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Northern Ireland Assembly Members Bill [Lords]

It will certainly not be helpful. This business about there being only 24 hours in a day is absolutely right. It seems acceptable in the UK to have two casts of MPs and Members of the Legislative Assembly, while Ministers are on a very significant and disproportionate salary in comparison with that of the legislators. That is unhealthy and, human nature being what it is, it militates against principled resignations. At the time of the Wilson Government and before it, there were far more principled resignations. The disparity between the salaries of Ministers on the one hand and of MPs and MLAs on the other is unhealthy and it runs against principled resignations. I want to put that on the record.