Letter; So just what is it that MPs do to deserve a 30 per cent pay rise?

Can't anything be done to stop this massive pay increase for MPs? Have we no powers left at all? While their pay and allowances are repeatedly listed, their subsidies are hardly ever mentioned - food, drink, smokes, hairdressing etc.

Furthermore, we do not need 600-plus MPs. Let's cut this figure. Most of their work in the House of Commons appears to be undoing what was done in the past; fairly easy I should have thought.

How do they have time to do other things - farming, acting as chairmen and directors, writing for the press - if they are working 80 hours a week as MPs? And if they want pensions, they should take out their own, like the rest of us. As MPs say to the nation: if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. I assume this applies to them as well as to nurses, junior doctors, car workers etc.

Deirdre Balaam

Canterbury, Kent