Monday 31 January 2011

Well, the 'sabbatical' lasted all of approximately ten minutes!

Thanks to Tim Aker, late of the Taxpayers Alliance and now of UKIP! He has re-started a blog, one that all would do well to blogroll - and from which I quote:
"Oona King, who lost her Commons seat in 2005, today takes her seat in the Upper Chamber and joins Lord Coe (defeated at the 1997 election), Lord Forsyth (defeated 1997), Lord Knight (defeated 2010), Lady Smith (defeated 2010), Baroness Kramer (defeated 2010) and – a case of multiple defeats – Shirley Williams (defeated for the last time in 1987). And Lord Taylor of Warwick (defeated 1992, found guilty of false accounting 2011). There are probably more, I’ve only just skimmed through the list of Peers. But do you see a pattern emerge?

How can anyone justify an MP losing their seat – the privilege to legislate the laws and regulations that govern our lives – and then accept their elevation to a different chamber where they can do exactly what they did beforehand, give or take. We voted them out. They should go, not be wrapped in ermine, given a title and keep their legislative powers.
"
In this post Tim Aker brings to the forefront a matter which, to my detriment, I had not considered. It is also unfortunate that Tim has pointed the political elite to another policy idea that they can then 'nick' from UKIP as was the case, for example, of a £xx,xxx threshold free of income tax - but I digress, again!

What Tim has done is to highlight yet another method by which the political elite continue to maintain their hold on the democratic process presently 'in being' in this country - and in so doing maintaining their denial of the people's right to a voice in the governance of this nation! I can but thank Tim for re-awakening my abhorrence of all for which the political elite connive to enact 'under our noses'!

May I please be granted the honour of placing the first noose around a politicians neck - if only to make this old man happy - when his/she is introduced to their 'personal' lamp post?

7 comments:

Tim Aker said...

Welcome back!

Tufty said...

Hear hear. Rejection should mean rejection.

The Gray Monk said...

As a Sabbatical, that one must be a record breaker.

The mess left by Blair and the Liebor Party of our 'Parliament' made up of Both Houses, needs to be sorted out. As I said in an earlier comment, let us have an elected Upper House and let it's members be Ennobled - but for heavens sake stop allowing the chamber to be stuffed with the governing party's cronies!

William said...

Instead of sabbaticals you should get a good nights sleep!

WitteringsfromWitney said...

TGM: Yup, reckon I have a world record then!

W: I do, believe me!

Andy Baxter said...

I posted this this morning as a copy of comments made in Tim AKers blog....but it seems to have disappeared since then....? reposting to see if it sticks...

Whilst I agree with your sentiment that the Current house of Lords is not perfect it is infinitely better than an elected chamber:

think about it for a moment: the House of Commons is peopled almost exclusively with oxbridge privileged educated 'wet behind the ears' self serving power hungry career politicians with no, absolutely no REAL life experience, consequently we have the dire mess we are drowning in because of this. The current chamber of the Lords is peopled with hereditray peers as well as many who are appointed but who have had careers in Law, medicine, industry, education, Politics, Union representation, business and a whole host of other REAL life experience:

their value while not perfect (could it ever be thus?) is that they bring a sense of real world critique and can stimulate public debate in a wider sense in the MSM and blogs (something that Parliament is supposed to do!) via blocking and delaying the executives desire for ever more power grabs....

an elected chamber or senate as you put it would create just another party apparatchik a set of pawns subject to party fear and favour under whips as the Commons are...a rubber stamping chamber to push through the executives voracious desire for ever more control over our lives.

no thank you it may not be perfect in its current state but at least it is on the whole relatively an independent body, that has the courage, experience and intellect to challenge the rushed ill thought legislation that the executive in the Commons tries to push through....

give me the Lords as they are anyday...for they are OUR last bastion of liberty in what Lord Hailsham called this ELECTIVE DICTATORSHIP

Tim Aker said...

Hi Andy, your comment did appear, I don't - yet - moderate them.