a politicians salary is a difficult balance. It needs to be high enough to attract the very best who would otherwise be taken into a different industry, high enough to stop any chance of corruption but low enough that it does not seem out of touch to the rest of the population. MP's have a very important job for the country and it cannot be underestimated the importance of getting good people to do the job. It can be debated whether we have good people but the fact is that the salary needs to be high enough to attract talent. Civil servants have a part but having good political figureheads is important for the image of the country. Teachers salaries have the same issue, same as many public sector workers but MP's are day to day working with business and world leaders and there has to be (in my opinion) some perspective!

I interpreted "I couldn’t afford to give up my job to campaign for election" as people not being willing to risk giving up their income in case they didn't actually get elected as an MP - I don't really see from the article (which is admittedly vaguely worded) that many people were saying that an MP's salary if they were to actually get there would be too low. The fact that normal people don't have the resources to get into parliament in the first place is a big problem for sure, and is probably a good argument for state funding of political parties (which frankly would be much easier to sell to the public if MPs' salaries aren't increased, which understandably is just going to look to most people like privileged MPs pulling up the ladder further away from an understanding of normal people rather than trying to broaden "access" to parliament), but I really don't see that it follows from that that keeping salaries quite modest for those who are MPs would mean only wealthy people would want to run - in fact, the article saying that more Labour supporters (who obviously on average are poorer) hypothetically say they'd like to be an MP, if they could somehow get there, suggests the exact opposite of salaries being the problem.

I wasn't referring to the salary as MP when I was on about the cost of politics - I haven't been making the argument that an MP's salary being too low is putting people off from going into politics. My fault in fairness, I should've made clear I was responding to the change in subject to why people don't go into politics rather than talking about salaries!

Edited December 12, 201311 yr by Cassandra

Thought it was worth bumping this in light of the news that politicians of all sides are telling us there's sadly no way that nurses can get a 1% payrise in the supposedly dire financial climate, yet MPs apparently still deserve an 11% rise.

No way should anyone get an 11%pay rise!! Everyone should get as benefit claimants do, in line with the rate of inflation.

The proposals were backed fully by the Scottish Government for all NHS staff to get 1%.

 

I got 1% this year and when it was back dated it lead to me getting a massive £80 for 6months. It's really made a massive difference.

MPs should only receive a pay rise at the average public sector rate, after all they are civil servants too, why should they be entitled to larger raises than other civil servants? Plus its ridiculous they can claim expenses for everything they do, including mileage for riding their bicycle

Edited March 19, 201411 yr by kindagood