MPs are once again voting on their pay rise

Iain Dale makes it clear again that he thinks MPs should be paid more (though he does not explain what should happen with the very generous expenses they get at the moment), though this may not be a good time to vote on it. In any case, he says, they should stop voting on their own salary increases.

While I agree with the last comment, I do wonder why this week should be a particularly bad week. Could it have something to do with the fact that in the wake of the Irish referendum MPs are showing themselves to be stubbornly determined to push through the Constitutional Reform Lisbon Treaty, which will hand over even more of their powers to the EU?

The House of Commons are supposed to legislate and hold the Executive to account. They do neither, as I wrote a long time ago on EUReferendum. Between seventy and eighty per cent of our legislation, if you take it all into account, comes from the EU with MPs not having the right to reject it. What would happen in the private sector if a firm lost seventy to eighty per cent of its business? Salary hikes? I think not.