The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority was supposed to be the answer to the problem of perceived snouts being in a proverbial trough. It was meant to take the issue of MPs' pay by the thorns and sort it out for them.

But when it recommended an 11 per cent pay rise, taking their salary to three times the national average, many thought it had taken leave of its senses.

Technically, as the electorate, these MPs work for us. But there's no real contract of employment setting out what we can reasonably expect them to do.

It's generally taken that whoever wins an election, following a series of pledges on the campaign trail, has the moral authority of the people.

Parliament operated a system of extremely generous expenses for years and it was only once the details of what was being claimed – bath plugs, moats and pornographic movies to name but a few – emerged that people really started to decide something had to be done.

Enter IPSA, which thinks that by beefing up their basic pay it can cut MPs' generous pension funds and the golden goodbyes they get if they lose their seats.

Most MPs sound very noble about the whole thing. Halesowen and Rowley Regis Tory James Morris says they shouldn't get a pay rise until the people they represent get one too. Wolverhampton North East's Emma Reynolds says they shouldn't be treated any differently to public sector workers.

As Stafford's Jeremy Lefroy points out, MPs are between a rock and a hard place.

"If we are involved in setting our pay everybody screams and now that it is independently set after the expenses scandal, there is nothing we can do," says Mr Lefroy.

David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg don't want MPs to get paid more and are trying to get IPSA to change its mind. If they fail it undermines a basic part of Britain's constitution – that Parliament is sovereign. If they succeed, IPSA may as well drop the 'I' from its acronym. And we just end up back we started.

Austin's back in the saddle after bike accident

Ian Austin suffered bruising and was knocked unconscious after coming off his bicycle this week.

The Dudley North MP is the co-chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Cycling Group and was riding in Kingswinford when his accident happened. He has no memory of the event and has no idea what caused it.

A passer-by helped him up and called an ambulance when, as Mr Austin says, he could not give a 'coherent' answer to any of her questions.

I could make a cruel joke there about politicians being evasive but Mr Austin's always been very good on that front so it wouldn't apply.

And now he's all right he isn't averse to having a bit of a laugh at his own expense.

After praising the staff at Russell's Hall Hospital, he says that the nurse who dealt with him in A&E was asking him what day and year it was, which he wasn't able to answer.

She then asked him what he did for a living. "She thought I was really delusional when I claimed to be an MP," he says.