AUSTERITY IS FOR THE PLEBS.....NOT FOR US!

I don’t know if you are aware, but as we speak,members of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority are considering MPs’ pay. 

Recent submissions by MPs to the review, suggest that members believe that ‘ordinary backbencher’s’ salaries should be increased from £65,738 to more than £86,000 a pay rise of almost 33%!

 

Now I don’t know about you, but in my opinion these MPs must be made to remember who their paymasters are. It’s us, the tax payer and they seem hell bent on draining off every penny they can get from us. 

Have these people forgotten that many private and public sector workers have had no pay rise for 3 years?

To even consider giving MPs a pay rise at this time would be utterly repugnant and would fly in the face of public opinion; if these pay rises are accepted by politicians, especially following on from the parliamentary expenses scandal, it would cause irreversible damage to the fragile reputation of MPs and Parliament.

Let’s face it, when the average salary in the UK is still only around 25K and in Tameside, much lower, the current 66K for an MP doesn't seem like an unattractive deal, especially when you factor in the 22 week yearly recess, the perks, the generous subsidies, the expenses and the fact that it's not even enforced that they turn up.

Paying them 80+K is just wrong and I can't see the public standing for it.

However, when you compare the salary of an ‘ordinary backbencher’ to what is being paid out to local council bigwigs, their salaries do look tiny, but that just shows just how overpaid local council officers are!

When this story broke, it was interesting to read that when reporters from the M.E.N. contacted the region’s MPs to ask whether they thought the pay rise was a good idea, Jonathan Reynolds, Labour MP, Stalybridge & Hyde said, that he didn’t think salaries should go up when there is a pay freeze and that MPs pay should be linked to other equivalent jobs in the public sector such as Head teachers, and should only go up if theirs did. 

Andrew Gwynne MP, Denton & Reddish said that he too didn't support a rise in MPs pay. The suggestion of a 32% increase is frankly bonkers. The average wage in my constituency is around £18,000 a year. Effectively telling people that £66,000 isn’t enough pay wouldn’t find much support on the doorsteps of Denton and Reddish.

Strangely though, Andrew Stunell, Lib Dem, Hazel Grove and David Heyes, Labour, Ashton-under-Lyne, chose not to comment!