Great Britain: Underprivileged M.P.s

Britain's House of Commons may be the "best club in Europe," but many a member can hardly afford the honor of belonging. At the current M.P.'s pay of $4,900 a year, both Laborites and Tories can agree that it is a constant struggle just to keep looking neat, let alone statesmanlike. After a year's study of the problem, a special independent committee last week recommended salary increases of about 80% . It sounded like a staggering raise, but even the new salary of $9,100 a year (v. $30,000 for U.S. Congressmen) is far from lavish, considering that all official expenses, except for local telephone calls, trips to constituencies, and $50 worth of stationery a year, must come out of the members' own pockets.

Endorsing the recommendation, Labor Prime Minister Harold Wilson remarked that M.P.s without independent incomes are forced to exist in "intolerable conditions." True enough. Many live in dreary bed-and-breakfast hotels in

Bloomsbury. One Laborite M.P. reports that he cannot afford to telephone his wife in Scotland. Though the House of Commons dining room serves excellent food and wine—the roast pheasant and Chateau Cheval Blanc 1949 are particularly well regarded right now—quite a few members must stick to fish and chips in the cafeteria. Many cannot afford a part-time secretary and are often seen in the library answering letters in longhand.

Businessmen-politicians, of course, can attend board meetings, lawyers can go to court, and journalists can polish off their stories in the mornings, devoting afternoons and evenings to Parliament. One of the busiest M.P.s is Tory Backbencher Sir Cyril Black, who at last count was chairman of some 40 companies and director of a dozen more. But the increasing number of teachers, white-collar employees and workers among M.P.s have a much harder time dividing their careers this way. Besides, with the growing amount of complex homework to be done, Parliament is becoming more and more of a round-the-clock job.

Under the proposed new scales, Cabinet members (whose salaries in many cases have been frozen since 1830) will get pay boosts too. But because Wilson is telling labor to hold the wage lines, he virtuously halved the committee's proposed raise for ministers, who now would go from $14,000 to $23,800. The Prime Minister, whose thrifty wife has fired the cook and does much of the housework herself, would go from $28,000 to $39,200.