Education Letter: Commons watch

In witnessing ministerial responses to the call of the Bett committee on university pay for increased funding for universities, I am minded to recall the outcome of a similar review committee for another public sector group that occurred in the mid-nineties.

This particular review recommended immediate salary increases in the region of pounds 10,000 per year on the grounds that, without such an increase, it would not be possible to continue to attract individuals of the right calibre in to the profession. This conclusion was drawn despite the fact that all of the evidence pointed to there being no shortage of individuals wishing to undertake this particular job.

And the group of individuals covered by that review - Members of Parliament. The recommendations of that review into MPs' pay and conditions were funded in full.

For the Government to do anything less with the Bett report amounts to nothing less than hypocrisy.

DR PETER PARSONS

Research Fellow

University of Reading