Published at 11:28, Thursday, 22 March 2012

The latest money-saving scheme to be floated by the Government involves cutting the pay of civil servants who work in the regions.

Chancellor George Osborne says wages for public workers should reflect the pay of those employed by private companies.

So government and council staff should be paid different rates depending on whether they work in the expensive south or the cheaper, more value-for-money north.

I can see the reasoning behind this and I can see the argument against it – that by doing this, vital spending money will be removed from depressed and struggling local economies and will strengthen the divide between the rich south and poorer north.

But there is another point to be made on this issue.

If this regional pay structure does go ahead, will it mean that those well-paid, highly-pensioned all expenses-paid civil servants that are better known as MPs will all be paid different rates depending on where their constituencies are?

Surely the arguments used for public sector workers apply the same? If not, why not?

We’re all in this together aren’t we? I suppose our MPs will argue they are ‘special cases’.

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk