Get On With It!

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So Gordon Brown has finally announced his resignation, and the country waits with bated breath to see which of the parties the Lib-Dems will get into bed with - and for how long such a relationship will last.

I suppose you can’t blame the Lib-Dems for trying to get the best deal for their party, but I do wish they’d speed things up. This interim period of ‘will they, won’t they’ is driving the nation crazy.

What I’d like to know is: was Gordon pushed, and do we really have to put up with him for another four months?

The one person that came out of yesterday’s political toing and froing with honour was David Cameron who offered Nick Clegg a referendum on proportional representation. Now we learn that Clegg could be dancing with Labour on Gordon Brown’s cynical promise of electoral reform legislation.

The Lib-Dems got a quarter of the votes; thus, three-quarters of the electorate don’t have views on electoral reform. Why then should we be subjected to legislation on it without first a referendum on the issue?
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Planet Zog!

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Sir Patrick Cormack, Tory MP for South Staffordshire, has suggested to the Committee on Standards in Public Life that MPs pay be doubled to more than £130,000 in return for scrapping their second home allowance.

Labour have condemned the MP as being ‘out of touch’, while the Lib Dem spokesman correctly observed that he ‘must be living on planet Zog’.

He got that right!
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Something For Everyone

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There’s an awful lot of tosh spouted in the media as a result of the win of Tory candidate Chloe Smith in the Norwich North by-election yesterday.

Most of the papers talk about a ‘blow’ to ‘Bronco’ Brown’s Labour Party. A ‘blow’? Hardly - was it not widely expected?

Brown (who wisely stayed away from the hustings) says the result was a ‘disappointment’, though his party takes comfort in coming second in the poll and not being relegated further. David Cameron talks about the result being a ‘historic victory’. The Liberals are happy to have maintained their position in third place, and UKIP are triumphant that they beat the Green Party into fourth place.

Considering the variants at place in this poll in which voters stayed away in their thousands - dissatisfaction with the present government, general unhappiness over the issue of MPs expenses (including those of the previous MP), the economic situation, Afghanistan and half a dozen other issues - the bi-election result was no surprise at all.

There was something for everyone in this poll! Including a very attractive new MP who is now the youngest in Parliament!
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Order! Order!

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Yesterday, the Home Secretary announced that the government has dropped plans to make ID cards compulsory for pilots and airside workers at Manchester and London City airports. Whoopee!

This announcement, like so many by this current government, was made through official press channels before being made to the House of Commons. This led the Shadow Immigration Minister to accuse the Home Secretary of a ‘flagrant breach’ of a ruling by the Speaker that ministerial announcements should first be made to the Commons.

You cannot argue with that, for it is right that ministerial announcements should first be made to the people who are supposed to represent us.

Given that the Tories were whispering that the new Speaker was a closet Labour supporter, it doesn’t seem that the government has given him any support.

Order! Order! Oh, please, let’s have some order!
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