The expenses scandal again

[wellinghall]

[Poll #1401881]

Comments

[sally_maria]

I think he should resign, but if he doesn't, I can't think of a way of removing him that wouldn't set a dreadful precedent for the future. But then I'm a dedicated traditionalist.

[adaese.livejournal.com]

Surely the *traditional* way of getting rid of no-longer-wanted Speakers is to send them to the Tower?

[sally_maria]

Depends how far back you go, I suspect - but I fully support it as a final resort.

Might put off the tourists though - don't want to lose all that useful foreign exchange. :-)

[gramarye1971]

If you could make him part of the tour, you might bring in even more revenue. Especially if tourists are allowed to throw rotting vegetables and dead cats (available for a small fee, or bring your own) at him on alternate Tuesdays and Thursdays.

[sally_maria]

Might at least get a few more British visitors to our great heritage. ;-)

I'm sure there are stocks all over the country that are going to waste, and could be put to better use.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Has someone been reading 1066 And All That, by any chance? ;-)

[sally_maria]

All the time...

You missed the Friday night meal at the AGM where I was quoting significant chunks to people - I can't remember when I first read it, but it was in my early teens at the latest, and large sections of it still linger in my memory. So when I found that somebody had done a load of icons, I had to snurch the whole lot, though I don't have all of them uploaded.

[gramarye1971]

The only possible course of action I can imagine, if he doesn't resign and can't be sacked by the House through any particular constitutional channels, is for someone to do the semi-unthinkable and actually try to turf him out at Glasgow North East in the next General Election. The SNP opposed him in 2001 and 2005, even if the Tories and Lib Dems didn't.

It's an extremely long shot, and it doesn't solve the immediate problem, but it's the only vaguely constitutional approach I can think of.

[lil-shepherd.livejournal.com]

I understand the Conservative party believes that they can force him out if they win the next election. This is why they don't want to force him to resign right now - they would prefer to have a majority in the Commons to allow them to choose the person they want rather than get another person picked by Labour. I have no idea how, under the Parliamentary rules, they will do this, but this situation has been much discussed on Radio 4 without anyone suggesting the Speaker could hang on in these circumstances.

[camillofan.livejournal.com]

I voted no, undoubtedly proving that I'll never understand British politics.

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

I said yes and yes. In principle, because I am also not sure how/if he can be sacked in practice and don't know enough about it to say.

I got 2 (!) BNP leaflets through the door the other day. They made me feel physically ill while reading them. I predict they will do well this time around. They have been very clever at combining their usual rhetoric with stuff about the current shenanigans, which could seem benign, and even right, to a lot of people at first glance (which is all the glance a lot of people give to such matters). Very clever.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I remember my first encounter with the BNP (I think; some such group, anyway), in my first year at Uni. They had a soapbox in town; their speech was really very disturbing. I can still remember, over a gap of 25 years, how I felt.

Orwell was prescient

[jhgowen.livejournal.com]

So much for "An end to Tory Sleaze".

After 12 years of Labour government, we are the animals standing outside the farmhouse looking from man to pig, and pig to man, and being hardly able to tell the difference.

Re: Orwell was prescient

[alitalf.livejournal.com]

He reckoned he oculd see the beginning even then, I am sure.

Re: Orwell was prescient

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

He does seem to have displayed foresight in other books.

[lalwendeboggart.livejournal.com]

Is he any worse than any of the others right now? Maybe the Queen should simply dissolve this Parliament and we should start again?

And on a random note - is that Haddon Hall in your avatar?

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

It is indeed - well spotted! (Can you tell what this one is, though?)

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

I think I know but I won't give it away :)

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

You're probably right :-)

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

He's a scapegoat- pure and simple. MPs are frantically trying to blame him in the hope that they will deflect some of the bad publicity away from themselves and onto him. Yes, he probably should have done more, but the fact is that even if he had wanted to there was simply not the political will to do so.

Sacking him would be a very verya dangerous precedent indeed.

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

I think the objection is the completely objectionable way in which he treated 2 MPs when they raised perfectly reasonable points about the expenses stuff. I saw one of those incidents on the television and wasn't impressed. From what I can gather there is a feeling that he has done this many times before, but less noticeably so. Maybe there is an element of scapegoat in this as well, but that's not the only/main reason as far as I can tell.

[helflaed.livejournal.com]

Oh don't get me wrong- he isn't blameless by any stretch of the imagination. But I do worry about the dangerous precedent being created and that the campaign against him is a smokescreen designed to divert attention away from others involved in the expenses row.

[bunn.livejournal.com]

I've just been enjoying suggestions for alternative speakers for the house of commons on the radio.

My favorites were:
1) Brian Blessed
2) Zippy from Rainbow
3) Have a new guest speaker every week, like Have I got News For you*

*the advantage of this suggestion of course is that it might eventually be Rolf Harris, and we would see a packed house united by singing 'Two Little Boys'.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Oh, marvellous!

[didiusjulianus.livejournal.com]

Yes any of those would be fine by me. RH would be excellent. I don't think the speaker should be an MP anyway. Because how can s/he be impartial if s/he is from one party, and how can s/he represent his/her constituents properly if s/he doesn't engage in all the normal argy bargy?

[philmophlegm.livejournal.com]

Zippy would be a disaster in the role. The reason Martin had to resign was because he had lost the respect of the House. Nobody ever respected Zippy - not Geoffrey, not Rod, Jane or Freddy, not Bungle, not even George. And anyway, what would MPs address him as? Not Mister or Madam Speaker - as far as I can tell, Zippy is a hermaphrodite (as opposed to George, who is clearly homosexual).

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

"Speakers sing before they die, 'tis said; 'twere no bad thing
Should certain speakers die before they sing."

[thecatsamuel.livejournal.com]

He's just announced he's going on June 21st. Clearly you have super powers and great influence on British politics.