MPs Pay

Iain Dale is enquiring as to how much we think MPs should be paid, in response to comments from Sir Patrick Cormack that the current should be doubled.

Seems to me qualifications and experience should have some bearing on pay and, when you think about it, any ministerial briefs they can hold.

After all, we've seen the results of what happens when clueless ministers rely on Whitehall Mandarins and get their egos massaged by consultancy firms. They even undermined the entire NAO to evade how companies like Capita would take them out to Michelin starred eateries, jollies such as all-expense paid trips to Wimbledon and their stands helpfully 'sponsored' at various flesh-pressing events.

You get multi-billion pound IT failures.
You get the expensively subsidized railway system.
You get second rate military equipment and unnecessary aircraft.

You get, due to incompetence, a great amount of waste, money being spent in the wrong areas, dead soldiers and frighteningly inefficient government.

Perhaps it's time to re-evaluate how things are done, curiously Gordon Brown has indicated one way forward - peerages to bring in qualified ministers - which could form the foundation of future governance. The MPs acting as mediators between the electorate and the unelected ministers, with the power to remove the ministerial brief should they prove bad at their job. Whilst having unelected Ministers sits uneasy with me, it's an improvement over what we have now.