Opinions: Should MPs' pay be related to their performance?

BERNARD MANNING, comedian: If it was performance-related, they wouldn't earn a bloody carrot. Some of those MPs sit there and don't say a word, you would think they were deaf and dumb. If any one of them does need a pay rise it's Dennis Skinner because he has had the same coat on for 14 years.

AUBERON WAUGH, writer: No, I don't. I think the less work they do the better it would be for everybody. They should do less and get paid more. MPs should have a basic rate of pay from which a certain amount should be deducted every time a Bill is passed in Parliament. My own job is 100 per cent performance related.

DAVID HIGGS, National Officer, Fire Brigades Union: No, because none of them would get anything] How do you measure performance in the public services? Is it how many fires the fire-fighter puts out, how many arrests the bobby makes? If you looked at the performance of the country at the moment, Mr Major would get nothing and the Opposition - who have all the good ideas - would get the best pay.

JANE WATERMAN, marketing manager, Encyclopaedia Britannica International: I have been on performance-related pay for nine years. It gives you a reason to do a little bit more, to walk the extra mile. The company gets more from me, and if MPs were on performance-related pay I think we'd get more from them.

LESLEY FISHER, nurse: If nurses are going to have it, it's only fair that MPs should too. I also think MPs should only have one job and not take on directorships. If a nurse couldn't turn up to work her 37-and-a-half hours a week because she had another job there would be trouble]

CAROLINE CHARLES, fashion designer: Yes they should. Then constituents would be able to check whether their MP had effected the changes promised in their electoral manifesto.

JOHN MAJOR, president, Bournemouth Hotel and Restaurants Association: Those of us out in the real world are performance-related already. In this industry if you don't get people staying at your hotel you don't get paid. I would pay MPs by economic performance. If we did that I don't think any of them would be worth an increase.

NICHOLAS, barrister: Maybe they should get attendance money, that might encourage them to turn up at the House of Commons, which is better than having them loose on the streets.

ROSEMARY BENTLEY, geography teacher: I think it's a splendid idea. There are some absolutely superb MPs and others who have just settled for mediocrity. They could be judged partly according to what they do in the Commons, but much more important to me is what they do in their constituencies.

SIMON HEFFER, columnist: Without question. That way they wouldn't get any money at all. They should go out and get proper jobs. Labour MPs could go and work in a soup kitchen in Liverpool or go down a coal mine two days a week.