Politics

[caddyman]

I see the Speaker of the House of Commons has decided to jump before he is pushed.

I have to say that I feel a little sorry for the chap. I realise that he is in charge of the system of payment and scrutiny of MPs’ expenses and such, but he didn’t design the system. While the Speaker’s Office could and should have done more to keep an eye on MPs’ expenses, the charges levelled against him by the House of Commons seems to boil down to ”You are to blame for our lack of morals and personal honour because you didn’t make it sufficiently difficult for us to cheat the system”.

I don’t see that he’s any more to blame than those who claimed irregular expenses. If he’s to go, they should go too.

Comments

[ellefurtle.livejournal.com]

While I think he a rather odious man I think this feels as you say, rather like 'quick, let's all blame him!' I should think many of them hate his working class background anyway and are only too pleased.

[pauln.livejournal.com]

Whilst I wholly agree with your last sentiment, I do think that Martin has to go.

Not because he's presided over a system that others have abused, but because his reaction to the growing fiasco has been to try to cover everybody's arses and focus on trying to pursue a leak inquiry.

[budgie-uk.livejournal.com]

I don't think he's going solely because of the Expenses row, but because MPs of all parties are taking the opportunity of get rid of a truly appalling Speaker.

This is just the excuse they're using.

[kt-peasant.livejournal.com]

I would feel so much more comfortable if the MPs etc involved just said 'Yeah, it's a cow, we milked it'. I'd far rather vote for someone who takes responsibility for their actions than someone who either genuinely isn't aware they've paid off their mortgage/spent £20k on furniture/whatever or seriously expects me to believe it was a mistake.

[mr-h-r-hughes.livejournal.com]

”You are to blame for our lack of morals and personal honour because you didn’t make it sufficiently difficult for us to cheat the system”.

You know I heard a banker use almost exactly those words the other day to justify their excesses 'we bleated and caused trouble, demanded deregulation by waving the the threat of lower economic growth at you and when you did *exactly* what we requested we robbed you blind - what did you exepect, you knew we were vipers when you got into bed with us'.

[jfs.livejournal.com]

Largely, I agree with this. The man's been a bully in the chair, especially when compared to his predecessor, Betty Boothroyd.

The fact that he tried to use a point of order to stifle the motion of no confidence in him was the last straw.

Having said that, his undemocratic behaviour is separate to the expenses kurfuffle and should be treated as such.

[nyarbaggytep.livejournal.com]

I don't feel sorry for him at all, but I do have a lot of resonance with the italics.

[caddyman.livejournal.com]

I'm only sorry for him insofar as the rest seem to be hoping that by hanging him oput to dry they will somehow excuse their own behaviour.

[w00hoo.livejournal.com]

With any hope it will be the beginning of the toppling rather than the end of it.

He was definitely trying to make it harder to discover what was happening while apparently doing nothing to make it better. It would be nice to think that they will also fix the broken system, although whether politicians will really vote in a Speaker willing to do what needs to be done, let's just say I'm not holding my breath on that one.

When huge chunks of the system are broken and nobody can trust the people they end up being represented by, what are the options exactly?

[nyarbaggytep.livejournal.com]

Ahh, yeah, that makes sense

[mezzogiornouno.livejournal.com]

A broader point that doesn't appear to getting much oxygen is this: collectively, MP's expenses add up to a considerable sum. In the light of much of our legislation being produced and implemented from Brussels, does the team think taht the number of MP's in British politics is excessive, and capable of being reduced substantially? Do we any longer need 650 of them (ono)when they have increasimgly little impact on what happens in the UK today? It would have the added effect of reducing the number of claims which require scrutiny, and therefore the amount claimed.

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

I think he's been made a scapegoat. However, it has become clear in the last few months (not just over this issue, but over others too) that he does not know his job sufficiently well to be entrusted with it. I was very pleased to see him go.