The Spectator’s Notes: In defence of Maria Miller

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_10_April_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman discuss Maria Miller’s resignation” startat=1057]

Listen

[/audioplayer]Maria Miller’s forced resignation is a disgrace. No iniquity was proved against her. Over her expenses, I suspect her motive was innocent: she was trying to work out childcare with her parents in a way compatible with the weird rules, rather than plotting larceny. The parliamentary committee probably understood the circumstances fairly. The press anger was confected because of our (justified) dislike of the post-Leveson Royal Charter. We keep complaining that MPs are ‘marking their own homework’, forgetting that this is exactly what we have done ourselves — incredibly indulgently — for all these years, whenever people have complained about our behaviour. Besides, it is constitutionally wrong for MPs not to mark their own homework. We elect them. If we insist on an unelected body ruling their affairs, we are undermining the authority we have conferred on them. The best system is that MPs should mark their own homework but 100 per cent in public. Then they preserve the power of representative democracy and we can work out what we think of them.

Some experts on the Scottish referendum assure me that negative campaigning works. Polling suggests, they say, that fear of the consequences of independence rather than deep feeling for the Union, will persuade people to vote No. Perhaps, but it is surely important that if people do have strong feelings they should be encouraged to show them. Otherwise their opponents will be emboldened. Good political arguments reach heart as well as head. My impression is that feeling for the Union runs high among all those young people in Scotland who want to remain part of the wider world. Shouldn’t they have a great youth concert or march or something that can get the pipes skirling?

One person who feels very strongly in favour of the Union is Bob Geldof.