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Surely MP's are there to serve the people. Yes they ought to be paid well but their expenses and facilities are out of control. Whitehall is far too expensive. Look what Boris Johnson has done to cut costs. Walmart, the largest retailer in the world operates from a cheap, brown field site and furnishes with second hand desks. Why can't government be based in an office block in Sheffield and just keep Whitehall as a money making tourist attraction rather than a drain on the tax payer.

The major problem with paying MPs big salaries is that they are meant to represent the people that they serve. As it is almost none of them use the NHS or state schools because they can buy private so why should they (and they don't) care how poor the service is. Because they can opt out of using the services that ordinary people have to use then they have no interest in representing us or changing the things that matter to us. If MPs had to live off the average wage theyd HAVE TO USE the same education, health and public transport as the majority of people and I absolutely guarantee all three would be far far better than they are now.

Oh but it won't attract the brains you cry. Politicians justify low wages in swathes of the public sector because the jobs are "vocations". Well what higher vocation could there be than to serve your country? Higher wages will simply attract career politicians with no principles or morals - the likes of Mandleson and Blair. The motivation of money is exactly why we have the trough mentality we have now.

If you believe that higher wages will reduce greed you haven't been following the news. One of the biggest MP expense stories so far concerns a millionaire Minister. As Ministers / shadow Ministers are paid more than MPs then we should have seen little or no abuse from them. I bet they were worse than most MPs. Those big cat city bankers were also paid pretty well werent they? Notice how pop stars, film stars, F1 drivers and the wealthiest seek out tax havens - they can't possibly get by and pay tax!

If you pay MPs more you'll simply attract even more greedy people. I don't want MPs that are driven by money. I want MPs that are driven by a desire to improve the life of most people. They'll only do that if they have to live like most people.

Office space must be at a premium in Ballymena, £57,000 per annum, unbelievable, you probably could buy it cheaper in less than five years. It may not be illegal but it is unethical, because if these MLAs had to pay it out of their own pocket they simply wouldn't do it they would be more restrained in the use of their own personal resource's, so why do they spend our public money in an uncontrollable manner.

Why should someone want to become an MP if the pay is so poor that you have to literally steal from the public coffers and risk getting caught to make ends meet? Is it the higher calling of public duty? Is it the drive to obtain polticial power? Is it the need to make your imprint on how the country is run and make it better by your own hand? No I don't think so, it's because the unlegislating life is not worth living :-)

Hey if you think the MPs stole a lot of money for their own high style living, look at how much they shoveled the way of their bank executive friends who rightfully based on their work performance should be in debtor's prison instead of living with their servants in a penthouse.

As a teacher I don't hink MPs are badly paid! After all you don't need any qualifications to be an MP, once an MP you have no personal targets to fullfill or be put on capapbility if you do not perform well. You don't have to be there every day at a certain times etc. You don't even have to think as if you want to climb up and become a Minister in a Cabinet all you need is to always do and say as the Leader tells them to do or party advisers tell you to say or reply to questions. As an MP you can't interfere in Local Government rules issues. So what is the point of having so many on the Gravy train! Basically labour years ago kept saying we will get rid of sleeze. Well congratulations labour you have got rid of sleeze and have replaced it with absolute corruption and contempt for honesty, hard work and decency.
As an ex Labour Party supporter I a now ashamed that I worked so hard to get them elected. I also I regret working so hard fo no expenses in my spare time (canvassing, delivering leaflets etc)to get my Local MP elected who had done nothing to improve the Borough I live in no Britain.

Anyone who expresses the wish to become an MP should automatically be banned from ever becoming one.

This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.

MPs who have been found out to have made fraudulent claims should be prosecuted, why pay money back if thy were in the right. The police should be called in to investigate suspicious claims.

Why should they serve for no money? Simple. They don't care about it. I'm a member of a volunteer emergency response organization. I have to pay for my expenses. I do get some benefits- some of which I can't use, since I don't fly a plane and I don't drive. But, the main reason I do it is to help contribute to my community and help others.

The only honourable man to enter Parliament was Guy Falks.

I also think the Zacchaeus principal should be applied !