IN comparison with purring fat cats on fabulous salaries who lick the cream off their whiskers as they wonder whether to buy another Bugatti, most of us, I suspect, are stray toms with bulging ribs, grateful to pick up the odd fishbone.

I earn a fair salary but sometimes bounce my jaw off the floor when I hear what some lucky so-and-sos are on. I'm talking, for example, about the gross sums paid out to certain TV presenters and football players whose earnings, compared with nurses and firefighters are obscene. And about certain former football managers and ex-company bosses who received plump pay-off cheques for what amounted to failure. (Lie back and think of England and Northern Rock.) What does not shock me is that Bournemouth council's chief executive earns £121,505. Or that Poole's earns £112,242. Our own incomes may be just fractions of those figures but these council chiefs are responsible for authorities that employ thousands of people and require a competitive reward. Fair enough.

Two things, however, do surprise me. The first is that five officers at Dorset County Council earn in excess of £100,000.

And the second is that Bournemouth's chief executive saw her salary rise by 11.7 per cent and Poole's by 5.3 per cent, which are figures above inflation. Why?

But these things should be kept in proportion. After all, the highest paid public servant, the new chairman of Northern Rock, is reported to be raking in £90,000... a month. Why, even Prime Minister Gordon Brown only earns only £187,000.

Mind you, you have to wonder why the House of Commons is fighting so hard to stop the publication of MPs' expenses.

Could it let the fat cats out of the bag?