The MPs' pay rise is perfectly sensible

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/dec/09/mps-pay-rise-sensible-salary

Version 0 of 1.

In the matter of pay, I am on the side of MPs. Their present salary of £66,000 is modest by professional standards, though we know they found devious ways of getting it considerably higher. After the scandal of their "second homes" and other devices, they sensibly parked their remuneration off-shore with an independent adjudicator.

That adjudicator has now judged that MPs should get a rise to £74,000 and take a balancing cut in severance and pension entitlements, which are indeed exorbitant. The new salary is hardly extravagant, less than most doctors, lawyers or company managers. The job is insecure, socially disruptive and moderately unpleasant. Plenty of people may stand ready to do it, but that is not entirely the point. Plenty of people would do it for nothing, and in the past did.

The question of whether MPs offer value for money is moot. Parliament is ludicrously outdated in its customs and practices. That membership of one of its chambers, the upper house, should still be open to purchase and heredity is an outrage against democracy. That the lower house continues to offer so little challenge to the executive, as in its total failure to oversee the security services, is no less so. The corruption of commons select committees by lobbyists should be subject to a searching inquiry.

But these are different matters from pay. Indeed the implied poor quality of MPs must be in some degree be related to it. The idea that an MP should be paid the average wage, or some fixed multiplier of it, may satisfy the envy and rage meted out to elected officials of all sorts at present. The spectacle of rich MPs publicly refusing to take the increase – and thus challenging poorer ones to do likewise – is the arrogance of the public school toff. A system was chosen to avoid such an emotional responses, while also avoiding the risk of self-indulgence. That system is now in place. Everyone should calm down and accept the outcome that was intended.

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.