LETTER : Representative salaries

From Professor G. F. Elliott

Sir: Fighting as a candidate the general election in 1970, I happened recently to have been appointed as a professor. In response to the inevitable remarks from electors that "you politicians are only in it for the money", I could truthfully then say that were I elected, I should lose about one- third of my income, in transferring from my university to Westminster.

A quarter of a century on, I see that MPs now earn about nine-tenths of my current professorial salary (with a lot of perks that I do not enjoy). They now want an increase of up to 100 per cent. So what about us professors?

Yours sincerely,

G. F. Elliott

Oxford Research Unit

The Open University

Oxford

1 February