Graphs at a glance: Are MPs underpaid? Actually their basic pay puts them above 95% of Britons

It is suggested that paying MPs more would get a better calibre of people into the Houses of Parliament. 

The reality is an MP’s basic pay puts him or her above the wages of more than 95% of Britons. 

The graph below uses HMRC figures for 2010-11 and an MP's basic salary that year of £65,738.

This does not include the other income MPs can derive directly from Parliament:

• Ministerial salaries (from an extra £26k for a whip, to £79k for a cabinet minister)
• Salaries for chairing select committees (Nearly £15k extra)
• Salaries paid to their spouses and children employed as their constituency staff. (See Part2 of their declarations, e.g. for May 2013 click here)

And it does not include money they earn within Parliamentary rules doing other jobs while still employed as an MP, including Gordon Brown MP and Stephen Philips QC MP whose other earnings dwarf their parliamentary salaries.

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) did a survey of MPs, and found they too felt they deserved a pay rise. Though the amount of the increase over their then £66k basic salary varied by party:

It is suggested by some that MPs and Peers would be less corrupt if they were paid more. History has shown that no matter how much is paid some people will always take more. A report by the High Pay Commission showed:

“In 1980, for instance, the boss of Barclays was earning 14.5 times average pay at the bank; the current boss, however, is on 75 times the average, representing a 4,899% rise over that 30 years."

Giving MPs an extra few thousand may sate the less insatiable MPs. But the more dodgy would quickly fill the vacuum and take over the consultancies and directorships that the less dodgy decline.

It is also suggested that if a Parliamentarian in the normal course of his life has access to movers and shakers, what is wrong with him taking money for getting things moved and shaken. The equivalent of saying because a supermarket cashier in the normal course of his life has access to his till there is nothing wrong with him pocketing a handful of tenners every now and then. 

Parliamentarians are already paid more than 95% of Britons to move and shake things. But their parliamentary salaries and their access to movers and shakers is specifically for the interests of their constituents. Not for their own interests in funding their personal pleasures and hobbies.

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The nation's wage bill falls £52bn in five years while top exec pay keeps rising

Fee, Chris and KJ - if not the mainstream political parties - see the problem...

SOURCE MIRROR: Nation's wage bill falls £52bn to £638bn in five years with North West suffering sharpest cuts
Falling real wages, reduced hours and changes in the kind jobs people are doing has reduced the nation’s total pay, said a TUC report. This means a 7.5% drop on average since the eve of the recession in 2007. The North West suffered the sharpest cut of 10.6%. The South West, West Midlands and Scottish economies have also seen pay packets shrink by around 10%. Despite a small rise in the number of people in work since 2007, it has failed to offset the sharp cuts to workers’ wages. The TUC says if people have less money and are spending less, businesses will struggle: “It’s no wonder businesses are struggling when so much demand has been sucked out of the economy.”

SOURCE DAILY MAIL: Top companies' bosses pay and perks rise 10% to £4.3m on average
This year the leaders of FTSE 100 firms continued to enjoy salary hikes, while the average worker received a pay rise of just 1%, well below the current 2.4% inflation rate which equates to a pay cut in real terms. According to the Office for National Statistics that 1% figure is the lowest since its records began in 2001. 

OUR RELATED STORIES:

Since 1979, under Labour or Tory governments, the rich have got richer whilst economic performance remained the same

The share of national income being paid to employees has been dropping since the 1970s

Austerity shifts wealth, rights and opportunity up the wealth ladder. The only winners are those at the top

Read More

Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 13th June)

Nation's wage bill falls £52bn to £638bn in five years with North West suffering sharpest cuts

Falling real wages, reduced hours and changes in the kind jobs people are doing has reduced the nation’s total pay, said a TUC report. This means a 7.5% drop on average since the eve of the recession in 2007. The North West suffered the sharpest cut of 10.6%. The South West, West Midlands and Scottish economies have also seen pay packets shrink by around 10%. Despite a small rise in the number of people in work since 2007, it has failed to offset the sharp cuts to workers’ wages. The TUC says if people have less money and are spending less, businesses will struggle: “It’s no wonder businesses are struggling when so much demand has been sucked out of the economy.” MIRROR
(“It’s tragic. There’s only one union left that can stand up to the merciless self-defeating slash and burn rhetoric of wage cuts these days, and that’s us,” said the National Union of Fat Cats. "See below...")

Top companies' bosses pay and perks rise 10% to £4.3m on average

This year the leaders of FTSE 100 firms continued to enjoy salary hikes, while the average worker received a pay rise of just 1%, well below the current 2.4% inflation rate which equates to a pay cut in real terms. According to the Office for National Statistics that 1% figure is the lowest since its records began in 2001. DAILY MAIL

Nestle and Mars charged with price-fixing of chocolates
Authorities in Canada have charged the food giants Nestle and Mars, together with a network of independent wholesale distributors, in an alleged conspiracy to fix prices of chocolates. Three individuals have also been charged: former Nestle Canada president Robert Leonidas; Sandra Martinez, former president of confectionery for Nestle Canada; and David Glenn Stevens, president and CEO of distributor ITWAL. Mars, Nestle and ITWAL vowed to fight the charges. But Hershey Canada, an alleged co-conspirator, is expected to plead guilty in exchange for leniency, blaming previous management. BBC NEWS

Vodafone paid no corporation tax in Britain last year

Generous tax breaks mean the UK’s second largest mobile phone company reduced its tax bill to zero for the second consecutive year. The blue chip company has distributed £4.8bn in cash dividends to shareholders in the last 12 months – more than any other British business. CEO, Vittorio Colao, collected £11m in pay last financial year, down from the £15.7m he earned the year before. The drop in his pay is due to revenue targets missed in recession hit Europe. GUARDIAN
(News? This isn’t news. News would be “Vodafone pays some corporation tax in Britain!!!” surely?...)

Ex-HBOS chief James Crosby stripped of knighthood

Following a highly critical report by the Banking Standards Commission in April, Sir James asked for his knighthood to be removed. The report described him as the "architect" of the strategy that led to HBOS' downfall. Mr Crosby also gave up 30% of his £580,000-a-year HBOS pension, meaning he will waive around £174,000 this year. Mr Crosby's knighthood is the second casualty of the banking crisis. Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive of RBS, was stripped of his knighthood in 2012 after leading the bank to near-collapse in 2008, and an eventual multi-billion pound government bailout. BBC NEWS

Privatised rail has meant 'higher fares, older trains and bigger taxpayers' bill'

A TUC-commissioned report says the rail selloff 20 years ago has brought little private investment in new technology but the dearest fares in Europe. Over 90% of profits go straight to the shareholders. Investment is overwhelming being paid for using taxpayer subsidies or government-underwritten borrowing. Between 2007 and 2011 rail firms got £3bn in subsidies. The report noted that the only firm that re-invests its profits is East Coast, which is publicly owned. GUARDIAN

Water giants' profits and tax 'morally questionable'
Jonson Cox, the chairman of the water industry regulator Ofwat, criticised companies for making “exceptional returns” and paying little or no tax while “hard-pressed customers have seen annual bills rise by 13.5% since 2010/11”. Ofwat has already asked companies to look at ways of sharing these windfall gains with consumers. While four have so far responded “positively”, Ofwat may intervene to “set the rules to make sure that customers benefit.”  TELEGRAPH

Sold down the river: How Thames Water diverts its tax liability via the Caribbean despite £549m profit and 6.7% price hike
Thames Water's profits were £549m i.e. 30% of their turnover of £1.8bn. They awarded their chief executive a £274,000 bonus. Yet they put up customer bills by 6.7%, customer satisfaction has dipped and hundreds of people’s homes were flooded with sewage. Critics said it was a “disgrace” that one of Britain’s biggest and most profitable companies was not making a greater contribution to the Exchequer. INDEPENDENT

Disability Living Allowance changes begin
Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) are replacing Disability Living Allowance (DLA). As part of the government's welfare reforms, the new PIPs require claimants to be assessed by private providers. But the charity Scope warns of a repeat of the problems with the fitness-to-work test, known as the Work Capability Assessment, where thousands appealed successfully against their test results. Capita, one of the firms carrying out the assessments, says the test is more of an interview than a medical assessment. The head of Capita's PIP programme said: "Applicants could be asked to bend over and touch their toes, but it will not be more complicated than that." BBC NEWS
(...and the taxpayer who's paying Capita et al for this service, whether they cock it up or not? "They'll just be asked to bend over," said our Capita insider.)

Lloyds admits “shortcomings” in the handling PPI mis-selling complaints

An undercover reporter at the Times said staff at one of the bank's complaints handling centres had been taught to "play the system". The reporter said he was told to ignore possible fraud by Lloyds salesmen and that most complainants would give up if rejected the first time." The reporter was also told that some salespeople secretly ticked the “payment protection insurance” box before the customer signed. The centre was operated for Lloyds by the leading accounting firm, Deloitte. BBC NEWS

Survey: Four in 10 would join consumer boycott over tax avoidance

Tax dodging by some big companies has persisted in the headlines since the start of the economic crisis. The survey shows older people (54%) the most likely to take action, with much less support from the young (28%). David Cameron has promised to put tax avoidance centre-stage when he chairs the G8 summit. Analysts point to pessimism and defeatism among the young. The economy-wide unemployment rate of 7.8% rises to 20.7% among those aged 16-24. Whereas 79% of the prewar generation believe that their own generation has had a better life than their parents, among the youngest this figure drops to 42%. GUARDIAN

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Top business leaders' pay packets up by 10% to £4.3m on average, while rest of UK gets 1%

Can Ed Milliband and Cameron agree on something?...

SOURCE MIRROR: Nation's pay falls £52bn to £638bn in five years with North West suffering sharpest cuts
Falling real wages, reduced hours and changes in the kind jobs people are doing has reduced the nation’s total pay, said a TUC report. This means a 7.5% drop on average since the eve of the recession in 2007. The North West suffered the sharpest cut of 10.6%. The South West, West Midlands and Scottish economies have also seen pay packets shrink by around 10%. Despite a small rise in the number of people in work since 2007, it has failed to offset the sharp cuts to workers’ wages. The TUC says if people have less money and are spending less, businesses will struggle: “It’s no wonder businesses are struggling when so much demand has been sucked out of the economy.”
SOURCE DAILY MAIL: Top business leaders' pay packets rise by 10%: Bosses of top companies now enjoy £4.3m in pay and perks
The leaders of FTSE 100 firms continued to enjoy salary hikes, while ordinary workers endure pay freezes or meagre increases. Meanwhile the average worker received a pay rise of just 1 per cent, according to the Office for National Statistics – the lowest since its records began in 2001. That is well below inflation, currently at 2.4%.


OUR RELATED STORIES:

Since 1979, under Labour or Tory governments, the rich have got richer whilst economic performance remained the same

The share of national income being paid to employees has been dropping since the 1970s

Austerity shifts wealth, rights and opportunity up the wealth ladder. The only winners are those at the top

Read More

Graphs at a glance: With yet more reports of MPs misbehaving and enriching themselves, we look to see who actually selects these people.

The fact is a man or woman does not get into parliament by winning their seat in a General Election nor in a Bye Election. They don’t have to persuade the majority of all voters in their constituency that they are fit and proper to be their ward’s representative. 

Prospective MPs merely have to persuade their local constituency party activists – comprising about one in a hundred of the electorate. It is by persuading these local activists, allegedly regarded by some top politicians as ‘swivel-eyed loons’, that our MPs actually get themselves into Parliament.

A report by the UK Parliament in December 2012 stated that:

“In 2010, only 1.0% of the electorate was a member of one of the three main political parties. Labour had approximately 193,000 members, the Conservatives 130,000 to 150,000 and the Liberal Democrats 49,000.”

According to the Electoral Reform Society ordinary voters in most constituencies tend to stick with the same party. Which means the loony party activists in those constituencies have the parliamentary seat in their gift. :

"The average constituency last changed hands between parties in the 1960s, with some super safe seats having remained firmly in one-party control since the time of Queen Victoria. "
Electoral Reform Society

http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/safe-seats/#1830-2010

The Electoral Reform Society's map of 'safe seats' below shows that most of the UK is in the gift of the eye-swiveling loons:

Put the same map against a map showing unemployment rates and you can see with the loons raving about one thing in blue areas (cutting help to the poor and unemployed) and another thing in the red areas (increasing help for the poor and unemployed) we end up with a large proportion of cynical lunatics as our MPs in Westminster.

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Graphs at a glance: MPs just do as they are told by their party bosses

MPs bleat that they are very clever, work very hard, and therefore should be paid more.

The reality is that the vast majority of them just follow party orders. This data from The Public Whip, taken by us in June 2013, shows the number of times an MP voted against the majority in his own party.

A senior MP was reported saying "‘Voters may not like it but if you pay peanuts you get monkeys." The graphs below show that inspite of their basic £65k salaries, not including all the perks and privileges and being allowed to have multiple other paid jobs, we don't even get monkeys - we get obedient sheep.

[For those less mathematically minded, if an MP voted against his party 2% (2 out of 100) of the time, that means he marches in line with his own flock 98 times in 100].

(It is usual that MPs in the party in power tend to rebel more than those in opposition - because they know their rebellion won't make any difference).

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George Osborne to stop energy firms exploiting £900m tax loophole

Chris asks an energy fat cat about this new dodge...

SOURCE TELEGRAPH: George Osborne to stop energy firms exploiting £900m tax loophole
The Chancellor said gas and electricity companies have attempted to "unfairly" claim up to £900m in tax relief. The utility firms were claiming on expenses paid, in fact, by their business customers. The expenses are for changes and improvements made to supply lines, done by the energy firms, but paid for by those businesses. Osborne promised to change the law to prevent companies making such claims.

OUR RELATED STORIES:

Have regulators in other sectors learned the lessons of the bad bankers? OFGEM's piffling "record" fine on energy firm SSE for mis-selling suggests not

Liebrary: Are energy companies really forced to raise prices due to high wholesale prices?

A British politician, the Prime Minister no less, promises to legislate that Britons must not be ripped off!

OFGEM misses another opportunity to control rip-off energy bills by improving energy price transparency

Liebrary: Are Britain's energy companies' charges for domestic gas & electricity really the lowest in Europe?

Read More

Rip-off News round-up. Our pick of the last week's media (Thu 6th June)

George Osborne to stop energy firms exploiting £900m tax loophole

The Chancellor said gas and electricity companies have attempted to "unfairly" claim up to £900m in tax relief. The utility firms were claiming on expenses paid, in fact, by their business customers. The expenses are for changes and improvements made to supply lines, done by the energy firms, but paid for by those businesses. Osborne promised to change the law to prevent companies making such claims. TELEGRAPH

(Said one energy firm exec: “This contemptible little fraud common among the dodgiest of backstreet operations is just part of our graduate training programme. We start them off by getting them to claim on the same expenses twice. In a few short years they’re rigging energy markets, fixing international prices, and running a secret cartel to hike your bills.”)

Britain has highest food and energy inflation in Europe

The OECD said UK food prices in April were 4.6% higher than the same month a year ago: it was 3.7% in Germany, 1.6% in France and just 1% in the US. Energy inflation in the UK was 2.2% – more than four-times Germany’s. In nearly a dozen European countries energy prices fell this month, including France, Belgium, Denmark and Spain. UK consumers may be suffering from the low pound but also less competition than other markets. Ross Walker, chief economist at RBS, said: "The concentration of the big four supermarkets in the UK must give them pricing power."  TELEGRAPH

Policing of payday lenders is timid, say MPs
The OFT has been "ineffective and timid" in tackling rogue payday and door-to-door lenders, MPs said. Unscrupulous behaviour by these lenders cost consumers at least £450m a year. The OFT has never given a fine to any of the 72,000 firms in this market and only five have lost their license. It also failed to effectively prevent directors of lenders that lost their licence from setting the business up again under a different name. The OFT defended itself by saying they lack sufficient regulatory powers and can impose a fine only in limited circumstances. Door-to-door and payday lending had risen significantly since the financial crisis.

BBC NEWS
(Who needs wider regulatory powers and fines to keep people in line? A couple of burly men and a knuckleduster usually does the trick…)

In one week, three Lords and one MP are caught agreeing to payment from lobbyists in exchange for influence

Lobbying bill will be brought to parliament by end of July, says No 10. Downing Street announces new schedule for bill that would introduce statutory register following spate of lobbying scandals. GUARDIAN


Premier League rip-off as Manchester United and Manchester City charge children £100 for new season's replica kits
Parents are left fuming at the 'ridiculous' price. The cost of adult shirts (i.e. without the shorts and socks) has also been hiked by 24% to over £50. Up until recently clubs only changed their shirt design in alternate seasons. But now many use three or four different shirts which they change every year. In 2003, Umbro, the English FA, Manchester United and six sports chains were fined more than £16m by the Office of Fair Trading for colluding to inflate the price of football shirts. A club spokesman said: ‘The cost reflects value to the consumer through design, innovation, development, manufacturing, and retailing.” DAILY MAIL

(“...and don’t forget the cost of our over-paid marketing execs. They’re the ones that noticed the OFT is on the lookout for ruthless profiteering by the nation’s global brands. But nobody regulates kiddie pester power, guilt, and all those other lovely emotions that get you to buy our stuff. It’s a funny old game…” said our Premier League insider...)

It won't happen to you! Average weekly lottery player loses almost £150 a year

With £3 the average amount spent each week - a Lotto and Euromillions ticket the most popular combination - the cost mounts up to £156-a-year, with the average players winning just £10 of this back, the equivalent of getting three numbers on Lotto. Some £6.5bn was spent on National Lottery tickets during 2012, and since its inception in 1994 around 3,000 millionaires have been created. Last year the National Lottery posted record sales, in the midst of the recession. DAILY MAIL

(...and no wonder. By now we should all be feeding the meter of hope over experience…)

Families to be £1,800 a year worse off by 2015, IFS says

Furthermore, a childless couple is likely to lose £1,248 a year, or £24 a week. The IFS also said that over the next three years, less well-off families will be hit harder than those with higher incomes. The cuts in spending power are because incomes are failing to keep pace with inflation, and because of changes to the benefits system. "Most of the falls in real incomes associated with the recession have now happened for middle- and higher-income groups," said Robert Joyce, a senior economist at the IFS. "But much of the pain for lower-income groups is occurring now, or is still to come," he said. BBC NEWS

(…All just in time for everyone to cast their votes at the 2015 elections…)

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In one week, three Lords and one MP are caught agreeing to payment from lobbyists

Cameron promises rapid new laws to stop dodgy lobbying...

SOURCE GUARDIAN: Lobbying bill will be brought to parliament by end of July, says No 10
Downing Street announces new schedule for bill that would introduce statutory register following spate of lobbying scandals. In one week, three Lords and one MP are caught agreeing to payment from lobbyists in exchange for influence.

OUR RELATED STORIES:

MPs' Expenses Watchdogs ejected and replaced

MPs make a try for a discrete £20k+ pay-rise in the face of the public sector pay-freeze

Parliamentary Expenses - Westminster Gravy Train's return journey

Read More

Graphs at a glance - School class sizes in England are among the largest in the OECD

Michael Wilshaw, the Chief Inspector of Schools, said at a seminar organised by the Reform think tank: "You can't have small classes - small groups - and a highly-paid staff." Wilshaw's assertion being that by having bigger class sizes, and therefore fewer teachers, it will be possible to offer higher pay to tempt in better teachers. In this he was parroting Reform's own agenda:

"Ministers should support schools that reduce numbers of teaching assistants and allow class sizes to rise. Ministers should also make the case that having a high quality teacher is more important than smaller class size."  

So, is it actually true that our schools have small classes? We produce data below from the OECD's "Education at a glance, 2012" report, which looks at and compares the education systems in the OECD countries.

For both primary and secondary schools up to GCSE, class sizes in England are among the largest in the OECD.

The reality is we already have among the largest class sizes in the OECD. The government's agenda is simply to cut spending in the government education system. 

After all, those who can pay for private education can enjoy classes of 15 to 20, as you would find in ordinary schools in Austria, Hungary, and the USA.

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