The MPs grandstanding about how they’ll give any salary increase to charity should all be ashamed of themselves. The entire point of the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority is to take away self-regulation from politicians. It’s frankly none of their business to decide how much they’re paid, and the cries of protest are specious anyway given that IPSA has said the pay rise won’t cost taxpayers anything because it’s basically just a restructuring of how they’re paid.
Politics has a terrible image in this country and rather than chorusing ‘we’re not worth it’, it’s about time someone mounted a robust defence of the whole system. The expenses scandal didn’t help, but being holier-than-thou about money matters isn’t the way for politicians to win people over. Poll after poll shows that the main things people don’t like about them are that they’re so alien, and that they can’t seem to resist a bit of point scoring.
There was a vote on increasing MPs’ salaries in 1954, and The Spectator didn’t have much truck then with the uproar
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