MPs and cash
Sir: I am one of those who cavil at the 38 per cent salary increase now recommended for MPs. Unlike the rest of us they are paid not for what they do but for what they are, and some of them appear to do very little.
If a company executive earning £6,000 a year with allowances and perks, or even 0,250 without them, fails to turn up at all frequently, or spends as little time on the firm's business as some MPs spend on the people's business, he won't last long and the final handshake will not be very high-carat gold.
If I as a freelance interpreter took upon myself to miss one in four of the conferences for which I held contracts — and 25 per cent absenteeism is common enough at Westminster — the contracts would quickly stop.
Some increase in salaries would seem reasonable and the increased allowances are fair enough as they stand but the people are entitled to demand a quid pro quo in the form of an obligatory minimum average of presence both at Westminster and in the MP's constituency.
I would suggest as these minima:
(a) suitably attested presence on 50 per cent of the days on which Parliament is sitting;
(b) two days in each calendar month (except one holiday month — August or September at the individual member's choice) and thirty days in each calendar year in the member's constituency.
Failure to observe these minima in any given month would lead to forfeiture of the increased salarY and allowances for the following month.
Failure to observe them for the year taken as a whole, or for three consecutive months (excluding August and September) would disqualify the defaulting member and lead to a by-election in his or her constituency. The severance payment of three months' salarY would not be due to MPs disqualified in this way unless their absence is caused by illness. The standards which I am proposing are not nearly as severe as those normally prevailing in business and the professions, and most MPs observe them in anY event, but I think it is right to establish a statutory minimum of attendance for MPs and suitable penalties for defaulters.
Anthony J. C. Kerr, Secretary, Political Freedom Move. ment, Blackbushe Airport, Carm berley, Surrey
Previous page
