Comments on: Parliament sidelined over the motor industry

By: number 6

number 6 — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 06:14:21 +0000

I would agree with the above posts, particulary “Parliament sidelined on everything.” I fear the Mother of Parliaments has simply become a talkng shop, while the real decisions are made behind closed doors in Brussels.

By: Acorn

Acorn — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 18:39:48 +0000

Your title for this post should have been “Parliament Sidelined on Everything”.

I won’t bother mentioning that we should separate the Executive from the Legislature again; oops, sorry.

By: Robert Eve

Robert Eve — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 17:05:33 +0000

I agree totally.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:48:54 +0000

I echo the other responses – why do we have the commissioner at all? In the same vein why are we being told what is happening by an unelected representative. This is not democracy.

By: mikestallard

mikestallard — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 16:45:48 +0000

I loved the remark about “synthetic anger” which the MP who was presenting the policy for the government used for the very effective and – yes – amusing Mr Clarke.
By sidelining parliament, the government is not exposing its ideas to scrutiny. This means that it is bound to make a series of mistakes as its ideas are not thought through. Lobbyists can only see one side of the problem and, it seems, lobbyists and the media are the people who initiate legislation nowadays. (EU stuff gets through on the nod, now, apparently, without proper scrutiny from the Lords).
The good news is that the EU is breaking up. France is in the middle of a series of strikes. Spain and Italy are on the point of serious trouble with rather racist overtones. Greece is verging on a basket case. Germany, which dictates the EU policy economically, is being utterly selfish and refusing to help. We are getting lots of Latvians, Lithuanians and Hungarians here in Wisbech now as work seekers.
I don’t think the EU will survive this crisis for more than a few years, and certainly not in its present shape.

By: number 6

number 6 — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:37:13 +0000

John,

We should get out of the EU, thus negating the need for any involvement from that remote, corrupt and undemocratic institution.

While we are sadly trapped within, you must know that once the EU issues its diktats it will never sully itself by negotiating with mere local parliaments. Yours is but to obey old chap, not to question

By: adam

adam — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:31:52 +0000

You would presume to tell a commissioner what should and should not be? Seems unlikely to happen to me.

By: Pete Chown

Pete Chown — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 11:14:43 +0000

“We need a system where the Commission has to send a senior representative to Parliament to defend and explain what they are doing.”

Perhaps what we really need is a self-governing, democratic Britain. Why do we let the Commission tell us what to do in our own country?