Bercow looks above the parapet

Bercow, the new speaker of the House of Commons, has noticed that people are pretty fed up with the £25 a day unreceipted subsistance allowance that went through on a nod and has decided to call for a meeting of the members estimate committee next week.

Already Nick Harvey is claiming the story of the allowance has been blown out of proportion and all this was agreed way back in March.

Strange how MPs have been managing to claim on this allowance, but none of them actually bothered to pipe up and mention that the subsistance allowance didn't require any receipts. Even stranger it wasn't until the story gathered pace today that Bercow noticed the problem.

Who said Politics in the UK couldn't become more odious?

read more “Bercow looks above the parapet”

The wasted 16 million pounds and the missing Minister

The investigation into the collapse of MG Rover in 2005, which resulted in the loss of 6,000 jobs at the plant was finally completed 4 years after its instigation a

Image via Wikipedia

t the cost of £16 million.

Just when it appeared that some questions would be answered about the Phoenix Four, the SFO were asked to investigate the collapse, leading to the report being suppressed.

As this is a fairly significant issue in the UK, it is right that the Government are called to explain their actions. But this being the UK, it really isn't as simple as that.

Due to the archaic structure of Government, Ministers can be and are appointed, who have not been elected to office. It is not possible to question unelected Government Ministers in the House of Commons. This may seem perfectly reasonable to the knuckle heads in Parliament, but it is not an acceptable position.

The more unfortunate aspect in this particular case, is that the Minister who can't be questioned is none other than Mandelson.

Mandelson, is the man who was ousted from Office twice due to irregularities in his conduct. Who the voters of Hartlepool threw out at a General Election, then reappeared as one of Blairs special appointment's as a European Commissioner and has now resurfaced under the Brown administration as the Minister of all he surveys.

To Mandelson and the Politico commentators, his re-emergence, is a source of great amusement. His appointment and reincarnation is not in the least amusing. This is a man who has an unquestionably murky past, who at one time was borrowing money off friends to support his lifestyle, but now seems to have vast tracts of wealth, while he has not held a position with a large enough income to explain his largess.

The continued lack of accountability by the Government, which in this case is explained away as 'oh well he is in "the other place"', which can't be seen by the myopic political pundits as anything more than, 'that is the way it is', is untenable.

We require an accountable Government which means Ministers must be open to questioning in the democratically elected chamber, by democratically elected MPs. Anything else is not acceptable. The obfuscation that these ministers can be called in for questioning by committees is not good enough. There are times and the MG Rover situation is one of them, when Ministers need to be questioned straight away.

The appointment by Brown of someone that the people of Hartlepool didn't think was fit to serve them, as an unaccountable Minister has brought the farcical situation whereby Ministers can't be questioned, to a head.

The UK has the facade of a democracy, but in reality, we have a largely unelected and unaccountable Government.

read more “The wasted 16 million pounds and the missing Minister”

Election of the Speaker of the House of commons

Members of Parliament just don't understand the Public mood and are today running a farcical election for a discredited role in the House of Commons.

The election of a new Speaker is an absolutely farcical situation, as the role of the Speaker needs reform not just a new face.

Amongst the urgently needed reforms of the role of the Speaker includes the function as the Chair of The Members Estimate Committee, which should not remain in the remit of the House of Commons. The Members Estate Committee considers matters relating to MPs’ pay and allowances on behalf of the House of Commons.

The front runners for the position include: John Bercow, A regular house flipper and a man who is a consultant to a Cayman Island registered business. One tax break after another, just the style of speaker we need; Sir Alan Beith, who together with his wife claimed £178 000 in second home allowances including a claim for a £5 457 kitchen. He also claimed just over £6 000 in food expenses between 2005 and 2008, what a breath of fresh air he would be; Margaret Beckett, claimed for almost £11,000 in gardening expenses, including £1,380 for plants, she said that a £600 claim in 2005, which was rejected by the fees office, had been 'a mistake', funnily enough she had made three similar claims between 2001 and 2003, sounds like just the decent, honest hardworking MP to head the Members Estate Committee we need.

Members of Parliament almost daily are managing to show complete contempt to the British Public, the farce of the election of a new Speaker being just the latest in a long line. The body politic becomes more remote and less relevant to the needs of the United Kingdom as each day passes.

read more “Election of the Speaker of the House of commons”

Did political parties forget there was an election?

In the run up to the recent Euro and local council elections, the apathy displayed by political parties was all too apparent.

No one canvassed at the door and only the Conservatiove Party bothered to post any information about the local election candidate through the door. The leaflet presented gave absolutely no contact information for the candidate. After numerous calls to the Conservative central office, the Local Party Office, which was shut, the local Conservative club and the office in the House of Commons of the local MP, I eventually received a call from the candidate.

I attempted to make contact with the prospective Liberal Democrat for the seat and although I managed to speak to the leader of the Liberal Democrats for the local council and elicited a promise of a returned call, I received nothing back at all.

The Euro elections fared no better, again no canvassing.

An information leaflet from the Green Party came with a telephone number. I called to ask a question and was assured I would be called back, of course I wasn't.

I spoke to UKIP, who also provided a telephone number on their leaflet, my question was met with a response that the policy in question wasn't actually currently formulated, but a working party was considering the issue. At least I received a reply, useless though it was.

The Conservative party leaflet contained no telephone number, but at least there was a number on the central party website. Once again a promise of a returned call resulted in nothing.

The Labour party leaflet provided an sms service, but no telephone number, scouring their central website gave no contact telephone number.

The liberal Democrats couldn't be bothered to send through a leaflet.

The Christian Democrats managed to get a leaflet through, but again there was no contact number.

That was the extent of the interest political parties had in obtaining my vote.

Until such time a politicians do more than pay lip service to communicating, I fail to see what and how they intend to 'engage' the general public.

For the record: I didn't vote and never have done. I do not support the UK Democratic system, which is neither Democratic nor representative.

read more “Did political parties forget there was an election?”