Committee overload
Peter Hoskin 3:16pm
We all know how bureaucratic and convoluted a lot of Parliamentary practice is, but this reminder from Heather Brooke of the bodies involved in reforming MPs' pay and expenses is still pretty astonishing:
This is particularly infuriating because many of the best and most transparent solutions – like publishing claims online, pretty much as they're made – are also the simplest and cheapest. It's also indicative of how the public are still being kept out of the process, as I blogged about here."Currently we have: the senior salaries review body (which makes recommendations on MPs' salaries and pensions); the committee on standards and privileges (appointed by the House of Commons to decide on complaints against individual MPs reported to them by the parliamentary commissioner for standards – currently John Lyon); the committee on standards in public life (which deals with complaints about unethical conduct among MPs – the current chair is Sir Christopher Kelly); the members allowances committee (made up of MPs who advise the members estimate committee on the rules surrounding allowances); the modernisation of the House of Commons select committee; the reform of the House of Commons committee (created to modernise the house in ways presumably more modern than the modernisation of House of Commons committee): and the Department of Resources (the Fees Office) – previously responsible for paying expense claims.To this we can now add Ipsa [the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority], a commissioner for parliamentary investigations, and a new Speaker's committee on Ipsa."
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Hysteria
December 11th, 2009 3:44pm Report this comment"the modernisation of the House of Commons select committee; the reform of the House of Commons committee (created to modernise the house in ways presumably more modern than the modernisation of House of Commons committee"
Love it ! what a shambles, or, as Terry Thomas might have put it
"They're a shower - a complete shower'....."
I am thinking ridicule and contempt is the only way forward as armed insurrection probably won't work
Wrinkley but Nice
December 11th, 2009 4:51pm Report this commentAnd this is just to oversee 600-odd MPs' salaries, expenses, and behaviour.
Multiply that tiny area of activity by the squillions of additional committees supervising other committees, supervising other ........ It's quangoes all the way down.
And *still* everything gets mismanaged and overspent.
Scrap the lot of them.
Matthew Oliver
December 11th, 2009 4:58pm Report this commentPeter
The lack of public involvement is exactly why Unlock Democracy has been calling for a Citizens Convention.
We have a Bill in Parliament right now which you can find our more about here. http://www.unlockdemocracy.org.uk/?page_id=2033
Senor Frizby
December 11th, 2009 5:02pm Report this commentWaste of space! People like keith Vaz popping up in everyone of them completely absorbed in the labyrinth of White(wash)hall commiteedom.
They should come out in the open and admit that it's all an elaborate Dada / anarchist art movement... gibber gibber..
Cogito Ergosum
December 11th, 2009 5:17pm Report this commentNo expense claim should be paid until it has been displayed for at least two weeks on a public website.
John Wright
December 11th, 2009 7:26pm Report this commentCogito Ergo Sum - excellent idea! At last an idea of some practical importance, rather than the verbal diaorrhea that so often appears here. The full glare of publicity is what rats dread most.
Chuck Unsworth
December 11th, 2009 8:44pm Report this comment@ Cogito Ergosum
But then what? Display by all means, however public overview in itself has had absolutely no impact on MPs so far - witness the latest tranche of revelations.
Nicholas
December 12th, 2009 8:42am Report this commentMatthew Oliver - a Citizens Convention of 100 "ordinary" people would probably be worse than the current 600 collective wastes of space. But soft, from your blurb a light in yonder dimness shines:-
"The selection would be “semi-random” as attempts would be made to ensure that the Convention represents all sections of society and all areas of the UK."
"Semi-random"? What the Hell is that? Just another tinkered with quango of lobbyists who want to meddle and interfere in other peoples lives? No thanks. I want LESS government not more and certainly not government by 100 X-Factor watching, weep-in-public morons whose main thoughts revolve around celeb gossip, their next new car and where they are going on holiday. And 100? You couldn't divide the diversity of Britain into 100 representative individuals without imitating the BBC and representing our nation with a collection of twenty-something white and ethnic trendy lefties.
No, want this country needs is revolution - actually counter-revolution - to restore what we have had stolen from us.
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