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

[Millenniumbug1]

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.

[farrowandbawlbauls]

and that's without the law breaking they get away with - has anyone else read about yet another MP being dragged in by police for Child sex offences? No? All this is always kept quiet and they get away with murder while screwing the rest of us over and yet people still wonder why the general public don't vote in the numbers they used to.

[Golferman]

I have had to reduce my annual overseas holidays from four to three thanks to no rises these last few years.

[Dawndonnaagain]

It isn't an attractive job. There are some good constituency mps, people who feel they can make a difference, who hold regular surgeries and consultations in their areas, who write letter for constituents etc.
However, combined with the fact that our emergency services, our teachers, doctors et al are getting bugger all, and the fact that they are able to take on extra paid jobs elsewhere, afford good holidays etc. it does rather look as though they are shafting each and every one of us.

[noblegiraffe]

I have a friend who used to work in Downing Street. I wonder if the usual lavish (and free) Christmas party has gone due to austerity?

[SteamWisher]

They don't have a huge amount of responsibility Nigella.

You're confusing people like Ian Duncan smith with an MP. IDS is a cabinet minister and MP. He gets even more money - about £135k in total.

[ilovesooty]

There are some great hardworking constituency MPs. However if you're idle, do the bare minimum, rarely vote and sit comfortably on a large majority who is ever going to hold you accountable or pay you by performance or results which is how most people earn their money these days.

[mercibucket]

make being an mp a job with responsibilities approaching those of a hospital consultant and I would see the comparison

as it is your average male backbencher appears to spend their day sexually harrassing female opposition mps. and shouting. and hurling abuse. and not turning up to vote much

link their pay rise to public sector in general

[ShinyBauble]

For those saying we need to pay that much to get the best people running the country - remember that George Osborne only went into politics because he failed at becoming a journalist.

[farrowandbawlbauls]

Have you seen them in the House of Commons? It's embarrassing. Tit for tat comments, little digs over nothing important, arguing over utter crap, insults, I would say it's like watching kids in a playground but even 4-5 year olds are better behaved and more mature. Watching them just points out to me that they are the worst of society. I know drug addicts adn spoken to the homeless who have more sense about them than most of those in Parliament.

[farrowandbawlbauls]

Isn't Osbourne the one with the Family wallpaper business?

[noblegiraffe]

Party politics is failing the country too. No well thought out policies for the long term, just slapdash populist tinkering because in 4 years it will be the other lot who suffer the fallout.

[openerofjars]

I really want to add some considered, thoughtful response to the debate, but all I can think of is what to knit while I'm sitting by the guillotine.

My pay's been cut every year for the last five in real terms, and these bastards think they deserve 11%?

I'm really very cross indeed.

[farrowandbawlbauls]

" just slapdash populist tinkering because in 4 years it will be the other lot who suffer the fallout."

More proof, not that we need it, that they are only thinking of themselves.

[farrowandbawlbauls]

Opener - it's not really a debate, we've all pretty much said the same thing. Now budge over, I want to get my knitting done too.

[Millenniumbug1]

For me it's the fact that at a time when every public sector worker is having a 1% rise across the board, when some private sector workers are actually taking pay cuts to keep their jobs and certain banks stand accused of deliberately bankrupting & closing small businesses, to accept an 11% pay rise just shows the contempt that MPs hold the rest of us in!

[GiveItYourBestFucker]

In 2010 a Cabinet Minister recieved £145,000, BakerStreet

[iliketea]

No YANBU.

MPs are public servants. Any pay rises should be linked throughout the public service. Most workers in the public services have had pay freezes for the last few years, with a1% increase this year. The review bodies for public service pay have been over-ruled because it's not affordable, yet suddenly the ruling on MP pay can't be over rules.

And they're losing the allowance for dinner and tea / biscuits (£15 a day!!!!)- my heart bleeds for them. How many nurses / doctors get a special allowance for dinner if they stay late, or get put up in a hotel because they end up staying later at the end of a shift because of staff shortages. How many community health and social care staff end up paying for business miles because the mileage rate didn't increase with the cost of fuel? How many vulnerable adults are not getting decent care because the social care budget has been slashed and they don't meet the criteria to get social service funded care this year?

But please MPs, enjoy your pay rise - Bunch of greedy bastards..

[diddlediddledumpling]

if ive got this right, then, IPSA has already determined that this pay rise will come into effect in 2015, is that the case? No matter what the leaders say? (Really? The prime minister can't overrule this, like government has done with the recommendations regarding my salary?)

I'm going to write to my MP and ask her what she intends to about it. I suggest you do the same.

[AuntieMaggie]

Not all of public sector are getting 1% - some aren't getting a payrise at all...

[OhYouMerryLittleKitten]

how to become an mp

[ivykaty44]

we are all in this together you know.....

In the last 4 year I haven't had a pay increase and have had a pay cut to boot due to cuts and more cuts

They have no fucking idea....

[PigletJohn]

the reason the PM (not that he needs the money, being a multimillionaire) can do no more than pitifully wring his hands, is that only Parliament can change the rules on MPs pay.

So MPs vote for the rules on their own pay, like they voted for the rules on their own expenses and their own pensions. And they are unlikely to vote for a pay-setting committee that has the same sense of penny-pinching meanness as those who decide on pay for other public servants.

The PM doesn't believe that MPs as a hole have sufficient sense of shame to pull their snouts of the our trough.

The best we can hope for is that a few will publicly declare that they won't accept, or will donate, the pay rise this year meaning that after they've had their grinning faces in the paper for Christmas, they can quietly pocket it next year when we've all forgotten.

[diddlediddledumpling]

So the recommendations that IPSA make will be put to a vote in parliament?
By the way, it doesn't apply until after the general election in 2015, so they can't pocket it this year or next.

[diddlediddledumpling]

Which also means that current MPs can say they won't accept it, but they might not still be in their seats in 2015.

[diddlediddledumpling]

this says that IPSA has responsibility fir determining MPs pay, not advising or recommending.