Bishops and stipends

Now here's something to cause me to get on a hobby horse: bishops of the Church of England may soon have to be paid for by their dioceses directly. We are told "At present, the commissioners pay £4 million a year in bishops’ stipends and £9.8 million in their office and working costs." Now some of us have been saying for years that the equalisation of stipends which means that all Church of England stipendiary clergy are paid roughly the same- should also apply to so-called 'senior clergy'. If a stipend is an amount paid to keep one from taking other work to support onself then what is the justification for the higher stipends of bishops and deans and archdeacons? Perhaps this possibility may concentrate minds and get dioceses thinking.

I've said a number of times that if [and it's such a big 'if' that a word hasn't been invented to modify 'if' sufficiently to say how miniscule I believe the chance to be] I were made a bishop I hope I would have the courage to eschew the 'top-up fees' that currently go with the post -you could employ another half clergy or more for the extra.

Then again doesn't all this throw into question just what we think Bishops ought to be doing?