Apparently it is about average for London http://www.london24.com/news/business/london_has_uk_s_highes... - London salaries are much higher than UK average.

This is probably skewed by finance and a small number of extremely well paid bankers, hedge fund traders etc.

Yes, see here: http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/article-2269520/Best-paid...

Some people seem dissapointed that developers are not being paid more than airline pilots: it's just not realistic outside of a boom economy (see: bay area).

Why is that not realistic? An airline pilot can only fly one plane at a time. No matter how much he/she trains there are severe physical limitations on the value they can create. Software engineers can easily write code that generates millions of dollars of ongoing value and scales infinitely.

It is when compared to other professions a GP (family doctor) earns on average well over £120k very few devs with say 10 years experience earn any where near that.

GPs in the UK earn an average of £103k if they're a partner in a practice or £54k to £81k if they work for a primary care trust - that is if they work directly for the NHS unlike many GPs who are self employed but contract their services to the NHS but who don't work for the NHS. [1]

They also have to go through a five or six year medical school and five years of post-graduate training along with profesional exams (MRCGP exams). They're also bit of an anomaly compared to other doctors in the UK - consultant salaries are between 75k and 100k according to the official pay bands [2]. The only way that most doctors can make serious money is by having a private practice along with the risks and costs that come with it (for point of reference, my other half is an obs and gynae surgeon and in that field the private insurance is £150k a year).

[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/9300823/Most-doctors-are-n... [2] http://www.nhscareers.nhs.uk/explore-by-career/doctors/pay-f...

And would the average engineer earn any where near that given the same amount of professional development/work experiance. And professional engineers often have to have indemnity insurance.

I bet the average Ceng doesn't earn anywhere near 100k.

And your forgetting that consultants often have a private practice on the side from thier NHS gig.