No they shouldn't
£64,000 is a huge salary. They should have a rented place in london paid for directly, then they don't need to furnish it. They should get transport to and from their constituency paid for. But they should enter public service because they want to serve the public, not because they want the money.

He isn't making a valid point at all, her salary, a fixed amount set from the beginning, has nothing to do with dishonest expense claims.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 12 May 2009, 13:43, archived)

£64k is a huge salary ?
Maybe in Malawi, not in London.

You've got to compare it against the marketplace and you'd get more than £64k a year being an area sales manager for a Bank. Which job would you rather see attract the best candidates ?
( Goatworrier had your mum and she was shit, Tue 12 May 2009, 13:45, archived)

64k would be tops for me. I earn about 27k before tax at the moment
and I'm doing fine in London. I have money left over. But then I'm cheap and miserable and Northern. Frugal's a dirty word now, you see.
(rnuk http://flickr.com/rnuk, Tue 12 May 2009, 13:46, archived)

It's a pretty big salary by most people's standards,
but then it's a pretty important job by most people's standards as well. You can make a damn sight more than that as an accountant, if you're that way inclined.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 13:48, archived)

Exactly
If you're supposed to be running the country, you ought to be paid a salary that will attract people capable of running the country.

Anyone with any brains and ambition is going to think fuck politics, no money in it unless you can get right to the top and start bending the rules and taking backhanders.
( Goatworrier had your mum and she was shit, Tue 12 May 2009, 13:50, archived)

What they need is someone with brains and no ambition.
Maybe I should go into politics.
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Tue 12 May 2009, 13:52, archived)

The PM earns about £150K basic
and again, I bet you he has other sources of income. Plus when they leave office they get more money thrown at them.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 12 May 2009, 13:53, archived)

Definately
after dinner speaking, directorships etc.

If you get into the cabinet, you're laughing, but, not all of them do.

There's what 650 MP's ? So probably only 10% get to be in the cabinet and about 1% or less ever get one of the top jobs like PM or party leader. We still need those 600 odd other people to be motivated and fucking good at what they do, so they need to be well paid, it needs to be an attractive job.
( Goatworrier had your mum and she was shit, Tue 12 May 2009, 13:58, archived)

But £64K is a pretty attractive salary
the sort of people who become MPs are either self serving power mongers who think they will get the top jobs and earn all the dough, or people who genuinely want to make things better, in which case a £64K salary is pretty good, providing you can get a place in london paid for.

I'm not against having a system for allowing MPs to live near their place of work, but the house of commons has done it's best to prevent the current system being changed or scrutinised. And what is currently happening is dishonest, if not in some cases illegal.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 12 May 2009, 14:04, archived)

I wont argue that about 80% of them are dishonest and vile.
But maybe if the job was better paid it'd attract a better class of person.

or at least make it less tempting for them to be dishonest to make a bit more cash.
( Goatworrier had your mum and she was shit, Tue 12 May 2009, 14:08, archived)

I do think it's a large salary.
But expenses were introduced for exactly the reason that they hoped it would allow people to be MPs that were truly local to their constituency and genuinely interested in serving the people.

Expenses allowed poorer MPs who did not and could not afford to have 2nd homes in London to actually stand and do their jobs without what amounted to financially based discrimination.

Means test the fuckers that's what I say.
( TFD is sporting this season's finest necropants, Tue 12 May 2009, 13:50, archived)

As an MP they may earn £64K
which, regardless of what you think, is a large salary (it's more than me and my mrs earn combined and we have a very nice lifestlye living in london and could get by on less if we had to), but virtually all MPs have other sources of income too as advisors to businesses etc.

Plus there are many other perks, you aren't comparing like with like when you bring in bank sales managers.
(Bazongaloid, Tue 12 May 2009, 13:51, archived)