£65K is a pretty small salary ...

[sasguru]

... for an MP (or any other professional who lives in London), I would say. Or are MPs not professional?

[thelace]

Absolute Bollox.

These muppets don't go into it for the money, but for the power!

And as for the argument that you need to offer them sky high wages because they're the cream of the crop, has anyone seen them on Question Time? They can barely string a sentence together never mind a cohesive argument and informed debate.

Wouldn't pay any of them in anything other than washers!

[sasguru]

But if you pay peanuts you get monkeys (as we've seen).

If the salary was higher you would get a higher quality of candidate, no?

[Mich the Tester]

Absolute Bollox.

These muppets don't go into it for the money, but for the power!

And as for the argument that you need to offer them sky high wages because they're the cream of the crop, has anyone seen them on Question Time? They can barely string a sentence together never mind a cohesive argument and informed debate.

Wouldn't pay any of them in anything other than washers!

Look out, they'll be claiming diamond encrusted gold Cartier washers on their expenses if you put ideas into their heads.

[Moscow Mule]

... for an MP (or any other professional who lives in London), I would say. Or are MPs not professional?

A quick google suggests it's about right when compared to other public sector jobs with similar experience levels...

Modern Matron
From £28,590 to £33,820

Nurse, Midwife, Health Visitor Consultants
From £35,035 to £48,185

Head teachers and other school leaders
From £42,559 to £107,192 in inner London

[Mich the Tester]

Why not move the seat of government somewhere cheaper and then we don’t need to give them London salaries? Stevenage, for example. Or how about Swindon?

[sasguru]

A quick google suggests it's about right when compared to other public sector jobs with similar experience levels...

Modern Matron
From £28,590 to £33,820

Nurse, Midwife, Health Visitor Consultants
From £35,035 to £48,185

Head teachers and other school leaders
From £42,559 to £107,192 in inner London

Yes but all these groups get subsidised housing in London under the key workers scheme, whereas an MP would not.

£65K x3 would not buy a decent one-bed even after the fall in house prices.

[DimPrawn]

Why not move the seat of government somewhere cheaper and then we don’t need to give them London salaries? Stevenage, for example. Or how about Swindon?

**** right off!

[Platypus]

But if you pay peanuts you get monkeys (as we've seen).

If the salary was higher you would get a higher quality of candidate, no?

Yes, just like all those fantastically well qualified and competent people working in local government who insist of being paid the same as if they ran a plc on the basis that they could go into the private sector and earn the same. Well I'd like to see them try.

Town Hall Rich List here (PDF)

And this kind of thing is rife

The council at the centre of the Baby P scandal will pay almost £200,000 a year to its new head of children's services, it has been revealed.

[sasguru]

Why not move the seat of government somewhere cheaper and then we don’t need to give them London salaries? Stevenage, for example. Or how about Swindon?

That's harsh, they've only fiddled money, not committed murder or genocide, to deserve such a fate.