Value for money?

Last week I posted a piece on the Sec. of State for Work and Pensions announcement on the Financial Assistance Scheme. This was supposed to be good news. The scheme only gives those pensioners who have lost their pensions up to 90% and there is no provision for pensioners who are covered by the Pension Protection Fund who get 100% but frozen. I raise this again because the Sec of State in reply to a question on why it had not been paid earlier claimed he had to be sure it was good value for money from the public purse. Later that week it was revealed that MPs were planning to vote themselves a whopping 10% increase. Later the same week our Prime Minister was reported has being very upset by this move and instructing his whips to make sure it did not happen. Some of this seems a bit hypocritical to me. Are our MPs value for money? And why was dear Gordon not insisting that they and his ministers take a 10% drop to fall in line with the deal being offered to those poor pensioners who through no fault of their own have lost their pensions. I think the nasty party image is moving from the Tories. Bah Humbug