During these times of BITTER & CALLOUS austerity, MPs to get 1.8% pay rise – to £77,379

You might think that we are making this headline up, but we unfortunately we are not. Not only are the Houses of Parliament getting a multi-billion pound make-over, but now MPs will be able to spend EVEN MORE money in the on-site, newly upgraded bar, with a near 2% pay rise.

Meanwhile, emergency services, armed forces & NHS personnel up-and-down the country, busting a gut to keep people alive and safe, get absolutely nothing.

Don’t get me wrong, I am ALL for pay rises. Hard work (especially when it saves lives) should be rewarded.

But pay rises should be for everyone, not just for a select few individuals who keep spouting to the rest of us that we are ‘in it together’. No we are not. We are not “in it together”.

It was only last week, that we tweeted the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt (see below), the Multi-millionaire businessman, about the messages we keep getting from our medic colleagues in relation to men and women on the #ThinGreenLine taking their OWN lives.

And why does this happen? Stress, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, NOT HAVING ENOUGH MONEY TO PAY THEIR BILLS, working 18 hour shifts day, after day, after day, in a ridiculously under resourced NHS. These are just a few of the reasons.

Its ok though, let’s give the country’s managers a pay rise.

The thing is, MPs KNOW that this self-serving pay rise will go down like a sack of bodily waste with the tens of thousands of men and woman who, up and down the country, are giving up their lives, so that others may have a chance to live theirs.

And let us not forget also, the millions of families who cannot even afford to keep their heating on during the ‘beast from the east’…

Whereas MP’s, refined in the art of avoiding questions, and equally as well refined in the art of spinning facts to within an inch of absurdity, decide that when EVERYONE ELSE is feeling the brunt of the relentless & heartless cuts, that THEY are deserving of a pay rise.

If I was an MP right now, I would be embarrassed….

I would be embarrassed that as more-and-more veterans spend tonight looking for somewhere to sleep on the streets in -15c temperatures, they (the MPs) can make their way back to their (second) home(s), safe in the knowledge that they have been able to give themselves a pay rise, whilst the men and women manning the thin blue, red, green & silver lines wonder when things are going to start getting better.

When I was in the forces, I was taught to lead by example. This basic principle of good leadership, clearly does not apply in the murky world of Politics.

And when I served in the emergency services, I was told that we had to ‘understand’ the communities which me and my colleagues served.

Wouldn’t it be nice if MP’s took a leaf out of the books which they force senior managers in the public sector to write?

I do not want to hear another MP say the words: “we are in this together”. No, we are NOT in ‘it’ together.

You and your chums are in it together, whilst the rest of us have to live with the disgraceful decisions which YOU have made, on the back of a load of false hopes and hoodwinked promises.

In truth, 99.9% of MPs appear to just not care. Whilst we are on the bread line, they, living in a parallel universe, twisting and contorting figures for their own personal gain, can carry on giving themselves a pay rise on the back of a barrage of taxes which we are FORCED to pay.

There is no compassion in politics. There is no empathy. There is not a desire to understand.

Listening to senior managers who hide the facts of reality because they are so afraid to tell the truth because they believe that it might make them ‘look bad’, is NOT how you run any organisation, let alone a country.

I would ask MPs to look deep into their souls. I would ask them, to think about the low morale across the emergency services, NHS and armed forces. I would ask them to count the number of aforementioned brothers and sisters who, in the last year alone, have taken their own lives.

And then, when their pay rise comes into effect, I would ask them to look at their salary and ask themselves: ‘can we REALLY justify this when things have gone to s__t in the real world…’

Written by one of the many Admins of Emergency Services Humour, who is also a regular contributor to our popular fortnightly satirical digital magazine that is emailed straight to subscribers inboxes – CLICK HERE to sign up