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The Tory MP, Sir Patrick Cormack will win himself few friends with his call for MPs' pay to be doubled.
He is already on the record as saying that “being an MP is an extremely expensive business ... one is expected to give liberally to all manner of charities ... one is expected constantly to be putting one's hand into one's pocket”. So, to make these demands more tolerable, Sir Patrick would like MPs to be paid £135,000, twice the present salary. It is a brave suggestion when most electors are still seething at MPs' abuses of the expenses and allowances system, a system of which Sir Patrick has availed himself.
But he does have a point. MPs have a responsible job which is also a high honour to hold. It seems reasonable to pay them on a similar scale to other senior public servants. But there must be a quid pro quo, as Sir Patrick acknowledges. And that is, if MPs are to be paid more generously, then all their expenses must come out of that amount. There can be no more mortgage payments, food claims, living allowances and home decoration bills, let alone imaginative claims for duck houses and Remembrance Day wreaths.
There can be no further extravagant allowances for office and staff, which has, in many cases, been a lucrative opportunity for MPs to employ members of their own family as notional secretaries and assistants, leaving the real work to be done by underpaid individuals in their constituencies. There should be a higher margin of pay for MPs who need to travel to Westminster and stay here. But the principle should be: a flat rate of pay for all, and a flat extra rate for those outside London. We know to our cost that most MPs will exploit any system to the hilt. If they have a given amount to spend, it will be up to them how they spend it.
Of course, it would be faintly nauseating for ordinary voters to see MPs' salaries significantly increased, especially given their final salary pension schemes and 82-day summer holidays. But rationally, it is better to pay them more rather than continue with the present system. That system is being reviewed by Sir Christopher Kelly: it is to be hoped that these principles of simplicity and transparency will be central to his recommendations.
Tweeting not kettling
The Metropolitan police has responded to complaints about its handling of the G20 demonstrations by taking to the network Twitter ahead of a new demonstration in London, the forthcoming Climate Camp. So far there have been few tweets from the Met but it suggests a new, friendlier approach to public protests.
In fact, it is anything but easy for the police to handle big demonstrations. An over-vigorous approach can have tragic results — such as the death of the news vendor Ian Tomlinson, at the G20 protests. Yet a failure properly to deal with violent individuals is also unacceptable. The difficulty is all the greater in the case of organisations such as the Climate Camp, with little formal leadership, which brings together assorted groups to a yet-undisclosed location, for a festival of protest. CND was easier.
And what about ordinary Londoners, who also have a right to move freely around the city without having their lives disrupted? Even the Tamil demonstrations, where the police had a light touch, were exceptionally vexatious. Reconciling all these legitimate demands is a tall order but the recommendations from the reports into the handling of the G20 demonstrations should be taken to heart: specifically the requirement that there should always be a way out of a cordon and access to lavatories for protesters. And, as a rule, tweeting beats kettling.
In praise of ukuleles at the Proms
For some people, the high point of the Proms was the performance of the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, accompanied by hundreds of amateur performers.
It was funny, unassuming and poignant. The country would plainly be a happier place if more of us played the ukulele.
Reader views (1)
Yes, increase MPs' salaries but take away all those gold-plated benefits, shorten the amount of annual leave and don't allow them second (or third) jobs.
You can't have your cake and eat it!
- Steve, Bexhill, 19/08/2009 14:37
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