Commons speaker quits
Tuesday 19th May 2009, 2:30PM BST.
House of Commons speaker Michael Martin today announced his resignation.
In a brief statement to MPs this afternoon, Mr Martin said he would step down on Sunday, June 21.
A new speaker will be chosen the following day.
Mr Martin has been heavily criticised over his handling of the ongoing Commons expenses scandal.
His resignation followed angry scenes in the Commons yesterday when MPs urged him to go.
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What a travesty that a man who personally claimed the 4th least expenses of any UK MP in 2007/8 has been used as a scapegoat by the rest of his colleagues to distract attention away from their own personal faux pas’
Unfortunately for Mr Martin, he turned out to be possibly not the best choice of speakers and has had to take control through some extraordinary parliamentary episodes. Despite this Mr Martin is well worthy of respect despite what a certain blue-rinsed column writer for the Shropshire Star will have you believe.
Shame on those who forced him out I say!
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To be quite honest every single MP should be forced to resigned and a general election held.
This farce of Westminster has gone on for too long and we need fresh faces/idea’s and people who we can trust.
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Serotonin said,
“Shame on those who forced him out I say”.
Well, all three parties had members lining up to force him out so “shame” must be on all of them. You appear to be defending the indefensible. The man should not have been put in that position to start with, he was a disgrace.
(a) This is the man who was in charge of the Commons Commission, that select group of politicians who, behind closed doors decided on the many little foibles that allowed MPs to get away with blue murder.
(b) this was the man who was in direct control of the Fees Office which had the power of allowing or vetoing all the shabby claims of MPs expenses. He dictated the regime that now allow MPs to say “in was within the rules”.
(c) this was the man – who, purely on his own authority, expended £200,000 of taxpayers money in appealing against the Courts decision to make MPs amenable to The Freedom of Information Act after he fought against it – wanting all MPs information exempted from the Act.
(d) this was the man who, with a distinct whiff of party politics behind it, allowed Police to enter the private offices of a Tory MP in order to forage for details of an embarrassing leak about the Home Office.
(e) this is the man who ran up a taxi bill of almost £5.000 on unofficial trips with regard to his wife’s shopping.
(f) this is the man who saved up his “airmiles” from his frequent foreign trips at the expense of the taxpayer to give some family members free trips to New York.
(g) this was the man who, the other day ripped into the affections of two MPs (Hoey, Labour and Baker, Lib Dems) who had the temerity to rightfully question his decision to call in Police to investigate the expences whistleblower. Totally improper, he acted without any precedent or authority and the following day did the same to David Winnick, Labour MP for Walsall when he had the courage to question his approach.
And I could go on and just in case this comment is “pulled” by the Editor, every single one of these instances were quoted in the BBC News commentary following his resignation at 2.30pm today.
He has presided over the biggest disaster to our Parliamentary democracy since King Charles I in the 1600s.
Good riddance, now we need a new broom and a clean sweep.
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Are the unknown back bench MP’s hiding behind the skirts of the big names and hoping we’ll get bored with it before it comes to their turn?
This is an email exchange I have had with a MP over the past few days – I’ll leave it to the reader to work out which MP.
EMAIL QUESTION TO MY MP:
I notice that your name is included in the list of 143 MP’s who have claimed the maximum £23,083 in expenses, excluding travel.
It is also noticeable that the other 4 Shropshire MP’s are not included in this list.
Could you please tell me what it is about your circumstances that forces you to claim more than your fellow Shropshire MP’s?
URL address for reference: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=32399977
RESPONSE FROM MP:
All of my expenses will be published, along with all other MPs, at the end of this month.
MY RESPONSE:
That does not answer the question I put to you and only serves to deepen the uneasy feeling that something is not quite right.
My question gave you the opportunity to explain why your expenses are out of line with other Shropshire MP’s but you apparently do not feel that you need to address constituents and tax payers concerns.
I await your further comment should you choose you rethink your attitude.
If you do not choose to offer an explanation then I am of the opinion that your constituents need to know the decision you have taken.
RESPONSE FROM MP:
All my constituents will be able to examine all my receipts together – at the same time.
I have nothing further to add.
I am disappointed that you already appear to have made judgements.
I see no point exchanging further emails on the subject as all the data will be available very soon – to everyone.
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runners and riders for new speaker
tories
sir george young 7/1
ann widecombe 5/2
sir alan haslehurst 12/1
lib dems
vincent cable 5/4
menzies cambell 11/2
charles kennedy 10/1
labour
roger berry 9/1
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Dear Serotonin
I hate to allow facts to get in the way of your defense of Mr Martin, but what seems to have completely passed you by is that Mr Martin,despite opposition from many MPs,spent my and your money appealing against Court decisions in an attempt to keep the grubby goings on by many of our MPs away from the public. His finger prints are all over this mess, he is entirely implicated not only in the excesses but in a blatant attempt to keep the excesses away from the public. That is why he is unfit to continue as Speaker and that is why he had to go.
I’m perhaps of the old school where people take responsibility for their actions and strangly perhaps Mr Martin today actually did just that and for that good on him.
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add to the list of runners
labour
frank field 3/1
lib dem
alan beith 9/1
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Stuart, You are my hero!!! If I ever get divorced,will you represent me.
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Novarich
I dont know why you are so impressed he’s only copying and pasting
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Is that a bit of the old green eyed monster Serotonin?
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Well Serotonin, I am glad that you acknowledge that I have “copied and pasted” what is the correct situation with regard to the speaker and that your comment was very wide of the mark.
Also, your sarcastic and intended “insult” regarding “blue rinsed” ladies indicates that you also fail to accord women, good manners and the respect due to them whatever/however, you may disagree with what they write. The term “small minded” springs to mind.
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Stuart, Stuart, Stuart…
Quite how someone who simply rubber stamps whatever the media tells him can call me ‘small minded’ really beggars belief!
I simply noted that you had copied and pasted a BBC journalists opinions as you obviously didn’t have the intelligence to think for yourself.
I would also question the neutrality of the BBC’s political reporting given that their Chief Political Correspondent is ex young conservative chairman Nick Robinson?
I stand by the blue-rinsed comment as this was meant to imply that this particular journalist is quite obviously a patsy for the Tories. I will also make the point that I accord women respect that is due to them not in spite of them.
For the record I am not the Labour apologist that you seem to imagine. I did not vote for Blair and will not vote for Brown. Labour will lose the next election because of their inability to reign in the out of control and increasingly influential right-wing media – NOT because Cameron will make a better Prime Minister – because HE WON’T!
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Serotonin!
Like a lot of the clowns who post on here, you take the biscuit today!!
Unless the Labour spin doctor Peter provides us with more of his pseudo intellectual garb.
Just gotta get outa this place!
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Serotonin,
I didn’t know that about Nick Robinson – it explains a lot about his reporting stance.
On the subject of the Speaker, I think it’s difficult to arrive at a conclusion as to the real reasons behind his demise.
Personally I don’t think he was a particularly effective speaker, but at the same time it’s been clear that there have been MPs who have been out to get him for some time, not least because they thought he was from far too lowly a start in life to occupy the post.
As far as his recent apparent attempts to block those criticising the expenses debacle are concerned, I think that part of what he was doing was to maintain the status quo until such a time as the already-agreed enquiry had taken place. Procedurally, that maintenance of the status quo, no matter how inept, slow-moving or bureacratic it may seem, is part of the Speaker’s function.
Has he not done this he would doubtless have been criticised for this too. Similarly his attempt to exclude MPs expenses from the Freedom of Information Act – this was done with the tacit consent of the house – and he’s there as their servant after all.
As for involving the police in working out who had leaked confidential documents, this too was a matter he correctly involved himself in – he would surely have been castigated if he hadn’t asked for this to be investigated – whether or not you regard the leak as in the public interest. Don’t forget that there were previous leaks sent by a Tory political activist who had got himself a job in the Civil Service, which ultimately led to the arrest of Damian Green MP. Although Mr Green was found to have no charge to answer, in the event of any such leak it’s appropriate to investigate at least the possibility of political chicanery.
In the end the speaker was in a no-win position and had to go, but I can’t help but think there was a hint of the Machiavellian in the manner of his going.
I’m afraid I don’t accept the view that the person responsible for the leak was acting out of philanthropy – whilst I’m pleased in the end that this information has come into the public domain, it seems likely that the Telegraph paid a large amount of money to gain access to it. I wonder if their new-found open and honest approach will ever lead them to disclose just how much they paid?
In the same way that the public deserves to know what our MPs are spending, I think we deserve to know what powerful, secretive press barons such as the Barclay brothers who seek to influence the political mood of the country are spending too!
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Serotonin, Serotonin, Serotonin,
Normally I would not respond to juvenile cat calling but just to put you in the picture, the information regarding the Speakers peccaddillos have been in the public arena for many months, updated of course by his harangue of the Labour and Lib Dem MPs the other day.
Indeed, I brought these to notice in a blog in this paper on a previous occasion which was pulled as far as I can see by the editor, albeit it only contained proven facts which have been repeated here at 3. Like so many of your posts, yours at 12 holds not the slightest drain of water therefore.
Yes, we all know that when one cannot get the excuse, facts, reason, story etc etc correct, the favourite “whipping boy” is the press or the BBC. ie, go off half cocked and get things totally wrong, no problem just blame the media. So, whilst “you question the neutrality” of the BBCs Political commentating, you also appear to use this as an excuse to deny that what I have put at 3 is correct when every instance of his wrongdoing is well known – seemingly apart from yourself.
As for you not being a Labourite apologist, bully for you, I think your political views are so churned up, they would challenge the most ardent, experienced, knowledgeable and searching political analyst to define which, if any political leaning you have.
Now, from Peter, as is his usual stance, we have him clutching at the Barclay Bros political conspiracy theory. Let’s forget about the officially employed staff of our Prime Minister (namely Damian McBride) and their cohorts using the full machinery of Downing Street, to lie, denigrate and conspire against members of the Tory Party in order to prolong the life of this dead Government.
Peter also seems to be propagating his usual myths about the Tory opposition. Clegg came straight out and said Martin should go, Brown refused to give a positive answer either way and Cameron said straight down the line, it was not the responsibility of the opposition to remove the Speaker or play any part in it.
Now argue that. The Tory MP who put forward the motion was a maverick supported by 22 others from the Labour, Lib Dem and Tory parties. The conspiracy theory to “out Martin” is in your imagination Peter – as is much of the above at 14.
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more to the point – what right is that scot to rule OUR parliament, we are english, we dont want these fat scots from glasgow running us, get clown brown and his socialist stooges out now, they are the party of sleeze now, ha ha ha, bye bye brown, good riddance, bring on the tax cuts
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He was used as a fall guy for a system that is corrupt to its very core.
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Good riddance, now lets overturn the rest and give one of the smaller parties a chance.
Alex.
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Andrew,
Perhaps next time you could interject with an opinion or two of your own, rather than choosing to jump in and insult people who have given some thought to what they write.
As I’ve said many times before in these columns, I’ve never been a member of the Labour party, nor of any other party. I just see them as the lesser of two evils at present.
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“As I’ve said many times before in these columns, I’ve never been a member of the Labour party, nor of any other party. I just see them as the lesser of two evils at present”.
Enough said. What are the two evils Peter, Labour and the Monster Raving Looney Party or Labour and the BNP, or Labour and the Green’s.
Your comment is indicative of one not wanting to indicate at wholeheartedly, enthusiastically and 100% determined in supporting Labour and to at least give an impression that you support them with a degree of reluctance. Poppycock and balderdash, from your comments, you clearly have swallowed every Labourite blurb, spin, distortion and twisting of facts to suit the party machine than the most red flag militant of the party. Mandelson, Balls, Darling, Campbell, McBride, Draper and the arch distortionist himself, Comrade Brown has nothing on you.
You support everything about Labour, at least come out and admit it instead of now saying that you do so with reluctance and would vote another party if it were not “evil”.
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Stuart,
I can only suggest that you search the archives of this newspaper and you will find that I have been critical on New Labour on many occasions. I know from your rose-tinted recollections of the Thatcher era that you appear to have a selective memory, but your latest rant is quite extraordinary even by your standards of tantrum.
As for the expression ‘lesser of two evils’ I was referring to the only two political parties in our parliamentary system capable of forming a government – i.e. the Labour and Conservative parties. The remaining parties are either based around prejudice and hatred, pie in the sky dreaming of some Utopian eco-Eden, or insular xenophobia. They’re OK as a vehicles to waste a protest vote on, but no more than that.
Of the two main parties, I still see the Labour party despite all of its faults as the party more interested in the working man.
I long for a move towards a Labour party that stands for its traditional values, rather than the diluted party which has been following the now thoroughly discredited doctrine of market capitalism. I hope that the public ownership of the banks will give us the opportunity to do that, but I fear that Osborne would be unduly hasty in returning them to private ownership, so in the meantime I see no credible alternative to Labour.
Perhaps you could respond with your rationale for choosing to vote UKIP?
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You wouldn’t believe me if I did Peter but the EU Election gives us, the electorate a golden opportunity of telling all three major parties what we think of them.
In my view it is quite harmless to reject the Lib/Lab/Cons and vote for a fringe or minor party in the EU Election because non will ever gain a position of influence in the national scene – and certainly not in the EU because whoever gets elected this time as a “protest vote”, will lose next time around. They will hardly have time to make the seat warm.
The only possible exception to my “harm” point is a vote for the BNP, this could be disastrous. Whilst I am personally, totally and utterly opposed to mass uncontrolled immigration, I am similarly totally and utterly opposed to the BNP and my fear is that this odious crew could pick up votes that would have normally gone to the three major parties.
If people, and I would not blame them, do feel that they have to make a protest vote then I would certainly hope that they would vote for UKIP. They would have short burst of glory and peter (forgive the pun) out at the next EU election. The mere sight and sound of the Lucas woman in charge of the Green’s put’s me off that party and I think, if given a chance they would be just as autocratic, dogmatic and intollerant in a “green” way as the BNP.
So, the moral of the tale is, you wish to vote but not for the major parties, then vote for UKIP in the EU election and revert to type and vote for the one that takes your fancy in the General one.
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