Monthly Archives: June 2009

I heard this morning that there is a Whips’ stitch up to ensure Margaret Beckett becomes Speaker. I have no idea what the Labour whips are doing, but as it is a secret ballot they will not succeed in making their MPs vote for someone they don’t want. I do know what the Conservative whips [...]

I am not surprised to hear that Ann Widdecombe is popular in the country for the job of Speaker. It just goes to show how large a role media image plays these days in people’s assessment. Ann has been on the media more than most of the candidates and is therefore “better known”. People have [...]

I am a traditionalist who thinks that the 5 day Test match is a great game. Like all cricket fans I can be engrossed by the struggle of ball against bat, when to the non cricket lover “nothing happens”. A long period of no or low scoring balls can be a fascinating contest. I can [...]

I attended one of the hustings meetings, and have had conversations with several of the candidates. I would like to hear some views of what you think of the runners. Some say the new Speaker should be without criticism on his or her expenses. That appears to be an unrealistic ambition, now that political opponents [...]

The heavily edited publication of expenses has done more damage to an institution under fire. Many people want an institution which does more, costs less, and is more open. We have discussed – and by a large majority agreed – on this site that Parliament needs to stand up against both the UK executive and [...]

Reform is much discussed. It comes up at meetings to hear the views of the candidates for Speaker. What emerges when listening to them is that the role of Speaker is quite limited to push through reform, all the time the governemnt controls a strong majority and wishes to impede reforms which alow Parliament to [...]

Today, finally, the Commons publishes the expense claims of its members. A few of us wanted this done a long time ago. The BBC this morning criticised the Commons for deleting the addresses and making it impossible to work out if someone had sold a property without paying capital gains tax. It is right that [...]