IT was just one question that was enough to irk our MPs this week - a simple one that involved £74,000 and the word ‘charity’.

Yet it was enough to bemuse, annoy and exasperate our parliamentarians, who acted like they’d been slapped in the face by a wet fish from Tesco when the calls were answered.

First of all there was Worcester’s Robin Walker, who started off the conversation about a possible MPs pay rise of 11 per cent by saying we’d “had this conversation several times”, which was true.

From there, it was the turn of Harriett Baldwin’s PR man Edward Davies, who wearily answered the phone with the words “I’m writing it” before I could even ask the question.

Talk about bleak Monday.

But things took a turn for the worse when I attempted to get in touch with Nigel Huddleston, who was selected as the Conservative’s parliamentary candidate for Mid-Worcestershire a couple of weeks back.

Peter Luff, the current MP for the area, fired off an email to yours truly suggesting it was “odd” that the first conversation I ever wanted to have with Nigel was about MPs pay.

Oh well.

After that gentle probing of my morals, good old Luffy also claimed a pay rise of 11 per cent in 2015 would still leave MPs “worse off than they were a decade ago” due to recent freezes.

And you thought they were getting a good deal!

But the best conversation of all took place with Wyre Forest MP Mark Garnier, who said yours truly “only ever gets in touch” when I had a so-called scandal.

“You never call me when it’s good news, it’s always some kind of ‘scandal’,” he hissed, before saying “the next time we speak, I hope it’s better news, like Kidderminster Harriers getting into the Premiership or something.”

The question which offended was so simple, so basic, and only really required a simple yes or no: would you be prepared to give this 11 per cent pay rise to charity.

It might be hypothetical, because this rise is subject to a “review” in 2015, and might well be scrapped due to the public outrage it has provoked.

But we feel it’s important.

Come to think of it, what’s more likely to happen any time soon - Kidderminster Harriers playing Premiership football or this lot collectively, unanimously admitting an 11 per cent pay rise might be a trifle generous?