CITY AND SUBURBAN
You have to make allowances for your MP it's better than paying him
CHRISTOPHER FILDES
On a flying visit to Tuscany over the weekend, I was able to bring Sir Oran Haut-Ton MP the good news about his pay. It was going up again, I said. The year had begun with a 2.7 per cent pay rise, and here came another 2 per cent by virtue of a link to civil service pay. Sir Oran merely grunt- ed. 'It'll put you on the right side of £33,000,' I ventured. 'Petty cash,' he growled — 'what's happened about the allowances?' I said that so far as I knew they were still linked to the retail prices index. 'That's what counts, old boy. £41,309 a year tax free, described as office costs allowance. It doesn't have to cover the cost of an office. They give you that. Heating, lighting, carpets, postage, porters, all in. The forty grand comes on top. It's for your secretary and research assistant. Some chaps just employ their wives or what not. Me, I can get most of my paperwork done in the City, so the forty comes in handy for — Samantha, be an angel, will you, and make us all some more negronis? Sweet girl. Now my pair, Jim Ladd, thoroughly decent chap, sponsored by his union, the Trouser Pressers — he's on the Albanian Riviera just now, on an exchange visit, all found — he represents some god-forsaken place north of the M25, and of the Trent for all I know, so he gets an extra £11,267 to help him lodge in London. On my sofa, sometimes. My constituency's in London so I just get £1,245. What for? Supplementary London allowance, of course. Then there's mileage — on my Roller I get nearly 70p a mile for the first 20,000 miles and half as much after that, helps keep the old bus going. Jim's Metro doesn't earn so much, but he enjoys his first class railway tickets to and from Frozenborough North. And that's only where it starts.'
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