Speakers & expenses
Oh dear – the ladies and gentlemen in our Houses of Parliament still don’t quite ‘get’ honesty, integrity, frankness and accountability, do they? Yes, MPs’ expenses have been put online, more than a year late, as the Times rightly points out, but with all or most of the other private details on the documents “redacted” or blacked-out. It seems they just can’t accept that they have to abide by the same rules and laws they want to subject us to if their profession is to command any respect amonst ordinary citizens – as one of the Times commenters points out, if they don’t want their private details sifted through, they shouldn’t apply for jobs in public life. Given that there is little or no explicit provision for any sort of division of citizens’ lives into public and private spheres in English law as it stands, politicians should not pretend to be surprised when they receive a taste of their own medicine – especially as they hold public offices to which extensive powers and responsibilities are attached.
The time has never been more right for a total overhaul of the Westminster system – again, I refer you to Douglas Carswell’s excellent blog and his book The Plan – and the choosing of a proactive, popular, able new Speaker is just the first step. Having watched the hustings on Monday, I was impressed by Margaret Beckett and Anne Widdecombe – the former made some good points regarding what the new Speaker’s priorities should be (though I suspect she won’t be the one to implement them), while the latter put forward a rather strong case for the election of an interim Speaker till the next General Election. To be honest, as long as they don’t choose John Bercow or Parmjit Dhanda (the one too mired in the expenses scandal, the other a little too keen on ‘empowering’ ethnic minorities, including creating exceptions fro them under UK law), I’ll be happy.
Leave a Reply