Friday 24 February 2012

Being unable to see the wood for the trees

Returning to the subject of John Bercow and following on from my preceding post, Politics Home is now reporting that Cameron 'backs' Bercow in calling for an end to a £400,000 contract for Commons fig trees. I notice that Bercow maintains that the public will think they were being "fleeced" and that MPs were living in "another universe". The BBC have picked up on this interview and their report quotes Bercow stating, on the subject of the party conference season and the long summer break: "I think a lot of our electorate think, given that the MPs finished in the latter part of July, why are they not back at their place of work undertaking their scrutiny, standing up for our interests, debating our concerns, in September?"


When exactly have Members of Parliament undertaken any scrutiny? When have Members of Parliament stood up for our interests? When have Members of Parliament debated our concerns? As for the public being "fleeced" and MPs living in "another universe", where has Bercow been for the last 40 years - in another universe?


Finally, does Cameron or Bercow actually, really "care a fig" - as long as the gravy train continues to roll?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

These fig trees are rented!!!

Pardon my French but why in the name of all that is holy would anybody rent a tee?

Why would you rent 12 trees on a contract, which if it ran for the lifespan of the rees would actually run into millions of pounds!! This stinks real bad. Sadly we only get to hear the tip of iceberg stories but even they are enough to warrant a revolution.

WitteringsfromWitney said...

Anon: Yup, it does indeed beggar belief - but look on the bright side. Seeing as we are paying for them, they will come in handy when we run out of lamp posts!

livescore said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

The BBC has reported this several times, but in no instance has it mentioned that the fig tree contract was made under the previous Labour government. I am sure the BBC is correct in their hope thast many (most) listeners will assume that the Tories are to blame. Bias by omission, again.

WitteringsfromWitney said...

Anon: Actually I don't care who was responsible for the damn trees. That the Tories have allowed the situation to continue speaks volumes!