[Livia]

Originally Posted by The Baby Jesus

That is the ideal of politics - it's not about people wanting/needing big salaries to represent the people, but politics is more about power and self importance, than representation. How many politicians in all parties put the need of constituents before their parties/big business?

Politics should be a vocation, not a jolly.

Well, I know a fair few MPs, and while I can't pretend that they all are committed, fair and hard-working, a lot of them are. Standing as an MP doesn't mean you have your morals removed... some of them - across all the parties - really are working for the greater good and I have a lot of admiration for them. Equally, some should be taken out and shot.

I'd like to see far fewer people in politics who have a pond on which to put a duck house. sadly, unless they earn a salary at least on par with what they could get in the private sector, then we're going continue to get hobby politicians who are either independently wealthy, or divide their time between Parliament and their "proper", more lucrative job.