MP's Salary?

[Umar158]

I am currently a student, who is trying to find as much research as possible relating to Member of Parliament's pay. I need any information regarding salaries and any changes, these may be relevant in news articles, blogs and maybe books.

As well I need more information on pays of MP's in other countries so I will be able to contrast and compare.

Any information is good, as I can filter through it and see what is needed. Also this thread may be used to discuss ideas on MP's pay/expenses system, as it would be helpful to gain different perspectives and opinions of what real people actually think.

The current average of pay is posted on Parliament's website as being £65,738 (with the addition expenses)

This would be a great help, and it is my first time in participating in this forum - any at all.

Thanks, Umar.

[Umar158]

Although the MP's expenses is finally being overcome, it still can not be forgotten about the the distrust and how the MP's used the system to their advantage, resulting in 'house-flipping' to moats. However, is there a really better way of paying our MP's for their services? or will we need to think of solutions to improve the current system we have in place, if so how?

[Midas]

I am currently a student, who is trying to find as much research as possible relating to Member of Parliament's pay. I need any information regarding salaries and any changes, these may be relevant in news articles, blogs and maybe books.

As well I need more information on pays of MP's in other countries so I will be able to contrast and compare.

Any information is good, as I can filter through it and see what is needed. Also this thread may be used to discuss ideas on MP's pay/expenses system, as it would be helpful to gain different perspectives and opinions of what real people actually think.

The current average of pay is posted on Parliament's website as being £65,738 (with the addition expenses)

This would be a great help, and it is my first time in participating in this forum - any at all.

Thanks, Umar.

Hi Umar, and welcome to the Politics Forum!

To start with you might like to read the extended "Welcome" message in the Rules and Guidelines section of the forum, which also includes a full version of the Forum Rules.

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Enjoy the debates, and I hope you get the information you want.

[Greg Lance-Watkins]

Although the MP's expenses is finally being overcome, it still can not be forgotten about the the distrust and how the MP's used the system to their advantage, resulting in 'house-flipping' to moats. However, is there a really better way of paying our MP's for their services? or will we need to think of solutions to improve the current system we have in place, if so how?

Hi,

I find your claim to be a student doing research rather disingenuous in the light of your avatar!

Is the research to make a point or to establish the facts?

Firstly MPs were NOT fiddling their expenses - they were carrying out the rules as determined by the Speaker Gorbles Mick who was catastrophic for Parliament and almost as damaging to parliamentary democracy as the liar, war criminal and odious who lied to parliament and lied to our allies Tony Blair who quite unequivocally committed crimes against humanity with Brown, Straw, Scarlet and others and the economically illiterate Gordon Brown.

The conditions that the speaker was tollerated in the first place was the undertaking that he would devise by consensus and implement a fairer, more visible and more accountable method of payment to reimburse MPs than the expenses system and the top up structure of secondary allowances brought in after the mess Callaghan left the finances in with that other economic illiterate Denis Healey who you will have read was an absolute catastrophy as a so called chancellor though small beer when compared with Brown.

The allowances were where the system went wrong but Willie Whitelaw only ever saw it as a stopgap measure.

The neo communist speaker from Glasgow did virtually nothing to acquit his duty beyond draw his salary and send his wife shopping!

The totall amount ever identified for 640 MPs that was 'fiddled' or over claimed was about £700 over a 5 year period each.

If you remove the top 5 or 6 whose actions were criminal it seems the resultant median would cut the sum to a probable amount of £50 to £100 a year!

The new government is I gather strenuously addressing this but it does rather fall into utter irrelevance after the obscene borrowing during the 13 unlucky years of Labour that have effectively left us with, if you include PSB, PPF the Pension liabilities etc. with about £1Billion a year as opposed to £100 a year!

Having bankrupt Britain and failed to protect a single British value I would say the penny ante of the Allowance over claims must be the very least of our worries.

Somehow we have to clean up the Kleptocratic QUANGOcracy 13 years of neo communism has created.

Of course we could clear down our debt at a rate of around £45,000,000 were we to leave the EU. This would also, within two years, give a large boost to both jobs and trade that with the new surplus we could shut down the QUANGOcracy and get people into real jobs rather than the scams and fiddle economy of New Labour under neo communism and the treachery and betrayal that stood for.

Do read the report commissioned by Labour through the IPPR which clearly showed that although there were many jobs involved in trade with EUrope but that there would be no loss of these jobs merely a change over a 2 year period.

Obviously when we leave the EU we will continue to trade with the EU and they with us but we will be at liberty to trade with the rest of the world directly without having our trade mallignly laundered by our EU competitors and our industry undermined by the EU's excessive regulations.

We can continue to pay off our debts as incurred by 13 unlucky years of New Labour's utter incompetency and dishonest profligacy at the rate of £40Million a day whilst seeking to increase output in a newly liberated industrial base to generate reinvestment and expansion.

Within the EU it will be an inevitable slide into 3rd. world bankruptcy without the ability or agility to act with intelligently in a global market place.

Regards,
Greg_L-W.

[soloman]

I agree with the general thrust of your posting Greg Lance-Watkins!
Unfortunately there are not enough people with the courage to sell the idea of leaving the EU to the population at large, so I guess the gravy train will continue.

[Midas]

A quick personal opinion about MP's salaries; for the amount of work they do, and the responsibility they have, I think it's pitiful. They should be paid a similar amount that they could get working in an equivalent position within industry and commerce - several times their current level - however along with that there should be much tighter controls on the qualifications for becoming and staying an MP. The maxim of "pay peanuts, get monkeys" seems to be well illustrated by the quality of a significant number of our MPs over the last couple of decades!

[soloman]

A quick personal opinion about MP's salaries; for the amount of work they do, and the responsibility they have, I think it's pitiful. They should be paid a similar amount that they could get working in an equivalent position within industry and commerce - several times their current level - however along with that there should be much tighter controls on the qualifications for becoming and staying an MP. The maxim of "pay peanuts, get monkeys" seems to be well illustrated by the quality of a significant number of our MPs over the last couple of decades!

Hear hear!

[Midas]

Hear hear!

With words like those I'd say you meet one of the prime criteria for being an MP yourself

[Umar158]

Thank you Greg_L-W for you response.

You have enlightened an aspect of this subject which I was unaware of as to now, seeing how I am simply a college student the knowledge I have is only in text books and school work.

Could you elaborate more and explain to me more on these rules set by the speaker and what went wrong with them?

P.S. Do you have any resources from which this information could be verified?
P.S.S So far i'm actually just trying to collect facts about MP's pay, but later I will come to the conclusion that MP's are not paid enough in comparison to the work they do etc.

[Umar158]

Hi,

I find your claim to be a student doing research rather disingenuous in the light of your avatar!

Is the research to make a point or to establish the facts?

Firstly MPs were NOT fiddling their expenses - they were carrying out the rules as determined by the Speaker Gorbles Mick who was catastrophic for Parliament and almost as damaging to parliamentary democracy as the liar, war criminal and odious who lied to parliament and lied to our allies Tony Blair who quite unequivocally committed crimes against humanity with Brown, Straw, Scarlet and others and the economically illiterate Gordon Brown.

The conditions that the speaker was tollerated in the first place was the undertaking that he would devise by consensus and implement a fairer, more visible and more accountable method of payment to reimburse MPs than the expenses system and the top up structure of secondary allowances brought in after the mess Callaghan left the finances in with that other economic illiterate Denis Healey who you will have read was an absolute catastrophy as a so called chancellor though small beer when compared with Brown.

The allowances were where the system went wrong but Willie Whitelaw only ever saw it as a stopgap measure.

The neo communist speaker from Glasgow did virtually nothing to acquit his duty beyond draw his salary and send his wife shopping!

The totall amount ever identified for 640 MPs that was 'fiddled' or over claimed was about £700 over a 5 year period each.

If you remove the top 5 or 6 whose actions were criminal it seems the resultant median would cut the sum to a probable amount of £50 to £100 a year!

The new government is I gather strenuously addressing this but it does rather fall into utter irrelevance after the obscene borrowing during the 13 unlucky years of Labour that have effectively left us with, if you include PSB, PPF the Pension liabilities etc. with about £1Billion a year as opposed to £100 a year!

Having bankrupt Britain and failed to protect a single British value I would say the penny ante of the Allowance over claims must be the very least of our worries.

Somehow we have to clean up the Kleptocratic QUANGOcracy 13 years of neo communism has created.

Of course we could clear down our debt at a rate of around £45,000,000 were we to leave the EU. This would also, within two years, give a large boost to both jobs and trade that with the new surplus we could shut down the QUANGOcracy and get people into real jobs rather than the scams and fiddle economy of New Labour under neo communism and the treachery and betrayal that stood for.

Do read the report commissioned by Labour through the IPPR which clearly showed that although there were many jobs involved in trade with EUrope but that there would be no loss of these jobs merely a change over a 2 year period.

Obviously when we leave the EU we will continue to trade with the EU and they with us but we will be at liberty to trade with the rest of the world directly without having our trade mallignly laundered by our EU competitors and our industry undermined by the EU's excessive regulations.

We can continue to pay off our debts as incurred by 13 unlucky years of New Labour's utter incompetency and dishonest profligacy at the rate of £40Million a day whilst seeking to increase output in a newly liberated industrial base to generate reinvestment and expansion.

Within the EU it will be an inevitable slide into 3rd. world bankruptcy without the ability or agility to act with intelligently in a global market place.

Regards,
Greg_L-W.

Thank you Greg_L-W for you response.

You have enlightened an aspect of this subject which I was unaware of as to now, seeing how I am simply a college student the knowledge I have is only in text books and school work.

Could you elaborate more and explain to me more on these rules set by the speaker and what went wrong with them?

P.S. Do you have any resources from which this information could be verified?
P.S.S So far i'm actually just trying to collect facts about MP's pay, but later I will come to the conclusion that MP's are not paid enough in comparison to the work they do etc.

[Umar158]

A quick personal opinion about MP's salaries; for the amount of work they do, and the responsibility they have, I think it's pitiful. They should be paid a similar amount that they could get working in an equivalent position within industry and commerce - several times their current level - however along with that there should be much tighter controls on the qualifications for becoming and staying an MP. The maxim of "pay peanuts, get monkeys" seems to be well illustrated by the quality of a significant number of our MPs over the last couple of decades!

Thanks for your reply Midas,

This is exactly the point I plan on making in my essay, in comparison to other fields MP's do not receive at all the amount they are putting their necks on the line for. Being subject to public scrutiny and getting paid for such little in turn.

I will also include the aspect of qualifications of MP's, thank you for such a great point. Could you explain further the different aspects of the lack of skills?

[Midas]

Thanks for your reply Midas,

This is exactly the point I plan on making in my essay, in comparison to other fields MP's do not receive at all the amount they are putting their necks on the line for. Being subject to public scrutiny and getting paid for such little in turn.

I will also include the aspect of qualifications of MP's, thank you for such a great point. Could you explain further the different aspects of the lack of skills?

I'm perhaps not the best person to ask about skills and qualifications for MPs never having studied the subject or been involved in any politics, local or central - there are a couple of forum members who have done so though, including studying political science at uni, so perhaps they might care to wade in......

As I understand it, there are no formal qualifications needed to become an MP, however it would be a pretty poor party which wouldn't select someone who had an at least passable range of skills including being a good communicator, having drive and ambition and of course having a good understanding of current affairs. Having said that, having seen and read about the piss-poor performance of many MPs, and the lack of speeches they make in the Hose of Commons, one does have to wonder how many local selection committees have the wool pulled over their eyes, or simply choose the best of a bad bunch of candidates out of political correctness!

[Umar158]

I'm perhaps not the best person to ask about skills and qualifications for MPs never having studied the subject or been involved in any politics, local or central - there are a couple of forum members who have done so though, including studying political science at uni, so perhaps they might care to wade in......

As I understand it, there are no formal qualifications needed to become an MP, however it would be a pretty poor party which wouldn't select someone who had an at least passable range of skills including being a good communicator, having drive and ambition and of course having a good understanding of current affairs. Having said that, having seen and read about the piss-poor performance of many MPs, and the lack of speeches they make in the Hose of Commons, one does have to wonder how many local selection committees have the wool pulled over their eyes, or simply choose the best of a bad bunch of candidates out of political correctness!

Ah, would you know how I could contact these people to ask them this question?

Yes, there is a point to be made there. Although they might get paid less, some must think this may be due to those who do lack skills and qualifications to be a successful MP with good understanding and knowledge to do their job properly.