Why high salaries fail to attract the best people for job

THERE has been much comment in the Press recently concerning the high (some would say excessive) sums to top executives in various fields.

The justification is always the same – “...salaries commensurate with the job... must attract the right people, etc”

Were the Rotherham lot the right people? Were the managers of the Mid Staffs NHS trust the right people? How about the bosses at Tesco? And those top civil servants who squandered millions on useless IT systems? And of course, that band of bankers led by the egregious Fred Goodwin.

It seems to me that to offer vast amounts attracts the wrong people. For instance, I want my MP to be motivated by a desire to serve the constituency and the general good of the country – not someone in the job because the money’s good.

From: Mr R Thomas, Leyburn.

IF the Government is looking for a respected individual to oversee an inquiry into child abuse, what about Professor Alexis Jay, who exposed the shocking scale of the Rotherham scandal? As the peer and human rights expert Lord Carlile said on national television as he ruled himself out of the job, there are some very capable people north of Watford. They’re also unconnected to the Establishment.

From: Andrew Suter, Station Road, Ampleforth, York.

I REFER to the historic sex abuse enquiry and the Chilcot inquiry about the infamous dodgy dossier and the decision 
leading up to going to war with Iraq.

It matters not that nobody appears to be able to agree on a chair for the abuse enquiry as given the state of affairs that surround the Chilcot inquiry if the report doesn’t suit the establishment it simply gets buried under a ton of excuses and legal challenges such is democracy in this United Kingdom.

The latest wheeze not to publish Chilcot is that it is now too near the General Election, and I presume will leave Labour looking in a less than favourable light than it would wish.

If these inquiries are independent then they should 
be published warts and all on a date set by the enquiry team itself.

Given it is now five long years since Chilcot started his work, it is reasonable to expect the historic abuse inquiry to be at the same point in the next electoral cycle and to disappear for the sake of political expediency.