AIBU to think we need MPs who can earn £1million a year

[Lovelyricepudding]

I don't know what the answer is but AIBU to think we need people who companies think it is worth paying £1million a year as MPs? The quality of most of our MPs is pretty rubbish and £82k a year is not a salary to attract big-hitters of the calibre we need. It sounds like Geoffrey Cox QC may have spent too little time focused on MP work and it is obviously wrong for MPs to benefit from external work gleaned due to their role as an MP. But how do we attract the most capable people into parliament when they can be so successful outside parliament?

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

It’s not bitter, it’s just true.

What do you mean when you say "high salary"?

There isn't a chance that my MP would be earning anything like his current salary in the private sector. Not only is he an MP, he is a district Councillor and leader of the county council despite his entire life experience being two failed attempts at getting a degree, then actually getting one and a brief stint as an entry level recruitment consultant. He is utterly unqualified for any of his positions but is currently loudly defending MPs having second jobs. High payments for 'consultancy work aren't for experience or expertise, they're for access.

Gosh there are some very bitter responses on here!

Probably bitter because of their own failures in life and they aren't capable of earning more.

Having said that about my own terrible MP I am generally in favour of paying them a good salary on the proviso that norther work is allowed while serving as an MP.

No I’m not in the least bitter, I’m very happy with my financial state.

Every boss I’ve had a been a bellend. It got better when l went into public services, but there were a lot of highly paid bellends there too.

I’m just not in the least bitter. It doesn’t even come into it

@Animood

I guess what I'm saying is paying more is a good investment if we get the right people for the job.

It is not a job. It’s a vocation.

If I could get paid for lecturing on x topics I would or get paid for turning up every now and then to a super important (utterly shit) board meeting I would. Alas I’m in that position

Defiantly very bitter people here.

If you think most high paying positions let just any old chancer swan in and do sod all you are mistaken. Hight pay comes with expectation that you provide value - a company is buying you to make them money. If you are not capable of making them the amount of money they expect you will very quickly be encouraged to progress your career elsewhere.

I also see the usual gripes of 'they get expenses on top of that big salary'. It's very clear that many have never had a job where they had responsibility to go spend money on things they needed to do their job.
You wouldn't expect to be sent on a course, go book a train and a hotel for 4 nights etc and not turn in an expenses claim to get those costs back would you? Why on earth would you expect an MP to be any different?

You wouldn't expect to be sent on a course, go book a train and a hotel for 4 nights etc and not turn in an expenses claim to get those costs back would you?

Tbh in teaching I’ve also paid for the course.

But when it comes to expenses, people don’t forget the duck house crap. Our current Education Secretary is still referred to as ‘Warm Horse’.

Probably bitter because of their own failures in life and they aren't capable of earning more

I have a book recommendation for you

us.macmillan.com/books/9780374289980/thetyrannyofmerit

Timely article which explains it's not what you know but who you know www.theguardian.com/money/2021/nov/12/disadvantaged-graduates-earn-half-as-much-as-privileged-peers-in-first-job

@EnglishGirlApproximately

There isn't a chance that my MP would be earning anything like his current salary in the private sector. Not only is he an MP, he is a district Councillor and leader of the county council despite his entire life experience being two failed attempts at getting a degree, then actually getting one and a brief stint as an entry level recruitment consultant. He is utterly unqualified for any of his positions but is currently loudly defending MPs having second jobs. High payments for 'consultancy work aren't for experience or expertise, they're for access.

Well exactly my point!

This is why we need to attract better candidates!

@user1471447863

Defiantly very bitter people here.

If you think most high paying positions let just any old chancer swan in and do sod all you are mistaken. Hight pay comes with expectation that you provide value - a company is buying you to make them money. If you are not capable of making them the amount of money they expect you will very quickly be encouraged to progress your career elsewhere.

I also see the usual gripes of 'they get expenses on top of that big salary'. It's very clear that many have never had a job where they had responsibility to go spend money on things they needed to do their job.
You wouldn't expect to be sent on a course, go book a train and a hotel for 4 nights etc and not turn in an expenses claim to get those costs back would you? Why on earth would you expect an MP to be any different?

I've had a lot of roles where I claimed a lot of expenses.

Not one of them would have paid a very large amount of tax free expenses for me to go and live near my permanent and regular workplace, and all the associate travel.

MPs expenses are NOT subject to the same taxation regime as the rest of us.

@user1471447863

Defiantly very bitter people here.

If you think most high paying positions let just any old chancer swan in and do sod all you are mistaken. Hight pay comes with expectation that you provide value - a company is buying you to make them money. If you are not capable of making them the amount of money they expect you will very quickly be encouraged to progress your career elsewhere.

I also see the usual gripes of 'they get expenses on top of that big salary'. It's very clear that many have never had a job where they had responsibility to go spend money on things they needed to do their job.
You wouldn't expect to be sent on a course, go book a train and a hotel for 4 nights etc and not turn in an expenses claim to get those costs back would you? Why on earth would you expect an MP to be any different?

Oh, and I might be bitter about the various scams MPs are allowed to run, but I am not jealous - I have earned more than an MP for some time now.

I think we need to attract more young people, ethnic minorities who weren’t born in the UK. and women into politics not the 10% who don’t understand 99.9% of the problems of most normal UK residents.

@user1471447863

Defiantly very bitter people here.

If you think most high paying positions let just any old chancer swan in and do sod all you are mistaken. Hight pay comes with expectation that you provide value - a company is buying you to make them money. If you are not capable of making them the amount of money they expect you will very quickly be encouraged to progress your career elsewhere.

I also see the usual gripes of 'they get expenses on top of that big salary'. It's very clear that many have never had a job where they had responsibility to go spend money on things they needed to do their job.
You wouldn't expect to be sent on a course, go book a train and a hotel for 4 nights etc and not turn in an expenses claim to get those costs back would you? Why on earth would you expect an MP to be any different?

Are you or have you ever been in a high paying position?

I will repeat again. Being an MP is not the same as having a highly paid career, it is not a “job”. MPs are not employees. So equating their position with a salaried job is just silly. It’s false equivalency.

And fwiw, I’ve earned more than an MP and it wasn’t actually that hard.

Taken from a Daily Mail article in 2010 when striking firefighters were criticised for taking second jobs:
“ A spokesman for London Mayor Boris Johnson said: ‘The minor changes we are seeking to the current shift patterns are perfectly reasonable to anyone exclusively working in a single profession. We would urge the firefighters to call off their strike and re-engage in negotiations.’

Conservative MP Philip Davies said: ‘The firefighters ought to start to live in the real world at a time when many people are grateful to hang on to their one job, otherwise they will lose any support that they had from the public.’”

I will repeat again. Being an MP is not the same as having a highly paid career, it is not a “job”. MPs are not employees. So equating their position with a salaried job is just silly. It’s false equivalency.

That is true, that is also why they have jobs; historically they are not second jobs - they are just their jobs. Which is also presumably why ministers are paid more - not just responsibility but to reflect the fact that the increased time commitment stops them doing their 'real live' job. Same with councillors.

@Lovelyricepudding

but most MPs don't have second jobs.

The register of interests shows that 148 MPs spent some time on a ‘second job’ between January 2020 and August 2021, of which 114 were Conservatives MPs and 20 Labour MPs

many local authorities now also pay fixed allowances. Coventry pays a basic allowance of £14,490 each and an extra 'special responsibility allowance' for roles such as cabinet members, deputies or committee chairs.

No. You are making an assumption that the best people, or ''most capable'' as you put it - will be those who are motivated by money. They aren't. The opposite is true.

Ted27 that is where we are now but the pay arrangements were not set up on that basis. How many are now 'professional politicians' whose only career has been politics? What is that spilt between parties? I think MPS should all have had a career of some sort outside politics.