The Luckiest Man

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You may not like his politics or his outspoken views, but most people would agree that the dapper Nigel Farage, former leader of the UK Independence Party, is a charming and loveable rogue.

On polling day, the small plane in which Farage was a passenger crashed in a field in Oxfordshire when the banner it was towing got wrapped around the plane’s tail. He and the pilot sustained various injuries but yesterday Farage was released from hospital saying that he thought he was the luckiest man alive. Was he going to celebrate his survival in his usual ebullient way? No, he was going home to bed ‘for quite a long time’.

I’m glad he’s emerged unscathed but sad that he didn’t unseat the Speaker in the election. When he’s recovered we can look forward to some more of his scathing comments about the bureaucrats in the European Parliament. Though it was very rude of him to say it, and led to him losing ten day’s expense allowances, I’m still chuckling over his scathing comments to the President of the European Council who he said had the ‘charisma of a damp rag’ and the ‘appearance of low grade bank clerk’.

What a shame Farage didn’t unseat the Speaker. He would have livened up Parliament for sure!
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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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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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