Incitement To Disobey…

Evening,

Well today has been fun hasn’t it!

Speaker Martin went to the Commons, all expected to resign with a semblance of grace and dignity.  That he did not.  What he did do was to go against the grain of MPs and the people of this country.  Questions must be asked what has he got left to do.  The integrity of the Speaker’s chair is at stake and yet we have seen scenes today which are truly without precedence. 

"We all know that it's the tradition the Speaker speaks to the whole house but I also want to say to the men and women of the United Kingdom that we have let you down very badly indeed and to the extent that I have contributed to that situation I'm profoundly sorry,"

Wise words, indeed.  But whether you like it or not – Parliament as a institution will not be able to start even recovering without a change in leadership.  A general election will only do something.  It will get rid, hopefully of those members who have had their figures caught in the pie, but a radical shift in the culture that Parliament works in, would have far more fundamental positives.

One prominent Conservative grandee suggested during the debate that the “condition of the house today is rather like the condition of the country at the time of the Norway debate”.  That is the sort of situation that Parliament is in right now.  What is topping Chairman Brown from cutting Martin loose and lead him to be fed to the wolves?

The speaker’s comments followed on Call Me Dave calling for the dissolution of Parliament ahead of a possible General Election, probably for early July.  More discerning for Chairman Brown, Cameron also urged the general public, including Labour and Lib Dem supporters, to join in and start their own petitions or write to local and national newspapers. "Through the power of our collective pressure, we can force Gordon Brown to act," he said. 

A sizeable majority of voters say Chairman Brown has handled the crisis over MPs' expenses badly and most believe David Cameron has dealt with it well, a Guardian/ICM poll reveals today.

Labour's showing is its worst in a Guardian/ICM poll since July 2008, and it is also the Tories' worst performance in the poll this year. But the findings demonstrate that most voters are still more concerned about the economy and other issues and regard the crisis besetting Westminster as a second-order issue.  How long will that last, not long I suspect…

And still it gets worse for Labour with reports tonight, saying that Labour’s Chief Whip’s own expenses are going to come under scrutiny in tomorrow’s Telegraph.  It has been Nick Brown’s own decisions to suspend those MPs who have been caught with their fingers in the till…

I’m off to watch 24.

Speak tomorrow.

Rob :(