Michael Gove has told the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority to "stick" a planned £6,000 MPs' pay rise. He isn't on his own and many people think that MPs should not be receiving a 9.3% wage rise but Michael has managed to raise the insult bar by calling IPSA "silly".
Parliament needs a spending watchdog. If we didn't have "silly" IPSA then we would need something very much like it - and that would be silly. The alternative is to allow MPs to decide their pay and conditions and I can think of a few stronger words than silly for that option.
If MPs refuse to accept a wage rise then this undermines IPSA. It may lead to a Dutch auction of candidates willing to take less pay. There will be those who say that the best candidate is the one who doesn't charge the tax payer for their service but a House of Commons full of multi-millionaires is not a future that I care to envisage.
It is interesting to note that the Coalition has said to
IPSA that restraint is necessary. Does this mean it should be called PSA?
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