11/03/2008

FACT: AM's had less than 2% pay rise

The whole crap about the huge hike in AM's pay seems to miss an important point. AM's have not had an 8% pay rise, they have had a 1.9% rise.

National Assembly Members are paid a percentage of MP's salaries. MP's salaries have gone up by 1.9%, so AM's salaries have gone up by 1.9% too.

The rest of the so called increase is a grade change. Like if you are a staff nurse and become a sister or a PC who becomes a sergeant , or a teacher who becomes a head, you get more pay because of your promotion.

AM's, because of the Government of Wales Act 2006, have been promoted from 75% MPs to 82% MP's. They haven't had a huge pay rise, they have gone up a pay grade!!!

Westminster parliamentarians seem to be the most vociferousness complainants about our AM's pay rise. Which is understandable, because if AM's are doing 82% of what use to be an MP's job, shouldn't Welsh MP's be paid just 18% of their current salaries?

Indeed, as Westminster MP's are doing so little, wouldn't it be best to get rid of the bloody lot of them and save 40 x 100% MP saleries?


PS: Nice to see Plaid's usual suspects make a stand on their percived socialist issue of AM's pay. Shame they didn't make a stand on the nationalist issue of money for a Welsh language newspaper - after all Plaid AM's are paid for being, at least 82% nationalists!

4 comments:

  1. "nationalist issue of money for a Welsh language newspaper"

    So essentially you are saying that anyone who supports the paper is a nationalist? Odd logic and surely enforces the idea that its hardly commerically viable.

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  2. As a Welsh nationalist, I supported y Byd and any AMs who were prepared to highlight the pay cuts in the public sector. Having said that, I do not criticise AMs for not taking the rise as in terms of roles and responsibilities, it was probably justified. The decision to refuse was based on the current public sector pay cuts and nothing else.

    MOF, you appear to be a genuine right wing Welsh nationalist which is fine. However, I am pleased that you consequently feel uncomfortable with 'us nasty left wingers' in Plaid, as we are in the majority.

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  3. Ian said:However, I am pleased that you consequently feel uncomfortable with 'us nasty left wingers' in Plaid, as we are in the majority.

    I doubt that the left wing is in the majority in Plaid - look at where most of the votes come from. Hardly areas of red-hot socialism!

    The fact is that the left in Plaid are a vociforous minority who use underhand tactics to force their view on the majority, and by doing so they harm the wider national cause.
    The idea that supposedly nationalist AMs should believe that Wales should do democracy on the cheep, that Welsh parliamentarians should be the worst paid parliamentarians in Western Europe is incomprehensible to me.

    Like most I agree that the timing of the pay rise issue was unfortunate and may have played into the hands of those who oppose Wales and its Senedd - so why did Plaid AMs give the story wings through their silly gesture? How dose raising the profile of a story that harms the national cause square with nationalist politics?

    And how can Plaid AMs explain why this pay issue is a more important issue on which to make a stand than was the Manifesto and One Wales commitment to fund a Welsh Language daily?

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  4. Yet again you expose your right wing slant. You refuse to recognise the real problems caused to low paid workers in the public sector by the Labour salary squeeze and cleary have little or no understanding of the internal politics of Plaid. There is a common mis-conception spread by Labour that Plaid is left wing in the south and right wing in the north. Before I joined the party, I also believed this until I actually worked with members from across Wales.

    For example, the Friction Dynamex dispute was the longest running industrial dispute in the UK and as the TGWU will testify, had more support from Plaid than all other parties combined. This support was predominately through the local Plaid branches and elected representatives in Gwynedd.

    Plaid's politics are more a reflection of their membership than any other party, because they are constitutionally more de-centralised. We are not marxist and never will be but neither do we have a broader political church than any other party.

    I recognise that as a right wing nationalist, you would not feel comfortable in Plaid. There is of course a solution to this. Support a Parliament and then self-government and you can be a Tory in a self-governing Wales. As a Welsh Nationalist, I look forward to that day.

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