Corrosive cynicism about politicians makes theirs an impossible task, but holding remuneration down carries its own costs.
It is time for the Commons to stop telling us what it’s against and to show what it’s for, which ought to be: this deal.
There are some brilliant MPs, who go above and beyond. But the majority have hardly covered themselves in glory over Brexit.
If politicians will create a big, interventionist state, then voters will expect them to manage it on a full-time basis.
If an MP neglects his constituents then they can throw him out.
The palaver over MPs’ pay is a consequence of our collective unwillingness to decide what they are and what they should do.
We need more Parliamentarians capable of earning £1,333 per hour – not fewer.
And: Clegg – where is he? Simmonds – what’s he on? ISIS: they have no Islamic state and we should bomb them. Plus: The new peerages – on the whole, a mistake.
8pm Update: The BBC News Channel has just featured a clip of David Cameron speaking after the meeting, in which he said: "He [the Prime Minister] is wedded to a system where you pay MPs to turn up and do their job… it's completely untransparent and I don't think the British public will accept that." […]
David Cameron has put out a statement and done a round of TV interviews in response to Gordon Brown’s proposals on MPs’s allowances, which he announced through a YouTube video this morning. David Cameron’s basic point is that this is a “significant and very welcome U-turn” by Gordon Brown, since he had already made a […]
David Cameron called for an urgent meeting with Gordon Brown to discuss MPs' expenses at the last PMQs before the Easter recess. Gordon Brown prevaricated, suggesting that "to restore public confidence in the matter the Committee [o Standard in Public Life] will have to complete its review…" So it seems that the Prime Minister has […]
So reports the Daily Mail: "Senior Tory Caroline Spelman is set to keep her shadow cabinet job after a report into the "Nannygate" affair found her guilty only of inadvertent breaches of Commons rules. Parliamentary Standards Commissioner John Lyon was mildly critical of her but concluded there were "grey areas" on current rules, sources said." […]
1pm Update: I understand that at its meeting this morning, the Standards Committee was unable to come to a conclusion as to what decision to take over Caroline Spelman’s case. As such, I gather that the committee chairman, Sir George Young, intends using the next week to take soundings from among the committee with the […]
This comes from Ed Vaizey MP’s blog: "I am guessing the annual cost today [of a ministerial car] is at least £100,000 – that’s almost £10 million a year for ministers’ cars. I suspect it is much higher overall – most senior officials have them as well as the heads of the major quangos. It […]
90 per cent of the missives that come my way are from the same tiny number of electronic activists who engage with each and every call to action.