It is right to question MPs’ experience

From: Bob Watson, Springfield

Road, Baildon.

ON a personal level, it is hugely worrying to find myself agreeing with anything said by Tony Blair.

However, I can but agree when he says ( The Yorkshire Post, December 5) that there are far too many MPs with no real business experience.

Time after time we see party candidates who have come straight from university and worked as a researcher before entering the House of Commons.

We had a prime example here in Shipley where the previous MP, until he was thankfully removed by the electorate, was Labour’s Christopher Leslie.

This man had no business experience whatever, and seemed only intent on climbing the slippery political pole, making sure that he never blotted his copybook in the meantime.

Although eventually rejected in Shipley, sure enough he was then found a safe seat elsewhere. He has now risen to become Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, but what real experience has he for this role? Nothing like enough, I would argue.

This helps to encapsulate – and there are many other examples – just what is wrong with our current political system, and why so many view it so poorly.

Tony Blair also believes that pay for MPs should be substantially increased.

I would agree, as long as it ensured that the vast majority of MPs entering Parliament had varying degrees of experience in the outside world.

From: David McKenna, Hall Gardens, Rawcliffe, Goole.

SO Tony Blair has come back from working to find peace in the Middle East, to state that our Honourable Members are not paid enough compared with the private sector and that this restricts the gene pool of suitable candidates.

No doubt he is basing his assumption on the fact that he has earned considerably more in the private sector than when he was Prime Minister, although he is at pains to point out that, sadly, his considerable fortune is not as considerable as we might think.

However, a salary increase of some nine per cent seems pretty reasonable to me as this will raise the salary of an MP from £67,000 to £74,000 and this does not take into account the sundry benefits they and their families also enjoy.