MP's, pay and expenses - A lost chance

I don't think MP's should be in it for the money and think their pay combined with the pension is not too far off where it should be. Expenses, well that has to change. The system must be more transparent and the blatant abuse by some will surface soon and they will regret the £2000 TV from John Lewis purchase as well they should.

However if I was one of them I may have made the following calculation:

People can't stand us as it is and so sod them, we can't get lower in their estimation so we may as well get all we can. Ergo I would have voted for the maximum pay rise and then looked to vote for an expenses system that gave me the most. They did not and have still ended up looking stupid. No one will give them credit for limiting the pay rise and everyone will ridicule them for keeping the current abusive expense system.

What should happen is that they don't vote on their pay at all. Someone else should tell them how much they will get. Expenses should be very very transparent and all MP's should note the following:

a) Their are thousands of wannabe MP's and so in terms of supply and demand economics they are lucky to get paid at all.

b) They are not special. Most people could do their job. It requires no qualifications and the only real difficulty, especially for a back bencher is i) the long hours of "work" and "gossip" and ii) having to deal with those pesky constituents by getting your secretary or caseworker to deal with them.

c) They are meant to serve the public not themselves.

Now obviously there are a great many brilliant and hard working MP's. Equally there are many who are just plain rubbish. Infact the low quality of many is surprising given the competition to get in.