RIBBLE Valley MP Nigel Evans is perfectly in tune with public sentiment when he says it would be wrong for MPs to vote for a 26 per cent. pay rise for themselves when ordinary people are being asked to accept increases of two and three per cent.

However, in the free vote on the recommendations that would up their pay to £43,000 - and, after the election, rocket Cabinet ministers pay by 48 per cent and put the Prime Minister's salary up by 70 per cent to £143,000 - most of them are expected to both ignore that view and the government's call for restraint.

If this is what our MPs think they are worth, then, surely, they should prove it by earning it - in somewhat different fashion than they do now.

For the argument is that, in order to get people of the right quality in Parliament, they should be paid appropriately and in line with those in responsible jobs outside - making, we believe, a fair case for the Premier's huge pay rise at the helm of UK plc.

But then that is a full-time job. And so should that of an ordinary MP be - with an end to its present part-time nature which, with hours of business at Westminster arranged to suit, allows many in the Commons to work outside, frequently quite lucratively, for others rather than their constituents.

Additionally, the issue of there being so many as 650 MPs needs to be addressed. A smaller number of them with more working nine-to-five at Westminster and for many more weeks of the year than at present might persuade workers on two per cent increases that they are getting value for money from their representatives who are now eagerly poised to pay themselves a lot more.

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