Daily Record Comment: Pay rise MPs' reality check.

MPS queued up yesterday to deny they were asking for a 22 per cent pay rise - and no wonder Even the most prehistoric Commons dinosaurs know how a 10-times-inflation pay claim would go down with the people who send them to Westminster.

Disgusting, obscene, immoral. They'd be some of the more polite comments hurled their way, especially when most workers are facing at - or below - inflation pay deals.

It is worth remembering how well MPs are doing. They are on a basic salary of pounds 59,095. That's nearly three times the average wage in Scotland.

And many MPs, in opposition and Government, earn substantially more as they climb the greasy pole. At the top, the Prime Minister gets pounds 183,932. But that's not the half of it. Last year, MPs picked up pounds 81million between them in allowances and expenses.To be fair, much of that goes on employing staff.

But plenty - such as the 57.7p per mile rate for using their cars, or the free first-class travel - helps them enjoy an already comfortable lifestyle.

They can also look forward to generous pay-offs if they lose their seat, and good pensions when they retire.

And if that were not enough, the job is not so taxing that they can't take on lucrative extra work.

Former Tory leader William Hague is the king of second (and third and fourth) jobs, making at least pounds 685,000 last year from work outside politics. Most MPs are not in his league, but many do very nicely, thanks very much.

These riches come not when their stock is at an all-time high. If anything, it is closer to an all-time low, with alarming levels of apathy and falling election turn-outs.

So a 22 per cent rise?

MPs should have sworn it was a printing error. And been slightly embarrassed to ask even for 2.2 per cent