ALLOW me to play devil’s advocate for a moment, if you will.

There has been widespread outrage at the news that MPs have been awarded a 10 per cent salary increase, taking their annual wages from £67,000 to £74,000.

The reaction to it is partially justified. Yes, they are in the public sector, and they are being rewarded at a time when civil servants, nurses and council workers are subject to pay freezes.

Some have even suggested that the MPs – who didn’t actually decide for themselves that they should be given a pay rise – should give that 10 per cent to charity, or turn it down.

In what world are we living when we dictate what people should be doing with their own money? If you were to receive a pay rise, how would you respond if you were told you should donate that to charity? The reply would almost certainly end with “off”.

This follows on from the reaction to the Tube strike last week, where drivers’ wages are such a level that they have no right whatsoever to complain about their conditions. Well, they do.

And for MPs, when they can work 100 hours a week and travel between their constituencies and Westminster, many balancing a busy family life, it isn’t a walk in the park.

When there are chief executives of councils taking home more than £200,000 plus bonuses a year, paying an elected member of parliament a third of that is a fair deal. They, like MPs, are publicly funded. Where’s the outrage there?

McDonald’s store managers earn £29,000 a year. An MP earning more than twice that seems fine to me. They have to carry out their roles under great scrutiny, dealing with complex issues and working long hours. MPs, not McDonald’s managers.

I would argue that public sector workers should be remunerated in line with inflation. But while they deserve a pay rise, MPs do too. And there shouldn’t be anything wrong with that way of thinking.

The Northern Echo: iPhone

AN APPLE A DAY KEEPS THE BANKNOTES AWAY

SPEAKING of money, Apple launched their new way of paying for goods and services this week.

Apple Pay gives users of the fruit-emblazoned technology the opportunity to pay for items like coffees in Starbucks and even fish and chips using their iPhone or the Apple Watch.

While its success remains to be seen, it’s another nail in the coffin for coins and notes, which play less and less of a part in our daily life.

But progress is not quick enough. Contactless payment, whether it be on a mobile device or the ability to simply waft your bank card in the general direction of a till, is quicker and easier than fishing around to find cash.

However, not enough places are using it. Contactless payment should be everywhere. You can do it in London on their transport system, while the Tyne and Wear Metro has updated its systems to allow it now. But taxis and buses are still require you to hand coins over.

The Tyne Tunnel has a primitive system where you have to aim your exact change into a basket out of the side of the car. They don’t allow contactless payment, although you can pay for a fob that sits in the dashboard.

In a recent case, a driver had not topped his card up and didn’t have change, so attempted to pay by card. The operators of the tunnel insisted he paid a card fee to do so, so he refused and said he would return the next day with the correct money.

The police turned up on his door later that afternoon and demanded he settled the bill with the tunnel.

It would have been far easier had he been allowed to pay using 21st century methods. What point is there in technological advances if we’re not going to use them?

MY WEEK IN A TWEET