[user104658]

Originally Posted by The Baby Jesus

There are already lots of independently wealthy people there already, because power attracts money.

True, but my point was that if the pay isn't attractive to anyone else (those genuinely passionate about politics but not already rich) then every position is going to be a posh-boys-club free for all.

Any members of the Oxford Bullingdon club are already guaranteed to be millionaires before any career, so their wealth isn't anything to do with politics at all.

That's not really entirely accurate... that's dependent on a semi-regular presence of their buddies in government to ensure that the status quo is maintained. Their "guaranteed wealth" needs the helping hand of a few political manipulations every 10 to 20 years... they need "friends in power", at least occasionally, to keep the trough full.

I think politicians should be paid the national average, and their pay rises/decreases should be linked to that statistic alone, and if the electorate continue to give power to people with interests that align with business and not people, then more fool them, but I think paying people twice the national average to encourage people to be less dirty is a pretty sad state of affairs.

This I agree with - although I'd use a rough median rather than a mean as that "average". Otherwise, I can see them simply bumping up the average by ensuring that a relative few very-migh-earners earn even more, whilst those in the low to mid salary ranges see no improvement.