On MPs Pay

All three party leaders should keep out of the debate on IPSA's recommendation to improve MPs' pay in 2015.

Why? Because all three of them earn far more from ministerial salaries (including Miliband who gets a salary as Leader of the Opposition)

The figures for these ministerial salaries were fixed in September 2010 when the Coalition Government cut ministers' pay by 10% and froze the salary levels for the lifetime of the parliament. But they were and still are generous.

If Cameron, Clegg and Miliband want to "cut the cost of politics", then take another cut to ministerial salaries and accept the IPSA recommendations for MPs' pay, which are cost neutral.

                                             Minister's Pay                        Total (with MPs salary)
 

Prime Minister	132,923	198,661
Cabinet Minister	79,754	145,492
Lord Chancellor	79,754	145,492
Government Chief Whip	79,754	145,492
Minister of State	41,370	107,108
Parliamentary Under Secretary of State	31,401	97,139
Solicitor General	69,491	135,229
Advocate General	69,491	135,229
Government Deputy Chief Whip	41,370	106,136
Government Whip	26,624	92,362
Assistant Government Whip	26,624	92,362
Leader of the Opposition	73,617	139,355
Opposition Chief Whip	41,370	107,108
Deputy Opposition Chief Whip	26,624	92,362
Speaker	79,754	145,492
Chairman of Ways and Means (Deputy Speaker)	41,370	107,108
First Deputy Chairman of Ways & Means (Deputy Speaker)	36,360	102,098
Second Deputy Chairman of Ways & Means (Deputy Speaker)	36,360	102,098

I am back - and moaning!

I had not posted on my own account for a while and I now find Google has cut me off from adding to my old blog page!

So here I am on a revised blog design and I have to use my first blog post to moan about HS2. Yes I know Camden has raised countless objections to the principle, the route, the business case, the cost,  and the ridiculous level of disruption it will cause, but a new and different dimension to all this hit me this week when I opened an envelope to find that the building I live in is likely to be compulsorily purchased as part of the construction of the line through Kilburn.

Not that it was particularly easy to follow the language used, but after consulting my architect neighbour we are now convinced we are to be bulldozed to construct - er - well that is not exactly  clear from the unhelpful map they enclosed in our envelopes.

And of course when I send in my reasonable enquiry to the hs2 email address supplied to find out what they intend to do with our building, the routine acknowledgement says I will get an answer in twenty working days - just in time for Xmas.

Meanwhile the publication of the 50,000 pages of documents on 29th November means anyone petitioning against the  Parliamentary Bill will have to read 900 pages a day before the deadline in March to make sure they know what they are petitioning against.

As the lawyer acting to my freeholder said to me yesterday "I've never met anyone who has even been to Birmingham , never mind wanted to get there 20 minutes earlier."

Quite so. As someone who regularly travels to Coventry it is even more galling that if HS2 proceeds as currently planned there will be a reduction in trains to my home town rather than more. So I lose my home and get a worse train service to go with it.

I think that's worth moaning about don't you?

To cheer you up I have included a wedding photo with Nana and my in-laws from the ceremony in Ghana in August.