Do MPs deserve a huge pay rise? This reader certainly thinks so
Have your say on these MetroTalk topics and more in the comments.
Why do they become MPs in the first place?
I must disagree with Martin (MetroTalk, Fri) who suggests cutting MPs’ ‘inflation-busting pay rises’ among other things.
As is so often the case, if you want a first-class service, you need to pay a first-class fare.
We get terrible politicians because, given the stress of their jobs, they are woefully underpaid in comparison with their peers in the private sector.
Yes, some talented people will enter politics because they want to make the world a better place, but most with a less charitable outlook won’t bother.
Why take on a career that puts you in the public eye in the worst possible light, with no job security, which – according to former Tory minister Rory Stewart – is driving your colleagues to the verge of suicide, when you could earn more than double in a large company? Unless you have an ulterior motive, of course.
So it’s little wonder they are a mix of ideological weirdos, people who treat politics as a side gig and ineffectual public schoolboys. It’s also little wonder they are so vulnerable to the lure of bribery and corruption that poisons our democracy.
If you want good politicians who run the country well, by all means ban second jobs, corporate gifts and ludicrous expenses claims. But first, increase their basic salary from £91,346 to £250,000. Sharon, Manchester
METRO TALK – HAVE YOUR SAY
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Rolf (MetroTalk, Mon) holds that Sir Keir Starmer is right to put ‘clear blue water’ between the mainstream Labour Party and those he calls the ‘Corbynites’.
As a leader elected after a promise to respect the left of the party, and following affirmations of his personal loyalty to Jeremy Corbyn, the ‘clear blue water’ that Starmer has created is that separating him from the pretence of integrity.
About all that can be said in that part of his life is that he is more honest than Donald Trump and possibly Boris Johnson – hardly the level of integrity needed for high office. River, Manchester
Rolf says Corbyn and his ‘cohorts’ were ‘rejected by the country’ and that ‘Starmer did rather better’. Corbyn’s Labour Party got more of the popular vote – the actual number of votes – in 2017 and 2019 than Starmer did in 2024.
Indeed, the composition of the Commons after the last election shows the case for proportional representation, under which Starmer would have presumably had to form a coalition with the Liberal Democrats and possibly the Greens. Mark Taha, London
What’s changed?
‘Change’ must be more than just a clever Labour Party soundbite.
The status quo has come about because our mainstream parties and those who vote for them have bought into a system of global competitiveness as a way of creating wealth for ‘all’.
Britain is rolling in money but it has been unfairly distributed. This is the real ‘change’ Labour needs to address. Jack Fraser, Musselburgh
As an NHS worker, I cannot accept a gift above £50 from a person whose life I’ve just saved, but it’s OK for a politician who will be involved in loads of business and taking decisions that will affect millions? Antonio, London
‘I don’t get pension credit – am I really better off?’
I would like to point out that the poorest pensioners (those on pension credit) are often better-off than people like me who have a small private pension that takes them just over the pension credit limit.
Out of £1,100 a month, I have to pay my rent, council tax and bills, leaving me very little to live on. If I was on pension credit, I would get my rent via housing benefit and wouldn’t have to pay council tax.
Now it seems there’s a strong chance of the single-occupier council tax discount being taken away, which will cause even more financial hardship. To be honest, I won’t be able to afford it. As for heating my home adequately, there’s no chance.
Having had to work for an additional six years, despite myriad health problems, I now have a bleak and very frugal retirement to look forward to. Fiona Cockell, via email
Obese Brits abroad are the reason the NHS have an obesity crisis
I have just returned from a week’s all-inclusive holiday at a decent resort in
Playa Blanca, Lanzarote. Nearly all of the clientele were British of some sort.
We were appalled at the number of obese, disgustingly obese and morbidly obese people present – don’t some of these people look at themselves and realise just how awful they look ?
And another thing we noticed – the amount of food wasted by greedy people regularly taking too much and then leaving half of it on their plates.
No wonder we have an NHS obesity crisis in this country. Peter Meyers, Bromley
Pub closures, failure to stop e-scooters and another day of knife crime
I was saddened to read that the huge number of pub closures shows no sign of abating (Metro, Mon).
As the writer Hilaire Belloc said more than 100 years ago – perhaps prophetically: ‘When you have lost your inns, drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England.’ Teresa, Bromley
Further to the crackdown on illegally modified e-bikes (MetroTalk, Wed), most police officers don’t know what makes an e-bike legal – I’ve asked a few.
What we really we need is a law banning e-scooters. How come Halfords sells them? They’re not even legal unless on private land. Overall, though, bikes/e-bikes are the least dangerous form of transport.
Petrol motorbikes kill far more pedestrians each year and cars, Lord knows how many more – but there is still no eye test for people over 70 renewing their car or motorbike driving licence. Peter Goodman, Farnham
Another day, another sad knife crime in London (Metro, Wed). And another day Sadiq Khan is missing in action.
Unless it involves a photoshoot or hitting motorists in the pocket, you won’t see the mayor of London. He is a joke. Gary, Essex
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