This is a two-and-a-half-day-old quote from Tory MP Andrew Bridgen, arguing for a hefty increase in MPs' salaries in order to attract the best 'talent'. As you read this, try very hard to remember that MPs already earn more than 95% of the population.
"A man or a woman who's very capable, doing very well in their profession, whatever that may be, with a family, are they going to be willing to take that pay cut, look their children in the eye when it's Christmas, say you can't have what you normally have because Mummy or Daddy wants to be an MP."
Hmmm. Perhaps as Christmas morning draws to a close in the households of MPs, there should be a Generation Game-style conveyor belt scene.
"Well you've had your real presents, Jack and Jenny, but just for fun, let's take a peek at what you COULD have had if only Daddy hadn't sacrificed himself on the altar of public service...
A bottle of Heidsieck Monopole 1907 Champagne!
Garçon à la Pipe by Pablo Picasso!
Five minutes of high tea with Tony Blair!
An Haute Joaillerie diamond-studded watch!
A Gurkha Black Dragon cigar in a camel bone chest!
Japan!
The 35.56 carat Wittelsbach-Graff Diamond!
A PrestigeHD Supreme Rose TV made of hand-sewn alligator skin!
The services of Geoff Hoon!
Ooooh, didn't you do BADLY?"
How can society be so beastly to these children? Treble MPs' salaries now!
Ironically, this comes in the same week that these MPs voted to take money away from the unemployed and the sick; from carers, and from anyone else who gets working age benefits. And where, in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, people's housing benefits will be actually cut by massive amounts, rendering them homeless.
ReplyDeleteI say we should quadruple MPs' salaries. Their bravery appears to know no bounds.
It is not unknown for bosses of under-performing companies to award themselves large pay increases and/or bonuses. After all, they must have some compensation for the stress of laying off some workers and forcing a freeze or cut on the rest. Maybe the company is struggling because of bad decisions they have taken, but that is irrelevant, as is the fact that, even if the company goes bust or the shareholders sack them, they will walk away from it with plenty of money.
ReplyDeleteSurely the MPs deserve as generous treatment as their fat cat friends, the people they really represent?
You're wrong JK. The quote of the year was on a CiF thread about child benefit where guardianite stated that £50,000 pa was "not quite on the breadline,but very near it."
ReplyDeleteNot forgetting this belter of a proposition.
ReplyDeletehttp://www7.politicalbetting.com/index.php/archives/2013/01/12/test-10/
About the dire consequences an ex-soccer club will have on THE vote.