I can see this is suffering a little thread creep...
I'm sure everyone can throw in examples of huge earners from various places.. however out of date I may be, I will take some convincing that LAME's are pulling in 100 grand from places such as kidlington, staverton or aberdeen. when I quit I was on £32K basic. Now I wouldn't consider getting out of bed for that. Sure with overtime I could make it up a bit, but there are easier ways to make better money for less time. Anyway, it was merely a very broad generalisation.
However, lets stick with the main point of the thread, which I think has been well covered by the men in the know. Thanks chaps