correspondence with my MP

Sorry – not much to relate here, apart from the very sad saga of Lilith being hit by a car and losing a leg 🙁 Full details at the cats’ site, if you care to read.

However, I did have cause to use the excellent Write to Them site recently, to contact the illustrious Diana Johnson MP, Labour Member of Parliament for Hull North. I was somewhat vexed with the plan to increase MPs’ salaries, and wanted to know if she would be accepting the pay rise.

me:

I would be most interested to hear your views on IPSA’s recommendation that MPs’ pay should be increased., and whether you will be accepting this rise.

You may be unsurprised to find that I personally, like the vast majority of voters, think it is outrageous.

Yours sincerely

her:

Waffle, waffle, waffle, IPSA set up by parliament, up to them not us, blah blah blah.

me:

With the greatest respect, you have not answered my questions.
a) Do you think a rise for MPs is justified in the current climate?
b) Will you be accepting this rise?
Neither of these have anything at all to do with IPSA. A pay rise does not have to be accepted if offered, or it could be donated to a suitable charity. How about Hull Food Bank, for instance?
her:

The whole point of giving the independent body IPSA the role of setting pay levels, was that MPs no longer set their own pay and should not seek to interfere with, exert pressure on or undermine the independence of IPSA’s work. That is why I will not make comments in the media and have not taken part in IPSA’s consultation on the matter. Of course I hope that IPSA take full account of the likely economic backdrop for 2015, when their pay recommendation is due to take effect. I am sure that members of the public will make these views clear to IPSA in the consultation that IPSA have started on their proposals.

Regarding your comments about donations to local charities, I already donate to many local charities in Hull. I’m actually the patron of a number of them. Indeed, I took a donation to the Endike Food Bank in Hull North only this morning. Whatever IPSA’s final decision about pay for post-2015, and we’ll see the final figures when they report, I will continue to support local charities.

I guess she’ll be taking the rise, then. I’d have been much happier if she’d just said “yes”, instead of giving me all the flannel.