Just when we thought the public scandal over the expenses claimed by our parliamentary representatives was dying down, one of their number seems to have woken up from a coma and announced that he thinks the salaries of his buddies should be doubled, in exchange for not claiming some of the living expenses of the past.
Sir Patrick Cormack, who was one of the candidates for the recent Commons Speaker vacancy says the salary of an MP should be doubled from £64,766 to over £130,000.
He appears to be oblivious to the fact, that most people living in the UK are struggling to pay for one home and keep their jobs, without even a thought about claiming an increase in pay.
Sir Patrick said:
“I have reluctantly become convinced over the last few weeks that the most effective way of restoring public confidence in parliament is for there to be a significant increase in members’ salaries and an abolition of all allowances, save for the allowance to pay staff and a constituency office”
One of his colleagues, Douglas Hogg, who you probably remember claimed for the cost of cleaning out his moat, agrees and has declared the pay of an MP has now fallen so low, it is no longer sufficient to support the lifestyle “to which most professional and business classes aspire“
If, as they like to claim, they are members of either a professional or business class, they have shown they have no understanding of the product they represent and have enough arrogance to completely disregard the public outcry of the past few months.
Like the majority of their dinosaur colleagues, it is time they became extinct!
