again. Maybe a few redundancies too? I am sure Britain doesn't need more than about 200 MPs, and we governed India with 1,500 civil servants, so we don't need more than a tiny fraction of what we have now, as we only have the UK to take care of.

Of course not!

Firstly: public sector workers earning >£18,000 are having their pay frozen. How can it be fair that a local essential worker earning £18,000 gets nothing, and an MP on far more, around £62,000, get a 1.5% rise. 1.5% of £62,000 is one heck of a lot more than 0% of £18,000 !!

Secondly: they bleat on about people being rewarded for good performance. They have performed badly, they should have their pay reduced if anything.

Thirdly: they just do not get it do they! public faith in politicians is at an all time low, they are perceived to be a load of self serving dishonest, disingenuous crooks, this will just fuel that belief. In the interests of public relations alone their pay should be frozen. There are people out there really struggling, losing their homes and jobs, and being constantly hammered by ever rising taxes and cost of living.

I seems that although this has been announced it will not be taken up by MPs, a correct decision in my view.

However will other members of the public sector who have been awarded a pay increase follow suit?

Is this a joke? They should be getting a substantial pay cut in my opinion.

I have no objection to our MP's getting a good salary for the job they do.

Much of the problem with the MP's expenses scandal arose thanks to Thatcher keeping salaries down in the 80's and creating the expenses as a means to get around the problem.

Instead, it grew into the monster we have seen in the last year or two.

MP's should get a good salary and expenses limited to an additional sum for those MP's who will have to live in London when Parliament is sitting, and for travel expenses to and from their consituency. No other expenses as it should all come from their salary, including the costs of running an office.

Should MPs get a pay rise?

Is that some kind of joke question?
I fully expect to see many comments "moderated out" on this HYS.

I have a (small) local government pension. I had a letter from the county council last week advising me that because there was zero inflation last year (joke right?!)my pension will not be increased this year but will stay the same. No doubt my former colleagues have all had their pay frozen this year too. MPs are public servants so why does the zero inflation no pay rise not apply to them as well? They earn enough as it is, have helped to bring the country to its knees and have shocked us all with their expense claims. No they should not have a pay rise!

Once again a highly censored site.Its time we had a real government answerable to the voters of britain and representative of what the people want in britain.This is yet another slap in the face for the voters of britain,while everybody is cutting back to make ends meet we see the greedy face of politics.

They should take a PAY CUT...

Overall...

They handled the UK badly over many years (poor competence)

They've shown a lack of dedication to the work.

They've shown a poor level of diligence.

Many do not work the hours they should, some work hardly at all.

...that equals a 25% cut.

Plus we need better regulation of working hours, second jobs should be banned.

I haven't had a pay rise for over two years, so why should they get one. What do they do for OUR money? A big fat nothing that's what.

Why should they get a pay rise when they already owe us thousands in unpaid expense claims?

No.
They cannot expect public sector workers, bankers etc to exercise restraint and for pensioners to be hit on their earnings related pensions when they are accepting pay rises.
They are not even performing well. They just aren't questioning the actions of their leaders.

MPs don't pay tax on expenses/allowances - can we finally decide on the terminology too?

Abolish MP expenses? Then award a pay rise - MPs have no right in LAW, or morally, to have both.

Oh, silly me, MPs are Members of a Club, not Representatives - therefore operating and experiencing a womb of protection they are still quietly fighting tooth and nail to maintain?

The main reason the public finances are bankrupt is because we have employed too many public paid workers and paid them too much. If I'm not mistaken MPs fall into this the category of public paid workers. Public pay is going to have to be cut, how can MPs do this if they have taken a pay rise themselves. The private sector has already had it tough, now it's time for the public sector.

No! Parliament and especially Nu Labour, have overseen an economic disaster, restricted civil liberties, failed to control immigration, proved unable to manage their own affairs (expenses), allowed PC madness to increase, vastly over-spent on NHS without seeing any real improvement... etc.
By all normal measures it has been a bad performance and in the normal world would not result in a pay rise. Cut 100 MPs and reallocate a small proportion of the pay (and of course the workload) - it's what happens in the real world.
My company is profitable, but no pay rises have been paid for 2 years - none, not even for promotions.

I totally agree with korat102. If MPs really were put on performance-related pay, we'd have none of this politically-correct claptrap, the finances of the country would be sorted out in no time and, finally, because so many of them are completely incompetent, half of them would be sacked!

Oh, for that happy day!

Do MPs really believe they are engaging the public when they take so many perks.....no wonder this country is in despair...it seems to be run by people who have no concept of life outside of Westminster

Of course they should. Over the years because of political pressure increases have not been taken, which is partly why we ended up with expense fiasco. If we want to have a quality parliament we have to pay a sensible salary. I know some will think £65k is good money, which it is, but senior management in most organisations will get pay far more than this. If you don't pay a sensible salary we do not get the best candidates.
I agree there are too many MP's, I think a reduction of 50% is in order given that a lot of laws are made by the European parliament, and we also have a Scottish and Welsh assembley. If we did this we could use some of the money saved to pay a sensible salary.

As a gesture, MPs should get no payrise. Just a matter of setting an example.

If you pay peanuts you get monkeys. The reason for the whole expenses nonsense was that a previous government chickened out of paying a good salary for running our country and unofficially agreed that MPOS should expect to recieve a large proportion of their remuneration via "expenses". Unless we want very poor quality representation, or to go back to the days when MPs had no salary and had to have an independent fortune we will pay them enough.

Well thats nice for them and they havent got rid of the expenses list , they can still stack it up on there as well ! the pay rise of £1000 is what my husband and i get between us for 2 months to live on , im not complaining we do ok both retired.

"Yes they should have a massive pay increase, Why because they cant' afford the high cost of living,£1000 a week might not be enough can we give them more say £3000 a week, I did have an extra £1.50 a week on my sick pay from april, so I will now have 91.40 a week to live on? and pay all my bills?. My fault yes, but heart disease is a killer I should be in work?

If MPs think that their current salary is not high enough, please resign.

Let someone who's going to use the role to make a difference, take the position. It would have no increase in cost to the tax payer, and we might actually see some improvements.

Pay rise WITHOUT expenses ... YES!

Pay rise WITH expenses ....... NO!

The list of people whose salary is used to decide an MPs salary are the very people who can best afford to do without a pay rise, as can the MPs.
Many others cannot.

If MP's want to cap civil servants pay rise at 1%, which equates to less than £150 per year for most of the lower grades, then they should set an example and take nothing considering they're already paid more than five times the wage some of us get. Shame we can't all make our puny wages up with extra expenses.

If their pay was based on the countries performance (lose pay if the economy suffers, pay rise if it improves) we would probably have a better economy and less wasteful MP's

If any of them accept this, they should be lynched.

Well, not lynched, but at least named and shamed.

Really agree with Peter Sym no 19.

No they are already overpaid and most likely still fiddling their expenses.

There is only one answer - "NO!"

While rafts of selected MP's are controlled by the Whips to vote on debates like trained monkeys, successive Labour Prime Ministers stamp on the wishes of their Cabinet ministers to further their self-appointed Presidential ambitions and the proletariat voting public are totally disregarded, all MP's are surplus to requirement. They should all be made redundant immediately without golden goodbyes or pension rights. Bring on the election now!

Not before our soldiers do. At least the soldiers protect our country, rather than the politicians who start the wars in the first place.

Disgusting. If only there was another Guy Fawkes.

A slap in the face for many. I find it very hard to believe that anyone earning twice the average wage even needs a pay rise at the moment. And let's not even go near the expenses, shall we?
If they fancy a bit of reality, they can try having no pay rise for three years on say, £30,000, and see how they manage on that!

NO! they haven't earned it, they don't need it and most of them should be sacked! greedy, lying, scum bags.

Of course saves them completing an expense form

Should MPs get a pay rise?

What a stupid question, these self serving parasites should be given a 50% pay cut. At the same time they should be required to do a full working week like the rest of us.

HA if any thing they should have there wadges slashed. Thought we are suppose to be cutting back to save money not to give scum bags a raise. HANG ON THEN is that why the councils are made to cut back then? ah makes sense now. Slime balls the lot of them

NO

From April 1 my taxes will go up and my salary is frozen - in spite of more work and a good two years I have seen reductions; in the same time, MPs have been milking the system and should not get a rise.

Further, their pension entitlements should also reduce in line witht he private sector.

We need to remember that, for political and public relations reasons, MP's pay has been held back for years. To offset this, new MPs were told, unofficially, that they could make up the difference through the now discredited allowance system. Now that has gone we need to match MP's pay to the importance and difficulty of the job without prejudice. If that leads us to a significant pay rise then that is fine. Pay needs to be good enough to attract politicians from all walks of life and with limited means.

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They should not have been offered a pay rise to begin with. So many other people have faced pay cuts/freezes. Besides they are a corrupt lot who have done nothing to help the average person on the street. I earn less than £7 per hour and will not receive a pay rise although I work extremely hard. Ofcourse, they will not turn the pay rise down, no human would.

MPs should be on minimum wage.

You shouldn't have to pay them extortionate amounts when they all proclaim to be so passionate about the state of the country and its people. They should work out of love for their country and the chance they get to make a difference.

This really is a no-brainer! The answer is: absolutely not.

Lead by example: the rest of the UK work force is being decimated by this recession; low paid workers are having their hours cut; salary increases have been frozen, etcetera. It seems to me that the only people getting more in this recession are the lousy bankers, and their comrades in crime, our ever-so-spotless politicians.

For crying out loud, can't politicians manage another year before a pay review? How on earth do they think that the voting public are going to perceive them now? The political class continues to divorce itself from the rest of society, which is an insult in the face of all that has already occurred.

So, to reiterate unnecessarily, absolutely not, no pay increase. Cut back like the rest of us!

If they are due a pay rise they should get it, but it should only apply to the NEW parliament. The current crop of unspeakables will take even more money with them in pay-offs and pensions. This is probably why there will be no election before 1st April!

WHY? The main work of our MPs at Westminster is to manage and make laws for the benefit of the citizens of Britain. Today, some 80% of those laws and the associated management of our Nation has been abdicated to unelected bureaucrats in Brussels, and our Westminster MPs for the most part, pass those laws, 'on the nod' without even a cursory read through. If these MPs have abdicated 80% of their responsibilities, why on earth should they be entitled to a pay rise - a significant salary reduction would be more appropriate.

Its a quite appaling fact that two thirds of Conservative MPs are 'part-timers' moonlighting with one or more second jobs. The excuse that it gives them 'broader experience' doesnt wash, as it generally highly paid 'consultancy' work to line their pockets. Its this fact - effectively cheating the tax payer who are paying a full time wage - rather than expenses that should be stamped upon before any pay rises can be considered. The Labour number of 'part-timers' is just one in six in comparison.

It is obscene.As inflation creps up I have been told I should now reduce my pension as the fund is insufficient thanks to Brown and the banks.40 years of hard work and conservative investment down the drain thanks to these clowns.

53. At 10:45am on 05 Mar 2010, smilingparrotfan wrote:
Really agree with Peter Sym no 19.

WOW! I'm in a minority of two, not one! We should start a political party....

Personally I'd like to see someone like Peter Jones (Dragons' Den) in No 11 but why would he give up his multi-millionaire income in exchange of being on the recieving end of so much hate?

#37. I don't pay tax on my expenses either. If I have to buy equipment for work with my own money or travel for business I submit a form for what I've spent plus a receipt to actually prove I spent what I'm claiming. As I was already taxed on the income when I first earned it I shouldn't be taxed again when I get the refund. As long as MP's are submitting receipts and only claiming back what they spent in the first place (which is the big issue.....)neither should they (or anyone else) be paying tax on expenses either.

#38 the country is bankrupt because we spend £180bn a year on benefits paying people not to work. Something like 1 in 10 of the UK population are on invalidity benefit. Did I miss a re-run of the 1st world war in the past decade? Considering people came back from the trenches in WW1 missing limbs and still worked this figure is ridiculous. Contrary to all the other anti-immigration rants that somehow manage to creep into all HYS debates the immigrants work for a living and pay tax which is more than too many Brits do.

These are the people who have got the countries finances in such a state that people are loosing their jobs all over the place, taking pay cuts and most people getting NO pay rise for years. Of course they shouldn't get a rise, what planet do they live on? They are making miles above the average UK wage and they STILL want more to go along side their ridiculous expenses?!? It's a joke.

Err, My take home pay is around £320 a week due to a pay cut. My partner can't get Jobseekers Allowance or Income support because she lives me and we have 2 children. Now add up my mortgage, utilities, COUNCIL TAX etc and when deducated I think we have around £40-50 a week to live on..

Errr, give me a forwarding address and I will gladly send you some money to help you with your pay rises and expenses claim NOT.

I'm sick of reading about the scandals these so called mp's cause and how they're trying to get more money. I have no faith in these people what so ever.

I would say no. Additionally it was reported that a deputy head in a moderate sized school got about the same salary (£66k) - a DEPUTY. This seems to me to be overpayment - how much does the Head get then!

A MP is an equilivant of senior executive in a company, head teacher, doctor etc, all of whom get paid far more than an MP. Indeed if you go on the Unite Website you will see that their joint General Secretaries get close to £100k.
If you want good MP's you need to pay them. As it a lot of good candidates would be taking a pay cut if they became an MP, and therefore don't put themselves forward. We therefore end up with a lot of low quality career politicans, or people who have private wealth.

Its wrong that MPs will get a rise when all the little people have a pay freeze. Whatever happened to lead by example?

What?!? With the rest of the country on pay freezes at best, significant pay cuts at worst, thesse guys have given themselves a 1kpa payrise? How dare they! How very dare they! Especially since Brown et al are responsible for the UK recession, its inability to deal with it and the job losses and salary cuts it has caused.

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Give MPs are break! For years we have been complaining that they have set their own pay. Now that it is in the hands of an outside body and they are awarded 1.5% this must be accepted without question otherwise we are back to square one!

When there are still low paid hard working people (quite a lot of them) in the UK why do MPs consider themselves valuable enough to even get their basic salary of £64k?!?!?

Pyramid schemes were outlawed last time I knew anything about them and yet in this country the money keeps flowing upwards just the same as it does in a pyramid.

It's time for a change.

I think its important to point out that not all MP get £65K, which some people seem to think is low, I happen to think this is fairly high given that they only appear to work half the year as parliment seems to always be in recess! The 91Èȱ¬'s own article states the following: Cabinet ministers currently get an extra £79,754 per year, giving them a total salary of £144,520.

Thats a high salary for not alot of work. Maybe all future MP's should spend a year in the real world with the concerns that brings, the high taxation, lack of service, working long hours, the energy wasted shouting at news reports on the nose in trough bridgade. They might then understand the general populas worries in the overcrowded island.

We need a strong government that isnt afraid to stand up for the rights of Britains and say NO! We have to stop being a pushover and live within our means.

The government has been quick to tell the population to live within their means and tighten their belts. They must then lead by example. To even be offered a payrise given the state of politics in this country is utterly crackers, they should not take it, if any MP accepts it proves what most people have known for years, what utter contempt MP's hold for the people that pay them!

Rant over, nose back to the grindstone.

Don't vote for your local MP in the next General Election

Very few deserve it

This is the only way to make MP's stop making fun of us

I would rather earn £66K as a college principal and provide something worthwhile to my students, than earn £66K as an MP and provide... well, what?

Of course they should get a pay rise - just as soon as every pensioner in the country gets the same rise and every proper worker (i.e. legal, taxpaying) gets a change in tax code to give them the equivalent.

Until we, the ordinary people, see some improvement in our own incomes, these greedy, self-serving MPs should have to suffer a reduction. What have they ever done for us except lie, cheat and reduce our standards of living?

Anyone who believes MPs should get more because they could do so in the private sector is deluded. If they could, they would, believe me. Being an MP is a cushy number - half your time you're on holiday, there are the expenses, the perks, the second or third jobs as "directors" or "consultants", the TV appearances, book deals, etc. In fact, given the benefits of being an MP, they should have a basic salary of about £15,000. They might understand the real world a little better then.

I think they earn enough already, and they should not be rewarded this year after the expences scandal, once the election is over and the country can afford it then maybe, the private sector which I work in mostly didnt get any pay rise this year (unless you work in a bank) if the politicians do take a rise it will show they have learnt nothing except how to show their greed more openly!

Talk about your complete lack of awareness. It's easy enough to argue they should have one, due to them forgoing increases in the past but if they're trying to justify other public sector freezes and clamping down on bank bonuses, it hardly looks good. And lets face it they do have the best pensions tax money can buy.

Mixed feelings - the job of an MP has a high degree of responsibility, they deal with everything from a constituents gripe about the high cost of bananas to making decisions which could have massive repercussions (e.g. the Iraq War) - decision makers at that level in industry, who have the same capabilities (e.g. Bankers) earn vastly more, and aren't subject to the same degree of scrutiny.

On the other hand, having mentioned bankers, and the lack of control over them that was excercised by the government which has cost the world trillions, lost 100s of thousands of people's jobs, and inflicted pay cuts and job security fears on countless more, any pay rise is more than a tad insensitive.

Look at it in context - 650MPs, 1000 pounds per annum extra - the total cost is less than one year of Fred Goodwin's pension...

My last pay rise was in April 2007 and seeing that MP's are so keen on cheap immigrant labour why not put them into government for a third of the costs and get a better job done

The WHOLE reason we had the expenses scandal was because in the past MPs did not take their pay raises because it was always seen as being politically insensitive to do so.

So what happened ? Instead of pay raises, MPs got bigger and bigger expenses. No pay raises in the past caused the expenses scandal we have now.

People should stop and think for a moment before shouting and screaming about this pay raise for MPs. Just for once, can people try and think through the situation here, instead of just having a knee-jerk reaction ?

Comparing the salaries of MPs with those of "equivalent" positions in industry and commerce proves nothing. I think most of us would agree that a great many so-called managers are grossly incompetent and grossly over-paid. The fact that MPs do not get as much as some other over-paid incompetents is no argument at all. Unless we can do something to control this culture of sheer, naked greed at the top this country will never recover. Perhaps that's the idea..........

No, what they should get is a pay cut, an end to being able to claim for most of their expenses and give half of them their P45s.

A resounding NO! Millions have lost their jobs, are working on reduced hours or have been subject to pay freezes, yet this shameless lot are after yet more of our money!

Mp's should be getting their pay cut,till it matches,say,nurses pay,we need mp's who are in politics to serve their people,their country,their party and not be just self-serving careerists.Transparency in politics is only achieved by accident,not by design,this should change.In other words,they are transparently selfish,lying,cheating,charlatans,with one eye on the electorate and one eye on the main chance(for wealth and power)No-one seems willing to speak hard truth to these people,it's high time we did.Let's see some prosecutions for theft(expenses)though I doubt this will even be posted,too many reasons why not I guess......

"Do I deserve a pay rise?" you ask in the introduction to this topic.

We-e-ll, at the risk of sounding repetitive, yes I do - as do all other pensioners who contributed National Insurance payments and Income tax all their working lives. Not a penny of our NI premiums was retained, let alone invested, to give us a decent standard of living. It has all been squandered by various governments on pet schemes and self-indulgence.

A basic State Pension today pays less than half the minimum standard wage paid to school leavers living with Mum and Dad at little to no personal cost. Yet we have exactly the same basic bills as those Mums and Dads who either have wages or multiple benefits to support them. My pay increase as of April this year is the laughable sum of £2.50 a week - the increased daily cost of heating throughout this year's hard winter.

Still, mustn't complain - I haven't been shipped off to the Soylent Green factory - yet.

So the people who need it the least get the rise. The judiciary? Doctors? I'm sure they are really struggling.

How many pay rises will the productive sectors get this year? But who will be paying for these rises.

Why people are not tearing down the Houses of Paliament is beyond me. These people are just so extraordinarily out of touch.

Do they not realise that British nationals are being priced out of this country, that familes are breaking up that businesses are running on fresh air? Do they not realise that they are hear to serve us?

The people who rund this country are an absolute disgrace. My view is that people should only pay a portion of their tax bill this year. The systems are government are very weak when we act in numbers.

Combine this with the depressing reality that there is no one worth voting for this year - what is this doing for moral?

A few years ago Jack Straw stated the MPs needed to get closer to the person in the street, and that MPs salaries should reflect this.

If he actually meant what he was saying (be fair, there is a .00001% chance of any MP meaning what they say)then he should be pushing to have MP's salaries pegged at the UK Average income. It would give them some sense of reality!

#19, Peter_Sym:

Sorry Peter, but I completely disagree with you. I want politicians to go into politics because they are interested in public service, not just for what they can get out of it for their own personal gain.

Huge pay is not a guarantee of competence. Let's face it, city banks pay stratospheric salaries to attract the "good" people, and they turned out to be a bunch of complete incompetents who even make some of our MPs look like they know what they're doing.

MP's in mock outrage at bankers bonus payments for failing, then award themselves a pay-rise, even though they are a bigger failure. You couldn't write it for TV!