Disgraced?

The wife of the Speaker of the House of Commons appeared in the Evening Standard supposedly wearing just a sheet in front of a hotel window with the Palace of Westminster in the background.

Subsequently she told a BBC Radio 5 Live interviewer that she was ‘probably stupid to do it’. She also confessed that because she is married to the Speaker, ‘... whatever I do is put in the media and used to get at him’.

The office of the Speaker is an ancient one and ranks in the order of precedence above all non-royal individuals except the Prime Minister, the Lord Chancellor, the Lord President of the Council along with some religious leaders.

Is it just possible that the Speaker’s wife disgraced this ancient office? I’d say there is no contest.
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Traditions Upheld

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Despite the jokes about Ken Clarke’s normal attire, I for one was pleased to see him process into the Royal Courts of Justice yesterday dressed in ceremonial robes of wig, gown, stockings and silver-buckled shoes. It was good to see also that the new Solicitor General and Attorney General wore court wigs and gowns.

Now perhaps someone could could persuade the Speaker to follow suit (no pun intended) and restore the traditional ceremonial dress into the House of Commons.
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A Distraction

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Trying to concentrate on what Chancellor Alistair Darling had to say in the Commons this afternoon about his pre-Budget report, I was constantly distracted by Harriet Harman, Leader of the House, who was continually nodding at what he had to say.

It was like having your attention drawn to one of those irritating nodding model dogs that you sometimes see in the back of cars.

Whether or not Ms Harman actually agreed with what Darling had to say or whether this was some sort of front-bench tactic to distract the opposition seniors, I do not know.

But it was about as irritating and utterly meaningless as those wretched nodding dogs!
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Less Than Helpful?

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Despite what I say from time to time about the behaviour of some of our MPs, I am a firm supporter of Parliament and some of its privileges.

I believe that the Houses of Parliament are set aside in various ways from normal life. I’m not bothered about MPs cheap meals and some of their other perks of office, but I would exclude policemen from clod-hopping all over the place without a warrant or special approval.

In the case of their utterly fruitless and pointless search of the office of MP Damien Green in November of last year, they didn’t have a warrant but were given permission to search by the Serjeant At Arms, Jill Pay, who had not been long in her job.

Miss Pay has now apologised for giving permission for the MP’s office to be searched by police without first asking if they had a warrant. In her defence she said that she was put under considerable pressure by the police and was given to understand that she could not refuse their request.

Nonetheless, one cannot help thinking that some of Miss Pay’s seniors were less than helpful to her at the time!
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He’s Referring It

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Yesterday the Deputy Speaker interrupted a Conservative MP in the middle of a speech when he spotted the MP looking at a Blackberry-type device when reading out the text of a letter he was referring to.

MPs are allowed to check and send emails from electronic devices in the Commons chamber, and are allowed to give speeches from written notes. But it seems that the Deputy Speaker felt that reading from an electronic device during a speech was to be ‘discouraged’. He allowed the MP to continue but said he would refer to it, another way of saying he would think about it afterwards.

In one respect, I have sympathy with the Deputy Speaker for the proliferation of Blackberries and those mobile phones which are also mini computers are a nuisance and a distraction.

On the other hand, reading a letter from a Blackberry doesn’t seem any different from reading from the letter itself.
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Reason Enough?

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The first Speaker of the House of Commons to be removed in modern times, Michael Martin, has taken up his seat in the House of Lords as Lord Martin of Springburn.

If that isn’t a reason enough to remove all peers and replace them with a totally elected upper house, I don’t know what else is!
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Rushed And Piecemeal

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The Commons Justice Committee has said that the prime minister’s attempts to reform the constitution are being rushed through in a piecemeal way. They also said that elevating people to the Lords to serve as ministers may be damaging. The Committee recommended that major reforms, such as a written constitution or reform of the voting system, should be referred to a constitutional convention and be subject to a referendum.

This, remember, is a committee of MPs saying these things.

The public have been saying these things for some time, so the committee for once is in tune with public opinion. Including the criticism that a legally-binding code of conduct for MPs was dropped from the Parliamentary Standards Bill which received the Royal Assent last week.

Reform is certainly needed, but this government seems least likely to do it properly!
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