AFTER the MPs’ expenses scandal the system is to be tightened up so that further misbehaviour will not be possible. However, to compensate MPs for the loss of their expenses scam, there is now a move to increase their basic salaries to a level comparable to “other professional people”. This could mean £100,000 a year or more. A pay rise of about 50 per cent.

May I suggest that it is entirely inappropriate for MPs to claim that they should be paid a salary comparable to, for example, doctors, lawyers, engineers and scientists?

There is no minimum educational standard for MPs and no professional training is required. Put your name forward and, if you are elected, you become an MP. That process is not comparable to meeting the exacting requirements of reputable professional bodies.

And it should be noted that most of the work previously done by the House of Commons is now carried out in the European Union headquarters in Brussels.

But there has been no corresponding reduction in the number of MPs at Westminster.

And now they want a 50 per cent increase in basic pay. You couldn’t make it up.

Jim Allan, Hartlepool.