Sexton Blake
LE

Friday and Saturday nights in the Cowgate in Edinburgh in the 2000s the phrase of choice from the Home Counties, public school educated student was “I pay your wages”
Usually ended in a high pitched shreik before the end of the sentence was completed.
My missus (ex Met Copper) used to get that line ‘I pay your wages’.
Her and her oppo’s response was ‘yeah, and we pay your benefits’.