Assembly Members could get a £10,000 pay rise after a recommendation by the Welsh Government’s Remuneration Board.
South East Wales AM, Lindsay Whittle, said Plaid Cymru would urge the board to make a u-turn on their recommendation.
He said: “A week after the Welsh Government finally settled a 1% pay deal with frontline NHS workers, it is obscene to suggest that politicians should be awarded a pay rise of £10,000 a year.”
Caerphilly AM Jeff Cuthbert said: “The Assembly Labour Group expressed concerns regarding the headline proposals of the Remuneration Board.
“The group will now consider the report in full at a future meeting, before formally responding.”
Lindsay is the only AM that I have seen, so far, correctly pointing out
that the proposed pay rise is “obscene.” I listened to Jeff Cuthbert on
Radio Wales this week who thought that it was not for him to comment on
the rise and that we must think of AMs with “young families.” I have
news for him; many people with young families manage to live on wages
that are not much greater than the pay rise that has been recommended
for these politicians.
Another argument that is put forward is that the ‘best people’ need to be attracted to politics and this is achieved by generous wages and allowances. This appears reasonable until we look at how candidates are selected. Every single AM is a party member which represents less than 1% of the population (House of Commons Library, June 2014 figures). From this total of less than 1 in a 100 people the party selects those who it wants to stand. The party does
this, not by picking the best qulaified, but by choosing those who
demonstrate loyalty to the leadership, faith in the political dogma of
the party, ability to deal with news media and so on.
So, I would argue, no amount of extra money will buy us the best brains in
Wales as the political system ensures that the available pool is less
than 1 in a 100 Welsh men and women and from this the only people picked
as candidates get there because of their service to the party
concerned. This applies equally to Plaid, Labour, Conservative and Lib
Dem. Under this system the best brains become AMs more by accident than
design. A look at the abilities of members elected to represent the
people of Wales will confirm this.
I agree with all of your point. I would add though paying extra has the opposite effect attract rotten eggs to the job who want nothing but money. Ridiculous pay keeps them reboarding the gravy-train every time selection comes about.
The arguments Jeff Cuthbert makes continually miss the point. Some frontline NHS workers have a young family but they are not seeing a £10,000 pay increase. The problem with most politicians these days is they do not know how to debate their point. It’s no good bringing up an argument where the reverse is true.
The Welsh Assembly at the moment resembles a pantomime; quite fitting for this time of the year. The most competent people would not be presiding over a postcode health service with catastrophic failings and schools which do not educate. Does a high salary really attract the best? I think not.