[Livia]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

The fact that you think it's a "reasonably low" salary says it all Livia; you have a city-centric viewpoint that is completely alien to the vast majority of working people in the UK.

I don't want them taking pay hikes massively above the rate of inflation, whilst also claiming expenses, when so many working people in the country are also disrespected, are also in insecure employment, get paid half of that salary or less, and aren't getting any pay rise at all in real terms. Funnily enough.

Saying I have a city-centric viewpoint intimates that I am out of touch with the real working world, and I am not, I just see it from a different perspective. I worked hard for my career, gave up things, worked two, sometimes three jobs to get through uni. There's nothing special about me, I went to an inner-city comprehensive, my father was a soldier and then a paramedic. I swapped my social life for study, and if after all that I had settled for something that wasn't what I wanted and didn't give me the lifestyle I worked for then that would have been my own fault. I would never have considered being a politician and I'm sure there are lots of qualified people from working class backgrounds that feel the same.

Anyhoo, I'm sure at some point we will stumble across a topic where we can share some middle ground. This isn't going to be it though.