Opinion: MPs and Second Jobs: A Few Things Wrong

Opinion: MPs and Second Jobs: A Few Things Wrong

 

 

 This weeks headlines have been dominated by one man: Owen Paterson. To keep it simple enough, he was found to be taking more through secondary work outside of parliament. He was found to be taking over £100,000 from this 'extra' work, and to much of the country it has raised the question- is it right?

 As we all know, our MPs are public servants. We, as a collective, vote them in to serve we the people's interests. In an ideal world, no politician should ever go into such a career, or may I even say vocation, to serve themselves. The dream of being an MP should be that of someone who simply wants to help others and make the world a better place. But it is becoming more and more clear that that isn't why people want to be politicians. No 'in an ideal world' scenario, or theory, accounts for two simple words: greed and corruption. People realise that by becoming an MP, not only do they get a salary of £81,932- they get power. Geniune power. New Order's 1983 release 'Power, Corruption & Lies' is clearly the title that best sums up this wave of dishonest politician.

But where does the real issue lie with MPs and their second jobs? First and foremost is quite simply the fact that these are the people we must put our faith in to run our country. The people we trust from menial decisions such as roads, all the way up to our foreign relations and, quite literally, deciding what would happen on Doomsday. If these people are demonstrating that their main interest lies with what goes into their bank account every month- can they be trusted? I think in the eyes of the British people on this ground they couldn't be trusted with a fiver, let alone writing the letter locked in the back of a Vanguard Class. How can we trust them if they want to use our votes to simply earn more money from the platform they gain as an MP?

Secondly, the absolute petulance that has come from MPs over their pay is quite frankly laughable. Actually, no, it isn't laughable- I refer back to my previous point, these people govern us. We've had several Tory MP's claiming that that the solution to the whole situation is to pay them more. As we've already established, an MP's base annual salary is £68 short of £82,000 a year. This puts them in the top 5% of earners in the UK. Funnily enough, after saying they can't live off that figure, they argue that after reversing the £20 uplift, people on Universal Credit and low incomes will be just fine as we go into what will inevitibly be one of the hardest winters ever for people on low incomes. So, put simply, some MPs want to live out a rich life using every exploit they can manage to maximise their income and complain that they need more money.

So, to conclude, we as a country have some utterly corrupt people running our country. I must say that, of course, not every MP is a completely corrupt charlatan and that many have dedicated their lives to serving their people- but they are let down by a small handful, from all sides of the House, who want to take advantage of their position and power for their own self gain. This is utterly shameful. With scandal after scandal, dodgy deal after dodgy deal and constant sleaze from this Parliament, people are starting to open their eyes. As a new political generation emerges, figureheaded by the likes of Zarah Sultana, I geniunley have hope that the next generation of politicians are geniune people who want to do their best for the people and treat it as a vocation. However, that day is not today. As for now, we are still stuck with a generation who want to take advantage of us the people.