IF WE'RE looking for alternative, non fossil fuel methods of generating energy, how about hitching a generator to the mass snorts of derision across Wales over the past week?

Wind power, inspired by the frankly laughable idea that an 18 per cent pay rise for Assembly Members can somehow be justified.

The latest justification is that it's not a pay rise, it's a promotion.

Don't these AMs work for us? Don't we get a say on whether or not they deserve a promotion?

I'm calling my boss now. Turns out a few of my friends think I deserve an 18 per cent a year pay rise, so he'll have to give it to me...won't he?

Ah, that's right. That's NOT how it works in the real world where most of us are lucky to get a pay rise of one per cent.

Last year, I wrote a column which criticised this ill thought out idea, which I hoped would have been re-evaluated by now.

Fat chance, it seems. No, the men in grey suits are to press on with this lunacy despite widespread condemnation from the very people who vote in AMs of whatever party.

They seem to have lost sight of the fact they work for us.

Strange how that rarified Cardiff Bay air seems to give some AMs and this remuneration board the inability to see what's coming.

Let me spell it out for you. Those AMs who take this increase will further erode the little respect our electorate has left for politicians.

Why vote when it seems they are all in it for themselves?

Why pay party subs when it seems they are all in it for themselves?

Particularly, why vote for those AMs who accept an obscene pay rise when this country is struggling and thousands are turning to food banks?

And for those who bleat it's all about the findings of an independent body and there's nothing they can do, yes, there is.

You can all get together and tell this body to re-think. You can refuse to accept this pay rise.

If AMs want a promotion, they should ask their bosses: us.

Let's have a referendum on the pay rise proposal, see what your bosses think of it in cold, hard facts at the ballot box.

Monmouth AM Nick Ramsay understands the public mood: "At 18 per cent (increase) it's impossible to justify to the public at a time when politicians are held in pretty low esteem and some public sector workers are getting just one per cent.

"My submission to the consultation included an alternative solution with a far more sensible salary increase paid for by scrapping the Assembly's additional office holder salaries. Critically this could have been cost-neutral and more acceptable to the taxpayer.

"I'm disappointed the panel rejected this. At the end of the day it's politicians like me who have to look hardworking constituents in the eye when most of them are completely baffled by all this and just want us to get on with the job we were elected to do."

The public will pay £800,000 a year more for AMs if the 18 per cent pay rise goes ahead.

Remuneration board chairman Sandy Blair said the increase reflects the fact that after the 2016 election, the National Assembly will be very different, gaining law-making, tax-setting and borrowing powers like those of the UK and Scottish parliaments.

He said: “It is the Remuneration Board’s duty to ensure that a package of financial support is in place which encourages the best people to put their names forward for the role of Assembly Member and that support is available so that elected Members to deliver their responsibilities effectively for the people of Wales.”

Pull the other one. It's a pay rise.

And as for the brightest and best argument, the banking sector has been trotting that stuff out for years. How's that been working for them?

Let's look at it a different way.

How are we going to ensure we attract politicians who care more for the public than their own pockets?

Politicians who are in it to ensure their communities are first in their list of priorities?

How's an 18 per cent pay rise going to do that?