Martin's resignation: a necessary first step

THX1138

Scapegoat!

Baghdad Blue

Unwept, unhonoured and unsung.

Liz Brown

If, as reported gorbals Mick is going immediately surely now is the time to have that much needed General Election...............

Jeremy

"And I suspect David Cameron will now regret that his name isn't on that list."

To be fair to Dave, he is the leader of the Conservative Party - which is altogether a bigger nd more important thing than being the leader of the Liberal Democrats. He is under a greater obligation to respect the constitutional niceties in his public statements than, perhaps, Nick Clegg is. And also, I dare say that Cameron does not want to set up trouble for any future Tory Speaker by speaking too openly or too damningly about this one whilst he is still in place. Socialists, like elephants, have long (and in the latter case particularly rancorous) memories.

"Michael Martin is set to resign. Or, rather, he's been pushed. If this was entirely his decision, then I think he'd probably have mentioned it before the House yesterday."

I suspect - as do many others - that there has been collusion between this Speaker and the Labour government all along. And this is simply the latest example (and possibly one of the last examples) of it.

"There are still plenty of bad apples in the orchard of Parliament, and they need dealing with swiftly and unequivocally. Yes, that requires changes to the rules, but it also means contrition on the part of out parliamentarians, as well as entire culture shift."

What it means - in the medium to long term - is a General Election. Brown will try to hang on for as long as possible because he knows that to go to the polls now would mean electoral suicide for the Labour Party. He will continue to do all he can to avoid either by-elections or a General Election at least until Labour have recovered in the polls. The Labour Party as a whole understand this, which means there could even be yet another change in Labour leader without a General Election being called.

Susan Hill

GENERAL ELECTION NOW NOW NOW... but how sad that he couldn`t see that to do the honourable thing and resign at least a week ago would have given him back at least a little dignity.

cyberdoyle

stephen fry for speaker gets my vote

JONNY

'And I suspect David Cameron will now regret that his name isn't on that list.'

I doubt that.
If Cameron had committed himself the way you suggest, it would have heavily politicized the matter - Tory V Labour.
There are subtler and more effecctive ways than Clegg's rather immature antics to skin a cat. Or a Speaker.

Mills

Could you explain why both you and James Forsyth think it would have been so good for DC to have been associated with the campaign to have the Speaker removed? It seems to me that:

1) While Martin was in charge, he was absolutely awful and annoyed lots of people, but when he goes, he will cut quite a sympathetic figure so there is at least the possibility that those visibly responsible for getting rid of him will appear cruel (cf Maggie)

2) (More importantly) DC wants to be PM one day and he can make the point that he will not attempt to squash Parliament in the same way as Blair and Brown did far more credibly for having upheld the consitutional tradition that the choice of the Speaker is a matter for the Commons as a whole, and should not be the subject of deals between party leaders and whips (even if it is closer to the reality).

Ken

Stephen Fry a self-confessed criminal for Speaker? I thought that was what the fight has been about!

Ian C

Cameron explained his not calling for Mickey's head very well this morning on Breakfast TV.

This whole thing has had just one winner and that has been him. Now we need a second winner - the rest of us with a very necessary General Election.

John Rattray

cyberdoyle,
sorry but he saw nothing wrong with the expenses scandal so he'd almost be more of the same.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8045869.stm

alex

Now we need Ann Widdecombe for Speaker to sort out the mess over the next year, before the general election.

The Preston Park Panther

Graham Norton for Speaker, then.

macumazan

Why aren't the police questioning any of the parliamentarians? The humble British bobby ought to have an "Allo allo allo" session with the Speaker and God knows how many others. A simple statement that the Member for So and so is helping the police with their investigations would concentrate the minds of MPs wonderfully and remove a good number of snouts from the trough for a while. Actual terms of imprisonment for fraud might keep them out for a good deal longer.

Denis Cooper

A necessary, but very far from sufficient, first step.

What would make a huge difference is this: if the new Speaker included a passage like this in his inaugural address to the House:

"It is not my place, as Speaker, to propose a motion to amend the Standing Orders of this House.

However, it is my settled view that Honourable Members cannot possibly comply with their Code of Conduct, under which they have a duty to the country as a whole, and a special duty to their constituents who sent them to this place, if the leaders of their political parties persist in the practice of "whipping" them through the lobbies.

The public, the British people who are said to be represented in this House, have grown weary of seeing their servants, their elected representatives, treated as the servants of their respective political parties.

I shall therefore invite the leaders of those parties to join me in a special conference, to discuss how the Standing Orders of this House might be amended, to bring this practice to an end."

But that is unlikely to happen, because the chances are that the new Speaker will be a Labour party hack; and the chances are that after the next general election his successor will be a Tory party hack; and neither Brown nor Cameron (nor Clegg) will ever, in a million years, willingly accept that MPs belong to their constituents, not to them as party leaders.

The party system will be the death of democracy in this country, unless all three of the main political parties are smashed and their controlling cabals are disempowered.

Either they have the power, or we do; it's as simple as that.

Feste

Martin's resignation is necessary but not sufficient. We need a general election no later than this autumn to elect a fresh parliament with a fresh mandate.

Verity

Stephen Fry, that squishy lump of overweening self-regard. As he has something, as in reams, to say about everything, MPs would never get word in edgewise. On reflection, this may not be a bad thing as no new legislation could get debated.

Hmmm.

Herbert Thornton

Peter Hoskins says - "Hopefully, now, this Parliamentary democracy will get .... a Speaker it deserves."

Is that slightly tongue in cheek? It seems to me that in many ways, Speaker Martin has been exactly what it deserves....