A question - does this view reflect the age profile?

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From a survey:

A survey of 1,000 employees working in public sector organisations found they were “desperately” holding onto their pension packages in the face of planned changes announced by the government.

Teachers and civil servants have already taken strike action over the reforms and unions continue to threaten further disruption later in the year if the row is not resolved.

Recruitment firm Badenoch & Clark said its study showed a majority of public sector workers believed their pensions were worth striking over.

And the age profile of public sector employees? I can't speak for the whole sector - although I suspect the profile will be pretty similar - but in Local Government 68% of the workforce is aged over 40. So it shouldn't really surprise us that pensions are perhaps more important than pay - especially when they are final salary, index-linked pensions.

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Getting paid more than Gordon - as if!

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The PM gets paid £197,000 (I hesitate to use the term “earn” in this case) and various pundits are frothing about the fact that some people in the public sector get paid more than this. Like so what?

Leaving aside the fact that my cat could do a better job of PM than Gordon for the cost of a bowl of IAMS and a soft bed, we shouldn’t be comparing the pay of politicians with the pay of officials. Moreover Gordon gets two free houses, fed and watered, ferried around everywhere – I doubt that beyond indulgences, Gordon has any of the outgoings you and I have.

So lets assume that we spend a third or our income of housing and 25% on essential spending (food, drink, travel, etc) – for ease of estimation we’ll call that 60%. Since Gordon doesn’t have this expenditure his real salary is somewhere in excess of £300,000.

That’s more than the head of the civil service, any local council chief executive and most of the quangocrats. After all from their bloated salaries they have large houses, foreign holidays and school fees to pay – without the access MPs have to an expenses free-for-all.

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Sir Patrick is right about MPs pay....well almost!

Sir Patrick Cormack thinks MPs like him need rewarding for agreeing not to have a second homes allowance - 120 grand will do he suggests.

My suggestion - just give MPs 150 grand, an office, a phone and a travel warrant and be done with it. No staff allowance, no second home scheme, the car mileage, no subsistance - just a lump of cash. I'd do it on this basis and so would thousands of others. And some of them are from Sir Paddy's beloved "...business and professional classes."