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AIBU?

Furious that MP's are to get an 11% pay rise!

269 replies

Millenniumbug1 · 08/12/2013 08:42

Why? When the rest of the country is wondering how we're going to pay our heating bills, we had 30,000 deaths due to the cold last year, (many more than Switzerland), but the MPs award themselves this pay rise.
I always feel indebted to vote, but I wish we could have a box on the ballot paper which says that we don't like any of them! I just don't think they've earned an 11% pay rise.

OP posts:

Report

FyreFly · 08/12/2013 12:21

In all honesty, you couldn't pay me enough to be an MP.

You go for the job initially because you really want to help and make a difference. Then when you get in, your party won't listen to you, you are forced into the party line, your constituents decide they don't like you (having just voted for you), your private life becomes public property, anything you say will be picked apart and twisted out of all proportion, it does not matter how reasonable or genuinely good your intentions are, someone, somewhere, will hate you for them and decide you are the scum of the earth. You will work 12+ hour days regularly. If you're out in the sticks you have to somehow balance working in London AND your consituency without alienating your public, and on top of all this, you are responsible for making decisions that will impact the lives of millions of people and ensuring the security and future of this country.

And you get bugger all thanks for it.

To me, £65k for that is peanuts. Which is why I stick to the day job

Disclaimer: I am not suggesting that there are not corrupt MPs, but I am one of those people who believes that at heart, most people are just normal, decent individals trying to do their job. We see a handful of cases of expense fiddling out of a total of 650 MPs from all parties. I don't believe that makes all MPs horrible people, although I do believe that a rise of this magnitude at this period is unwise and out of touch.

Vev · 08/12/2013 12:24

And the thing is, the top nachos are millionaires anyway, and they have the audacity to call their public scroungers. Parliament needs an overhaul. IDS should be taxed on the air he breathes, he's useless. They are paid out of the country's purse! have they forgotten this fact?!

FyreFly · 08/12/2013 12:27

This offers an excellent perspective:

www.theguardian.com/money/2008/dec/13/parliament-careers-working-life-mp-jobs

FyreFly · 08/12/2013 12:27

Dammit www.theguardian.com/money/2008/dec/13/parliament-careers-working-life-mp-jobs

farrowandbawlbauls · 08/12/2013 12:29

24, I've lost count of the number of petition that have reached that number if not smashed it, I have yet to see ONE that has been discussed in Parliament.

Lillilly · 08/12/2013 12:34

Out of interest, how much would you need to be paid to make it fees able to stand / get in as an MP?

For me, I would need that kind of amount to be able to realistically think about it. I only earn a fraction of that, but to take on that role, I would need a lot of money to cover child care and related costs to keep home life straight for my kids.

MP's are not self appointed, they are the people we as communities choose to represent us. If your MP is crap, stand against them, don't make the role unaffordable for you, me or anyone else who might be better.

Millenniumbug1 · 08/12/2013 12:38

I think that an 11% pay rise in the current climate is, at best, unwise. It flies in the face of what other, very hardworking people, are being awarded in their salaries. This is either quite a serious misjudgement, or just a defiant 2 fingers to the rest of us.
It interesting to see which MPs have come out in opposition to the rise.

OP posts:

QuintessentialShadows · 08/12/2013 12:40

I wonder if I should try be an MP.

What qualifications do I need? Or is conviction enough?

Must I be a British Citizen?

PigletJohn · 08/12/2013 12:41

Communities don't choose MPs. They are selected by the local political parties, subject to their choice meeting the approval of the central office.

The party loyalists then vote for whichever person or horse is wearing a hat with their favourite party's ribbon on it.

Lillilly · 08/12/2013 12:48

Communities don't choose MPs. They are selected by the local political parties, subject to their choice meeting the approval of the central office.

The party loyalists then vote for whichever person or horse is wearing a hat with their favourite party's ribbon on it.

Yes, because they are stupid, and all this is enabled by the majority who don't even vote, but if that is who they want to represent them then they have the mandate to represent their community. It still needs to be fees able for any ordinary person to stand and get it without a financial barrier .

juneybean · 08/12/2013 12:58

It's fucking appalling I haven't had a payrise in 5 years.

Chippingnortonset123 · 08/12/2013 13:03

I agree with Kerala. They are woefully underpaid and have been for years. Now they are unable to make this up with expenses. They should be on at least £120k.

MyBachisworsethanmybite · 08/12/2013 13:04

I agree with FyreFly actually that it's not an attractive job. There may well be a case, objectively, that MPs are underpaid.

But that isn't really the point. There is indisputably a case that many senior public sector staff are underpaid when compared with their equivalents in the private sector. MPs have decided that - for political reasons - no attempt shall be made to close that gap and pay in the public sector must be frozen. It is not right that there should be one rule for them and another rule for us.

ilovesooty · 08/12/2013 13:05

And there are actually many people, some posting on Mumsnet, who by their own admission have the TV on a lot of the time, are well up with sleb gossip but seem to think it quite reasonable to claim to take no interest in politics. The apathy of people like this make it so much easier for the MPs andthose in power to dstick up two metaphorical fingers to those who care about social injustice. The sadness is that we're becoming increasingly immune to being shocked and I don't know how we can change things.

GreenShadowsOfTheChristmasTree · 08/12/2013 13:08

Agree it's absolutely appalling and not the first time either, but it's not the MPs themselves that set it, so no point blaming them.

For what it's worth though, they don't get paid half what someone doing a responsible job in business would

PigletJohn · 08/12/2013 13:13

But they aren't doing a responsible job. Those who are get paid extra. So do some who have kept their noses clean, or not got caught, and have done as they were told for a few years.

farrowandbawlbauls · 08/12/2013 13:15

It doesn't matter who set it - the point is they shouldn't be accepting it. They could give it to charity but they wont, they'll keep it and claim to the rest of us that they tried their hardest to refuse - which we all know is bollocks.

ilovesooty · 08/12/2013 13:22

Perhaps they could donate it to offset the loss IDS has created with the Work Programme.

SteamWisher · 08/12/2013 13:25

How many people actually know what MPs do?

It's not running the country.

That's the job of the PM and his cabinet. They're MPs and they get extra salaries on top of being an MP.

MPs should represent their constituencies ie us by turning up and voting at parliament, lobbying etc.

Instead they're whipped to follow party lines, they don't turn up to parliament and they write a few letters every now and then. You do not need to be a genius.

I will also add that their current basic salary put them in the top 10% of earners. That's before their allowances.

Ffs.

SteamWisher · 08/12/2013 13:27

I'd also love to be an MP but without joining a party and sucking arse, there's no way it would happen.

It's not the salary that puts people off.

farrowandbawlbauls · 08/12/2013 13:28

ILOVESOOTY

NigellaLaw5on · 08/12/2013 13:30

For the responsibility mps have they are paid buttons, i wouldn't let my life be consumed by a job for that salary.

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farrowandbawlbauls · 08/12/2013 13:32

They are not responsible for anything though are they? They are NEVER, NEVER pulled up for breaking the rules, doing crap jobs, taking advantage of everything in fact, they are REWARDED for it.

PigletJohn · 08/12/2013 13:35

What is the responsibility that you think a backbencherbackbencher, on basic pay plus expenses plus allowances, plus generous pension, carries?

noblegiraffe · 08/12/2013 13:35

I've heard the argument before that other people with very consuming jobs, nurses, teachers, social workers don't deserve pay rises despite the responsibilities of the job because if they don't like their pay, they can always leave.

Who would be devastated to see them all replaced?

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