Rod Liddle says we should double the salary of MPs to improve the calibre of people attracted to parliament (Comment, last week). On the contrary, based on principles of behavioural psychology, we should halve their salaries and ban second jobs. This would attract those whose primary motivation was public service, not financial gain. Given their perks and allowances, they would not starve — but they would have greater insight into the lives of most of their constituents.
Professor Frederick Toates, Open University, Milton Keynes
High earners
You report that the Speaker will investigate evidence of widespread drug use in parliament (News, last week). If MPs are as underpaid as Liddle suggests, how do they afford all that cocaine?
Mark Solon, chairman, Wilmington Legal, London E1
For goodness’ sake
As a medical student going into an NHS job at a third of an MP’s pay, I can assure Liddle that many of us choose public good over a large pay packet.
And as for Ms Groggins — the fictional catheter-emptier whose work he dismisses as unimportant compared with that of an MP — Liddle has evidently never suffered from acute urinary retention. If he had experienced such pain, he would be a lot more grateful for the relief she delivers.
Thomas Oliver Brockwell, Oriel College, Oxford
Overrated over there
Liddle suggests we would get better politicians if their pay was on par with that of their counterparts in the US, Australia, Germany, Italy and France. This implies the belief that these countries have markedly better politicians than we do. I do not think there is much evidence to support that contention.
Professor Emeritus Brian Furman, Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, Glasgow
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Turned off by Twitter
It’s not the amount MPs are paid that deters good people: it’s what they stand to lose. One slip of the tongue and, in a climate dominated by social media, a hard-earned reputation and a life’s work could be ruined. Why risk it?
Richard Goodwin, London SW1
Pledge-related pay
My experience in the private sector shows you get better-quality candidates applying for jobs with higher compensation. But such roles usually come with performance-related pay. Instead of just doubling MPs’ salaries, why not make a significant proportion of their increased earnings dependent on delivering the benefits promised in election manifestos?
Jonathan Hipkin, Sharpthorne, West Sussex
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