I must take Hermann Schiavone to task for his comments and the way he tackled the MPs’ ill-timed honorarium rise (December 23).

He and others who argue and compare our MPs’ honorarium with that of other European MPs will be misleading and doing a great disservice to us Maltese, beside offending our intelligence for the simple reason they are not comparing like with like.

Ok, they are both MPs but that is where the comparison ends. As an example he mentioned the British MPs who, according to him, get in excess of €90,000, plus a generous package. Our MPs receive one-third of their opposite number. So? One thing Mr Schiavone failed to mention is the fact that in Britain the MPs are full-timers while ours aren’t. By suggesting the Maltese MPs’ honorarium is to be on par with that of British MPs, it stands to reason our Prime Minister is to get the same pay as his British counterpart and our Leader of the Opposition the same as Ed Miliband. And it would be only fair to include all the other sectors of employees. Surely, they are entitled the same wages as their counterparts in the UK. This does not hold any water for many different reasons.

Any adjustments to tally with that of British counterparts must take into consideration our wealth in general terms (where there is no comparison whatsoever) which is reflected in our GDP (gross domestic product), cost of living and standard of living, among other things.

Now everyone will agree that with our micro economy it would take us some time (if ever) to catch up with Britain and I do not see it happening at any time soon.

On the issue of how hard our MPs work and that a number of them choose not to take a day job to focus on their political commitments, making great sacrifices to serve their constituents, I ask, who does he think he is kidding? Many MPs do not even bother to attend parliamentary sessions, day after day. One of the reasons is that they hold some kind of a job or another. Everyone knows this! Unlike what Mr Schiavone would like us to believe, many MPs work very hard in their constituency only when the election is in full gear. At least, that’s the only time I get to see my MP and s/he asks for my vote! Of course, there are the exceptions who are ready to help and are well prepared and nearly never miss a sitting but it should not be like that in the highest institution of the land.