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The salary thing is a Thatcherite red herring, yes.
What would improve MPs behaviour is effective regulation: a strict code of conduct and financial regulation, and a disciplinary body with active investigatory powers backed up with funding and claws.
Eejit-
What would improve MPs behaviour is effective regulation: a strict code of conduct and financial regulation, and a disciplinary body with active investigatory powers backed up with funding and claws.
Actual sanctions for breaking the rules. Instant dismissal for serious incidents. Warning for first offence, dismissal for second for less serious. Same as their staff.
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It's near-impossible to do that, because of the idea that Parliament has to regulate its own affairs to retain the concept of parliamentary sovereignty.
They could create a body to regulate their affairs (e.g. IPSA, Parliamentary Standards Committee) but there's no way you could stop them voting to change or amend them to make them less favourable to their friends.
So much of our system (in fact the entire doctrine of parliamentary sovereignty) relies on trust, which is why it's so important to elect the right people.
Stonehedge
tbc
Forgetting about MP salary for a moment, I'd quite like to see government ministers drug tested and security cleared (financial checks etc). Not because I necessarily think that people who take drugs or have dodgy finances can't be good at their jobs, its more about the principle that people leading government departments should be held to the same standards as their staff. See also accepting hospitality and using whatsapp for government business etc.