Ditch Martin - but don't forget about the other bad apples

David Bouvier

Perhaps Cameron wants him to step down at the next parliament, so that the next speaker is appointed by a freshly elected Conservative-majority house.

No new speaker without a general election.

Or if needs must, appoint a senior figure committed to stand down at the next election.

GS London

If the Oxford/Eton front bench call for the Speaker to go, they'll invite calls of class-warfare and prejudice, dure to Mr Martin's upbringing. They are wise to be cautious.

Vulture

It's ridiculous that MPs are waiting indefinitely for Kelly's report and Govt is paralysed. For God's sake, Lord Wilberforce produced his report that settled the devastating 1970s miners' strike in three days flat working alone by candlelight! How much longer does the useless Kelly need? : He should be given one week, maximum, to introduce his report, and MPs should nod it through nem con. Action is needed now.

Jeremy

Can you imagine the chapter headings in the history books?

How about:

2005-2009: The Rotten Parliament

Or even:

2005-2009: Parliament Against The People

George Laird

Dear All

Here is an example of New Labour's attitude to cleaning up the expenses scandal.

I found this while on the Scottish National Party website.

"The Prime Minister has been challenged to explain why the appointment of an SNP MP to the Members' Allowances Committee - the committee charged with cleaning up the Commons expenses system - was blocked by a senior Labour whip.

Perth and North Perthshire MP Pete Wishart has written to Gordon Brown after his nomination was blocked by the UK government. Mr Wishart was proposed as a replacement for Democratic Ulster Unionist (DUP) MP Nigel Dodds, whose role as Northern Ireland Finance Minister meant he would not have enough time to play a full role on what is set to be a busy committee.

The custom at Westminster is for the minority parties – the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the DUP – to act together to secure a fair share of committee appointments, however, a Labour whip refused to accept Mr Wishart’s nomination and insisted on a DUP MP instead.

Mr Wishart said:

“This committee is supposed to be about cleaning up Westminster, and yet Gordon Brown appears to be pulling the strings to exclude people who want real reform of the allowances system.

“The SNP is strongly committed to reforming the allowances and expenses system to the standard of the Scottish Parliament, and it is difficult to understand why we have been denied a place on this committee when asked to volunteer.

“It is no wonder Westminster is in such a mess when Labour cannot get beyond its narrow politics of grievance and control freakery. This committee must engage with all the parties represented in parliament.

“This situation calls into question Gordon Brown’s commitment to involve all parties in a desperately needed reform process.

“This is no time for another political stitch-up between the three London parties, and as wide a range of views should be considered as we look for a solution to this Westminster mess.

“Westminster should follow the open, transparent and reformed system operated in the Scottish Parliament, and that is exactly what the SNP would argue for.

"When the Scottish Parliament moved to total transparency, two things happened - the scandals and the embarrassments stopped because information was volunteered and, secondly, everybody behaved themselves because they knew it was going to be published every three months.

"This is easy - there's actually a working model of how to solve this issue in Scotland at the present moment and why doesn't Westminster just adopt it."

It is clear to me that Gordon Brown has to answer why people committed to reform are deliberately blocked from playing a full role in Westminister.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

Minnie Ovens

It seems that the real leaders of both parties are now comming to the fore.
Both Brown and Cameron seem to feel that this crisis is of such consequence that they can dawdle, possibly watching to see which way the wind blows.
But the public has shown extreme anger and this will extend to those who fiidle while Westminster burns.
Be warned both of you. You should have immediately seen that this was a massive moral and ethical crisis and you should have acted decisively.
You did not.
It may be argued that Cameron has been expediently cautiou, justifiably.
I hope the voters see it that way. I see it as a failure in character.

Moraymint

It's all turning into a pitiful mess.

So, this is what happens after 12 years of firstly veiled socialism followed by unreconstructed socialism all wrapped up in statism, with emasculated MPs at the soft centre filching taxpayers' cash.

And to think, we were once one of the finest and most respected nations on earth, home of the Mother of Parliaments.

We're going to have to work bloody hard to restore our credibility over the next 3 decades. And I don't think the Labour Party will have much of a role to play.

Fergus Pickering

Well, Moraymint, I don't know what you were doing in the 1970s. Throwing your toys out of your pram? Respected my arse. It was Maggie Thatcher, the great and the good, who made us respected. We're back to where we were.

Rhys Burriss

1] OPEN PRIMARIES NOW ! - ALL PARTIES

2] MPs' stipends to be reduced to #50,000 pa with zero second home allowance.

It can be solved fairly simply but with devastating effect on the fraudsters, the incompetents, the time-serving politicos et al.

1] Open primaries in ALL constituencies within the next two months whereby not only paid up party members but all members of the public prepared to sign a declaration that they ' broadly support' that party's ideals may participate in a genuine selection process at which individuals with at least 20 years experience of working in the real world can offer themselves.

Genuine 'Question Time' type debates could take place in town halls / schools / on local radio. A whole new breed of clean hands, idealistic - but crucially, experienced, women and men could be elected who would vastly improve the quality of both Parliament and Government.
The ludicrous business of teenagers and 20-somethings with connections being chosen as candidates must stop.[ Thank you Thamesmead Lab Party]

People who know what the struggle to put bread on the table is really about would be less likely to have the unjustified sense of entitlement which is how this has all arisen.

2]
Before the Open Primaries David Cameron and any other party Leader could declare that (if his party is elected) the future stipend of MPs is to be REDUCED to #50,000 p.a. in the light of the sacrifices the general taxpayer will have to make to correct past profligacy with public funds. Zero 2nd home allowance but any MP living further than a one and a half hour commute ( each way) from Westminster may claim ( against receipts) a maximum of #100 per night for hotel expenses when Parliament is sitting.

If that deters candidates who are looking to serve themselves rather than the public all to the good. It is far more than the average Londoner has to live on and in any event MPs can supplement with barristering; journalism; taking in washing if they are really hard up;

That's all we need for starters. A detailed manifesto would include abolition of the HRA ( without a pointless re-enactment as a 'British' R.A. - Parliament needs to grab back political decision making from judges whether British or European ) ; a three - strikes type law for sentencing and so on.

But if we had genuine open primaries as suggested above I would wager the candidates emerging would be a lot more intelligent, cost conscious and and sensible in terms of actually scrutinizing proposed legislation than we have had for 30 years.

Will The Spectator support this simple - but potentially very effective - proposition of 'OPEN PRIMARIES NOW!!!

hadrian

The refusal to involve an SNP member certainly has a stench of patisanship about it. I am no lover of the Scottish Parliament but at least its House is indeed in order when it comes to expenses. The predatory doings of too many our MPs requires swift retribution and purging. One trusts if it isn't properly done internally it will be done by massive tactical voting at the EU elections. That will kill two birds with one stone- EU bureaucratic venality and brazen lack of democracy, never mind transparency, and Westminster complacency. Frankly I have now joined those who think a General Election is urgently required for the Constitutional and economic state of our country. God help them if they don't excise that supreme claudhopper, M. Martin.
The prospect of them passing his Constituency on like some rotten borough and in hypocritical manner as an inheritance to his son makes one absolutely incandescent.

john miller

i must admit this is getting a tad boring.

Does no-one understand these people are not like us?

Regardless of the question, the answer is F*** you.

A vote of no confidence is required RIGHT NOW.

TomTom

Time to abolish the House of Commons and split the country into England-North and England-South each with their own Assembly bound by by an elected House of Lords as a Grand Council of Federation

Alex

Thing is, does Cameron want a better speaker?

Michael Martin, like Gordon Brown (Balls Smith, Darling et al), is a great vote winner for the Conservatives.

Keep him where he is for as long as possible, I say.

Steve.W

Bad apples? It's the whole orchard, including the House of Lords.

Verity

Steve W - the malicious, botched job that Blair made of destroying the HoL has to be revisited.

Life peerages were always a stupid idea. If they weren't deemed good enough to pass their title on, then they were rubbish to start with. They should either have been elevated to the nobility, or not.

As could have been easily predicted, they would be used by Labourites who found themselves elevated to a stratum they didn't understand, but resented anyway, to profit from the "title".

The practice should be stopped.

Let the lifers continue to bask in their "titles", but let them not be allowed anywhere inside the Lords.

The hereditaries were disinterested (a bit of a worry for a spiritual barra boy like Tony Blair, which is why he got his itchy, interfering fingers in it) and only turned up when a debate could profit from their expertise in the subject. Then had their lunch, or drinks and buggered off back to their piles. The amount of expertise and knowledge lodged in the hereditaries bank was immense.

The appointees are mainly chancers. They should be relieved of their posts and allowed to keep their comical titles as a special punishment. I can't remember what Peter Mandelson's is, but it's a pretentious hoot! It's a double, IIrc.

And who's the father of that 21-year old lump of lard - Georgina - to whom the voters failed to warm in what was supposed to be a safe seat. "Lord" something.

How they have devalued the title! Like everything else they have touched ... including our wonderful country.

Archie

Best post yet, Verity, and THAT'S saying something!