I am pretty sure ALL married couples have some serious arguments and fall-outs at times. The reason is partly because after a while, you get to recognize the bad and annoying habits your husband or wife has. Harry Enfields squabbling couple sprint to mind but I couldn’t find a pic of that so I’ll put this beautiful couple up here instead. Don’t they look nice!
And so it is with friends too. Perhaps it’s a measure of the strength of the relationship whereby despite it all, you still love (even if the form of love changes over time) each other enough to want to be together, warts and all.
And so it is to one of my friends. George Galloway. the more I listen to him, the more I find points on which I disagree with him on. This latest one is on MP’s pay.
He seems very much in favour of MP’s getting even more high pay. Once on his radio show’s he said in relation to low pay (BTW: an MP’s salary isn’t actually low!) “If you pay peanuts you get monkeys.” and I think he was specifically referring to MP’s at the time. That disposable phrase is often said about MP’s i.e. If a good Salary is on offer then you get good people wanting to go for the job.
1) But MP’s pay shouldn’t be about the money. It should be purely about PUBLIC SERVICE.
MP’s shouldn’t get ANY pay. Instead, they should have their needs catered for by the state and as a reward be given a good standard of ‘pampering’ (for want of a better word) while serving their country. After their public service stops then perhaps they can start earning cash, but are given practical but basic buffer facilities before they land themselves a job. (P.S. any post public service employment should NOT be one obtained from graft!)
2) Not only that but I seriously question the ‘worthiness’ of the numerous captains of industry and commerce we have today. I am tempted to say people like Adam Applegarth, but that would be too easy and critics would equally say some other person like Richard Branston to pickle out my argument.
3) GG showed the flaw in his purrfect perceptions while frequently lambasting those who give poor pay to nurses, teachers, firemen, police, prison guards and so forth. Yes there people are poorly paid when they start work (like most people starting a job) and there is a case for lobbying on behalf of the persistently poorly paid. But these people, firemen etc, KNOW the peanut level of pay before they go for the job. So GG is calling them monkeys. But of course GG isn’t doing it deliberately, it’s just the consequence of him shooting off one of these stupid phrases, spouted by many and unconsidered by most. So he really has to junk that soundbyte he uses when trying to win his case on this issue.
4) What happened to equality? Why should already well off MP’s get a pay ris when there are people so poor their have to live in run down council housing (what’s left of it that is) and under very testing confitions?
Well, that’s all I want to write on this subject for now. GG has his flaws, but we ALL do. On balance, when it comes to the most important issues, he’s still well worth supporting. If you can’t let inevitable gripes slide, then you yourself become as useful as this…
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