My council tax has more than doubled in the past ten years, but I do not see any change in services to 10 years ago. I wonder where some of the money went ?

My earnings in the state sector have pretty much been frozen since 2001 due to reduced jobs caused by increased competition from abroad in my sector.

roger, london,

The answer is to raise tax rates at the top of the salary range. Nobody can consume more than a certain amount. 'Greed ' is the term used for those who think otherwise.
As for the matter of the sales of BofE Gold, I think it depends on what the proceeds were spent!

Robert, London,

What can you expect when donkeys are running a country. They are all donkeys whether they are Labour, Liberal or conservatives. They criticise others parties when out of power.
What these idiots need is public bashing.

Sadhu, northampton, UK

On a wage of £10,000 a year I get a pay increase of 2.475%, which I haven't yet had. This is just immoral and what is more depressing is the fact that all of this is happening under a supposedly 'SOCIALIST' Government. Gordon Brown keeps talking about 'aspiration' but only for the middle classes or those prepared to cream it off the top without a hint of a conscience it would seem. I now listen to this man and don't agree with one single word he says and I have always been a Labour voter. I would rather chop off my own ears than vote Labour again.....ever.

judy, Liverpool, england

In the last few weeks I've been watching Yes Minister/ Yes Prime Minister for the first time since it was released in the mid-1980's. The last episode I watched was on the steep increases in pay for senior civil service, which was completely unrelated to either preformance or merit. It is extremely disturbing and depressing that almost every issue of concern highlighted on this excellent series has not been resolved or even improved in the last twenty years. Unless we demand better preformance from the motley individuals who seem to comprise a large segment of the senior ranks of the civil service (and from the equally motley politicians who are supposed to be in charge of the civil service) then the problems Britain faces today will stil not be resolved in another twenty years. At least Yes Minister/ Yes Prime Minister will still be relevant.

David Lea-Smith, Edinburgh, U.K.

As someone who has just waited 8 months for just over 2% as a pay rise, It makes me feel sick when things like this are exposed. I guess as a public sector worker we are used to being treated like dirt. I went to University worked hard and my reward for doing useful work with older people is relative poverty. Social workers, Teachers and our like are the new poor in the UK, we don't have a standard of living, we just get by from month to month.

I just want to quit my job and leave this stinking country. You have to be a real mug to want to do public service jobs these days. Brown and his Government make me sick.

david hambly, St Albans, UK

These pay rises are easily explained. The Government needs loyal hacks who will make sure the masses are kept in order while they are being robbed.

David, Andorra La Vella, Andorra

It seems we taxpayers are easy targets for greedy people. If this was happening in France there would be riots, and the politicians would have to listen to ordinary people. That, perhaps, is the answer to this "snouts in the trough" free-for-all which has been going on in the public sector for some time now.

Neil, Gloucestershire, England

Don't you think its time theses jobs were outsorced to India. the country could save millions.

IMACOMPUTERBUDDY, ISLE OF CUMBRAE, SCOTLAND

Just a small point- what they are paid and what they earn are two different things!

Herbert, Norfolk, GB

Combined with the pensions these people get and their retirement age advantage this is an insult to the millions of pensioners in this Country.

David C Johnson, Farnham, Surrey

What annoys me most are the salaries being paid to those organising the Olympics. These are Private sporting events being run by some non accountable foreign committee, and our government seems to have bent over backwards to have them here and as a result agreed to pick up the tab by paying members of the so-called "Olympic Delivery Authority" huge salaries from public money, and in particular from Lottery money which was supposed to go to good causes. That's before we get to the cost of the actual facilities which will be used for a few weeks, after which, if Sydney is anything to go by, they will just slowly decay from lack of use.

Brian E, Beaconsfield, England

Surely this is nothing more than legalised corruption on a vast scale, showing nothing but contempt for those who actually earn.

Laxanada, Laxanada, Greece

Fat cats indeed! I dare say with an ear to ear Cheshire cat grin! In fact, I'm sure i could not work at all with a salary of these magnetudes, my laughter would be that uncontrollable...

Stu, Liverpool,

I think there needs to be a proper debate about the Public Sector by the Public to break down these ineffective monoplies " to give you an example,I live in the Yorkshire Region and during the last five years we have seen 4 Chief Excutives for Health at a Strategic Level leading the agenda for change!!!!!Namely Mr Mike Ramsden Chief Exc Leeds Health Authority until 2002,Mr Richard Jeavons West Yorkshire Health Authority Chief Exc until 2005,Mr Mike Farrar from 2005 until 2006 then Ms M Edwards the new Chief Exc Yorkshire&Humber SHA 2006 .Ms Edwards is the partner of Mr Mike Ramsden who we are told is to become the Chief Exc of the Association of PCTs?this appointment was only announced in October.We appear to have come a full circle.It was not surprising then when reporting on the Healthcare Declaration for the largest Teaching Trust in the Country , the new SHA stated they were unable to comment fully having no corporate knowledge of previous arrangements.Strategic Or What!!!!!!!!

Mary E Hoult , Leeds , Yorkshire

have been trying to get into the public sector for years, as the pay and conditions are superior.


As one of the last private sector businesses it appears, this is very worrying...

Austin Tassletine, Bristol, UK

Lets not forget why Gordon Brown permits 12.8% for top mandarins. Because, if my memory serves me right, MPs pay increases are linked to top mandarins increases. So how much did MPs get this time on their pay rises? 12.8% maybe??

R.Allely, Cardiff, Wales

Lets not forget the 20% on top of the salary that their pension plans effectively cost.

S. Ackthem, Sonoma Pass,

So while the lower grades deal with minimum wages and increased workload due to staff "efficiency savings," the bosses sip sangria and plan more ways to cut jobs and wages.....ooooooo except their own.

Hypocrites.

Robert, Ballymena, Ireland

I am know someone who earns 65k a year to investigate the learning culture of schools, as a freelance consultant. I doubt the person appears as an employee on the audit, but as an expense.

Another person earns £300/d as a freelance clerk, who is security cleared. I have been trying to get into the public sector for years, as the pay and conditions are superior. The cases I mentioned do not work more than 37 hours a week.
Its a gravy train and one I seem to be missing out on!

darren, london, UK

Ordinary employees in the public sector are about to take a pay cut in real terms this year, while the rich workers just keep raking it in. There is simply no justification for this disparity. Why are British unions not up in arms about this?
As for the argument that the public sector must compete with the private sector in attracting the most able, this would suggest that top cabinet positions should have the same salaries as the leaders of companies such as BP, Shell etc., which of course they don't and won't. So let's not be dazzled by the overpaids' smoke and mirrors: they are being greedy. And it is up to politicians and the unions to stop them.

jimbo, Oslo, Norway

Is this really a credible point?

Of course senior managers in the public sector get paid a lot of money - their employers are competing with the private sector and with one another. I am middle-ranking and see how hard and for how long many of these very able people work - and the kind of responsibility they take on - so please can we grow up and stop endlessly moaning on about the public sector.

Jimmy, London, UK

Everyone i speak to who has inside knowledge of the public sector state it's a big fat gravy train. I even know someone who's merely an IT project manager for the Westminster council earning over £1000 per day! She even agrees that she couldn't find a private sector job paying half that. I really resent contributing to these overpaid professional amateurs, but what can one do?

James, London,

Despite all the critics of Margaret Thatcher, she took a huge cut in her salary voluntarily, whilst performing to a high standard. I don't remember all these fianancial disasters, and the huge waste of public money which seem to engulf this administration weekly. All her 'initiatives' were designed to save the nation and the taxpayers funds, whilst the half baked and ill thought out 'initiatives' of this governement are self serving and ego boosting and I believe will ultimately end in disaster if we don't get rid of them as soon as possible.

Diddly Do, Liverpool,

Increased National insurance, tax on pension funds, vat on domestic fuel, fuel escalator duty, increased road tax, landfill tax, mineral extraction tax, aeroplane flight tax, congestion charging, inheritance tax on family homes, insurance premium tax, .- the list just goes on an on and all coursesy of the Iron Chancellor now Prime Minister.

And that is on the taxes we know about.

Other stealth taxes previously hidden from view could include Gordon Brown's £22 billion pound licence levy on mobile phone companies where to recover the tax the government conspired with business to allow them to overcharge subscribers for the cost of roaming calls.

But where is all this money going - yes as this article shows it is all about big government,a bloated state sector, and ever increasing surveilance.

Yes - sqeeze them till the pips squeak .

W Hutchison, Luss, Scotland

try NHS to know how bad the top bosses earn.

Genco Abbandando, Naples,

I write as a midwife with an extended role (which means I now do neonatal examinations that only used to be performed by GPs or paediatricians), I am on call 24/7 unless I am on leave and love my job I wouldn't want to do anything else ever but find this continued Government lunacy a bitter pill to swallow when my own pay rise this year has effectively been a pay cut, my mileage allowance doesn't reflect the ever rising cost of petrol, I have to drive my own car to work for my Trust, pay to park at my own Hospital even though I am deemed to be an 'essential user' and use a sonicaid (basic essential equipment for listening to fetal heart sounds) that had to be provided by a grant from the League of Friends - it's enough to put me at risk of becoming a very grumpy old woman.

Maria Mills Shaw, Wallington, Surrey

The government is stealing our taxes to give non-jobs to its mates with vastly over-inflated pay. It buys votes with a welfare system that funds the lifestyle of 6 million idle and 'sick'. It houses and pays for the uneducated, unemployable people from across the globe to come here and bleed us dry. Our taxes over the last ten years have been wasted by the government and yet people still vote for this party when they should be burning their effigies in the streets.
They are financially corrupt.
Are people so morally corrupted now they will vote this country down the socialist sewer to keep riding the freebie bandwaggon? You can bet they are and this government are well aware of it.
If you are an ex Tory voter that swallowed 'New' Labour crap and put your 'X' in their box then you are contemptible but it's never too late to repent for your utter stupidity!

David Thijm, Stourbridge, UK

The Public sector has many incompetent people earning weel above their actual worth - i know i work in the public sector myself.
However, the majority of workers, myself included earn well below the national average wage.. The cooks, cleaners and carers and the people who make all the local public services in your area tick along never get above inflation pay rises.
Mr Brown could do us all a favour and half the number of 'non jobs' created within his quango's. This may free up a bit of cash to give at least a cost of living increase to all the 'ordinary' workers in the public sector.
Reading articles like this one gives the general public the impression that all public sector workers are useless slackers, always underperforming or off sick, content to ride the local authourity gravy train.
Sadly this is true in some departments. I could save my department thousands if i was given the chance to get rid of some 'deadwood'. Many of my colleagues are hard working,dedicated people.

Ordinary Joe, Bolton,

The real question that needs to be asked is why so many functions of government have been devolved to these self-serving, wasteful and expensive quangos.

The reality is that in very many cases, quangos have replaced the (un)elected government as policy-makers.

For example, a few years ago, I discovered that several quangos were persuing a high profile line of work that Government Ministers had publicly rejected. When I questioned why these quangos were apparently doing the opposite of what Ministers intended, I was told it was an example of "practice running ahead of policy". Sure enough, the Government fell into line a year later.

MarkS, Leeds,

Its time we had an election, this is outrageous.

Sunita Day, northwood, middlesex

"Where is the money going?" - pretty obvious I would have thought - just like the quangoes - its megabucks for rich and trendy nu- Labour cronies- no value for the British public. What else do you expect from Gordon Brown?

Doug, Glasgow,

I agree with with the comment about selling Britain's gold reserves at an all time low and on top of that Gordon Brown announcing to the world that he was selling. Surely if he were as smart as he thinks he is, he would have listened to all the advisers who were against him selling.

Justin, London,

If arguments for remuneration are based on responsibility then surely nobody should be paid more than the PM himself. Flushing tax payers money down the toilet on these over paid under performing so called executives is a disgrace. If they argue they would get paid the same in the private sector than let them. The difference with the private sector is not only do they create the wealth that pay these seat warmers private sector executives also take responsibility for their organisations, contrast the CEO of Citigroup with the Commissioner of the Met. The executives at the post office should be ashamed considering the ammount of my mail that has gone missing over the last few months.

Bruce Mcaaw, Grantham,

That is pretty sickening when the average person working in Local Government, or for the Post Office, earns an absolute pittance. Gordon Brown - in his role as Chancellor and now PM - has persistently told workers to shut up and take what they are given. To the applause of CBI etc. Perhaps Brown looks back to his childhood and hums 'He made them high and lowly and ordered their estate.'
It is certainly time for a change. Whether that change will be for the better is a risk that (after he has shown how rudderless and morally shapeshifting he is) most are now willing to take. I, for one, cannot wait for Brown to feel the steel toe cap of the working classes - right up his made to measure suited behind.

Wage Slave, London,

How can anyone from the Cabinet Office or the Ministry of Defence possibly be on the list when these lilly liveried pen pushers are cost cutting and sending our boys to fight in the front line without proper equipment. Name them so that they can be held up to public ridicule. This is an absolute disgrace.

D Case, Newquay,

I have recently had the pleasure of working alongside those local government workers on pay under 30k and I can tell you their dedication to their cause is commendable and they DO work their asses off. That their so called superiors on 20 times more dont know the meaning of work is simply infuriating and incomprehensible.

andrea neal, Doncaster, S Yorkshire

We can't draw meaningful comparisons between private and public sector senior level pay because both are equally bad. Public sector senior pay is unjustified, easpecially for mediocre or failing performance, but exactly to same happens in the private sector - generous payoffs for failure. On rememberance sunday of all days we should remember the old adage from WWI, 'lions led by donkeys'. We are back there again, this time in peacetime, having allowed the mediocre and inept to lead and control us - from Downing Street downwards.

Clint, Staffs, UK

“It’s all very well increasing top pay in the public sector but it is difficult to see what we are getting for the money... you get loyalty to satan...thats what you get...!!!

Hugh E Torrance, London, England

It's probably the so-called watchdog bodies which are the most annoying. They know they only have to do the very minimum to get their salary each month. Writing an acknowledgement letter is about as good as they get.

That sector doesn't work, it's for people that don't want to achieve. The answer being - if you can't beat them, join them.

Gordon Brown, Westminster,

It doesn't matter how badly these people perform, or whether they're value for money, the important thing is that their pay should reflect pay in the private sector, if we are to attract and retain these talentless (apart from boosting their salaries and perks) onanists. Who else would be prepared to suffer the vicissitudes of life in the public sector, with its implied lack of cachet amongst the elevated social circles these people inhabit?

Bill Q, Derby,

You expect Gordon Brown,who sold 60% of Britain's gold reserves near the exact low,who has presided over the disaster of the Tax Credits scheme,and who has himself earned millions from the public purse to give a damn! I think not!

Bilbo Bear, Epping,

No surprises here then.
I had an interesting exchange of views with ofcom some years ago when I accused them of being a toothless watchdog after they had proved to be utterly useless in a dispute which I was having with BT. An aggrieved correspondent wrote back to me to protest. He didn't seem to understand that he should have actually taken some action and not written me a fatuous and patronising letter. He is probably one of their senior executives now lol
Seriously, the thing is that these appointments seem to be based on the haphazard "jobs for the boys" principle. If our businesses were thus run, they would surely swiftly shut up shop!
I don't know what the answer is. Governments appoint turkeys but we can't do anything about it....or can we?

grindles, London, england

How can these salaries be justified. How is it possible for a Labour government to sanction them? How can Gordon Brown call for pay restraint for the lowest paid and give incredulous pay rises to these Quango bosses who don't seem to be accountable to anyone.

Calling this a disgrace would be a gross understatement.

John Goh, Welwyn Garden City, UK

In many, if not all cases, shoud not the word "earn" be replaced by "get"?

D.L> Stephens, York, England