Saturday 14 May 2011

The irrelevance of Parliament

An article in today's Daily Telegraph (another which does not appear available on-line) by Robert Winnett reports on the findings of the Speakers Advisory Council on Public Engagement. Established by John Bercow back in 2009, following the expenses debacle, the Advisory Council has just suggested (sadly not on-line)  that in order to make Parliament more relevant it should consider ideas such as 'dress-down Fridays' and 'take an MP to work',

click to enlarge, then click again, scroll to read

An editorial in the same newspaper maintains that Bercow shows an admirable commitment to winning back public confidence in Parliament, following the expenses scandal. If this is an example of an admirable commitment, then 'Little John' needs to be removed from the highchair he occupies in the kindergarten. Whether attendance is done 'booted and suited' or 'jeaned and 'T' shirted' matters not one iota, if the bodies attired are still, in the main, venal, self-centred and self-opinionated bigots. If Bercow and MPs really wish to make Parliament relevant to the British people, then they can do no better than reclaim the powers ceded to the European Union! It would also help to reclaim relevance in the public's perception were they to also ensure the requirement of their own personal and fiscal honesty.

In the recent debate on whether the reformed system of regulating MP's expenses requires yet further reform, Edward Leigh made a statement of the obvious:
"It is perfectly possible to devise a system that can command public confidence and result in a much lower cost to the taxpayer."
Yup, for what good they do - sack the damn lot!

Yet another change that is needed is the reversal of master and servant, the former being what MPs consider themselves. At the end of the day it may well be necessary to cull a few 'pour encourager les autres' in order to achieve the role reversal!

5 comments:

TomTom said...

It simply needs hundreds of people in each constituency to demand a surgery with their MP......on a regular basis.

"Reconnecting with the constituency base" can be very salutary for MPs next time the Whips Office has other ideas.

The simple fact is that Protestors need to Make The Base Work and drive policy and publicity about their MP so he fears for his seat

WitteringsfromWitney said...

TT: Yet another good suggestion from you! Now all we have to do is get bums OFF seats..........

microdave said...

"It simply needs hundreds of people in each constituency to demand a surgery with their MP"

"Taking an MP to work" would achieve much the same result. I doubt that much work would get done on the day, but I think the MP's would leave with a rather better idea of what their constituents thought of them...

Anonymous said...

It's clear that these politicians won't institute reform, given the choice.

It's therefore quite astonishing that UKIP didn't do better in the May 5th elections.

Why, oh why, do people continue to vote for these scoundrels? Don't they have enough proof already that politicians are in it for themselves?

WitteringsfromWitney said...

md: Buggered if I would take an MP to work - the shock of actually seeing what work is would probably kill him!

F: People are sheep and obviously have lost the brains with which they were born!

They believe what they are told by the BBC and the remainder of the news media - and we all know where their loyalties lie!