And about bloody time!

[dc]

Martin is going!



[ETA: Meanwhile Gordon Brown said no Labour MP who broke expenses rules would stand at the next election. — is that the most meaningless commitment ever, given that breaking the rules isn't exactly the issue?]

Comments

[hermi-nomi.livejournal.com]

I agree with the idea that the speaker has become the fall-guy, based on what I know (which isn't a lot.) Yet the issue doesn't concern blame. It goes deeper than that, yet MPs won't wan tto change a system that benefits them. It's all bluster. After all I thought expenses were for claims that helped you perform your job, not eg clean moats (how exactly does that aid an MP in his constituency, or in London??)

[tanngrisnir.livejournal.com]

I don't think I would agree he's the fall guy. He has at no stage aided transparency; when a journalist was trying to investigate MPs' expenses, he was one of the people who actively blocked her efforts (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/15/mps-expenses-heather-brooke-foi). After reading that, any thoughts I might have had he was being unfairly targeted vanished.

[hermi-nomi.livejournal.com]

Ah ha, but tis all a conspiracy dontcharknow?
Lets say, for the sake of conspiracy that I'm backing the speaker... If he is the guy who signs MPs expenses claims, and assuming that the MPs who make the claims like making claims, they are not exactly going to want to stop making them. So they are going to say to the speaker, 'don't reveal anything about our claims. If a dirty story should appear in the press we'll ensure you lose your job'

(I think Spitting Image had more of an effect on my young mind than I'd ever previously realised.)

[tanngrisnir.livejournal.com]

*snort*

But have you seen the footage of him slapping down MPs who were wanting transparency and change?