Now that the Standards and Privileges Committee has proposed that MPs reveal which family members (and that includes in-laws and civil partnerships) they employ, will trust in politics and politicians begin to be restored?
MPs will have to vote on the committee's recommendations - that MPs will have to declare payments to family members. I am told that Leader of the House Harriet Harman has indicated she will allow time for a debate.
In the present climate, MPs couldn't possibly vote against it, could they?
And there's a sub-plot: Sir George Young, committee chairman, is hotly-tipped to succeed Michael Martin when the hapless Speaker finally realises his time is up.
His report pre-empts Michael Martin's own committee (The Members and Estimates Committee) which is due to report in July (why IS it taking so long?) on the wider issue of MPs pay, allowances and expenses.
John Essex
I agree that we should acknowledge the public's concern and worry over hospital infections, but Labour is not trying to spin the issue as it is Labour who brought the issue to the attention of the public in the first place and have put measures in - with the best medical advice available - to address the issue.
All they are doing is trying to point out that just because there seems to be more infections now, it does not necessarily mean that the matter is really getting worse.
I should imagine that is what they have been told by experts in the field.
They are just doing their job in trying to reassure people.
It is the NuCons who talk stuff like this up because they know that in most other areas they can't fault Labour on the NHS.
It is not spin to tell the truth. It is infact true that since Florence Nightengales day there has always been hospital infections and I am sure many people died of them in the past and it didn't get recorded on the death certificates then.
I almost died myself from a hospital infection in the late 70s and have also been a patient on two occasions when there has been a contagious bug on the ward I was on.
There were signs outside the ward about the infection, nurses had to wear masks and gowns and change before they left the ward and visiting was restricted to next of kin.
I don't know what those infections were but I guessed they must have been quite serious for the hospital to put into place such measures.
It is not in the government's interest to try to cover things up because, as you know, the lines of communication for the general public are big and wide and these days no one seems to be able to keep a secret especially if it is about a 'good tabloid story' that might earn someone a few hundred pounds.
Posted by: carol-ann, liverpool 29 Feb 2008 17:33:04
Trust in politics?
You forgot C-difficile We are the worst Country in the world but Nu-labour spin it as:Oh its not really worse it is just that we are now better at identifying these cases.Oh thats ok then is it.
Lets face it Beany and the bottlers just havent a clue.Spin might impress the Bottler bloggers on this site but the rest are not fooled.
Posted by: john essex Guildford 28 Feb 2008 19:02:28
I am still waiting to hear what The Speaker has done wrong as compared to other MPs with regard to expenses - if is proven to have done wrong then he deserves any punishment he gets; however, it is only in the House of Commons that people seem to be beyond the law!
I am flabbergasted that Conway is still in Parliament and an MP and being paid when a young man in my neck of the woods, would be instantly dismissed for a much more minor offence.
Young people are harrassed and persecuted for standing on street corners in a group having a laugh with their mates - yet this guy is treated with kid gloves in comparison.
It is beyond awful that no-one seems to have the power to dismiss him altoghter - same goes for The Speaker if he has been PROVED to have done wrong.
Are not these issues something the Speakers and the Leaders of the House of Commons and the Political Parties should be sorting out?
How can any member of the public have any faith in such aseemingly corrupt system?
It is a joke that is doing harm to ALL parties.
I actually felt a bit of sympathy for Nick Clegg, yesterday, when he talked about 'clapped out old systems' or words to that effect. He is right. Why the hell the people who run these systems cannot see the writing on the wall when it is writ so large even a bat can see it, is beyond my comprehension.
Tinkering around the edges is not good enough, we need a comprehensive and wholesale re-orginisation and that, I feel, means moving out of the Palace of Westminister into a pHouse that is 'fit for purpose' in the modern age.
All these archaic ceremonies and procedures are OK for the American Tourists and they could go on in purely a 'tourist' sense - but, they only encourage and entrench the feeling of a great divide between MPs and the public.
It is time to move on and the only way to do that is to move out into a new purpose built House of Commons.
The House of Commons was meant for the Landed Gentry to pop into after they had been to their gentlemen's clubs and on a part-time basis, it is now a full-time job being an MP and MPs should be doing more in their constituencies than they do. Let's be honest, how many people say things like: "I only see my MP at election time?"
MPs attend surgeries in their own constituencies but they are not that well advertised and I would be surprised if more than handful of people knew where and when these surgeries are and whether they would use them if they did know.
It is time MPs were assessed under a list of 'performance indicators' like most people working for public institutions including teachers, for example, are.
They should be made to prove to the public that they are, infact, doing the job they are getting paid from the tapayer to do.
I am sure some of them do work hard, that doesn't mean they are working efficiently, though. There are, no doubt, many who do the bare minimum they can get away with.
So time for more than 'an enquiry' into this little bit of the system or that little bit of the system - we need a massive overall of the systems - nothing else will give the public the confidence in their MP to truly represent them.
Yes, it is going to be painful and embarrassing, but, as the saying goes: no pain, no gain.
Posted by: carol-ann 28 Feb 2008 16:35:40
Politicians don't even trust politicans so why should the public. In the old wild west it was said the only good indian is a dead one, touche
Posted by: waine uk 28 Feb 2008 15:46:38
Maybe the question should have been did we ever trust politicians! Certainly not in my living memory. The difference being that the current intake of greedy, self serving nest lining unmentionables, are far far worse than those that went before them. Time to fumigate Parliament and start again i think!
Posted by: The Morning Post 28 Feb 2008 15:29:10
Trusting Politicians? Never.
Their actions speak louder than words.
Posted by: Jon, cephalonia, greece 28 Feb 2008 15:00:46
Trust in politics?
Let's see:
Lies (spin)
Centralisation of everything to Whitehall
Prisons full
Asylum failures being sent home in falling numbers
NHS doctors paid 50% more for 30% less work.
The Armed Services.
2 wars.
The Criminal Injustice System
The only people to trust politicians are those paid by the Public Purse.
the rest of us think they are... unprintable.
Posted by: madasafish, Stoke on trent 28 Feb 2008 14:21:21
In answer to the first question will trust in politicians be restored, then the answer is NO. Why on earth have we got a department known as the Inland Revenue who legally require employee pay/tax information relating to all employees? It was created by the house to be used by every employers house.
As for the matter relating to the length of time for such drivelations, it is a long list I agree, but again, who created it, yo got it, THE HOUSE.
So, if Jo public faces court action for Inland Revenue matters, so should MP's. [Amy Winehouse-Back to Black]
Dear god, they create rules but shy away from obeying them, yet they demand respect and trust. Well, have I got news for you!
Posted by: Khalid 28 Feb 2008 13:38:26
"will trust in politics and politicians begin to be restored?"
Ahhhhhhh...nope!
Posted by: Philip, Bristol 28 Feb 2008 13:10:05
Sub plot:
Sheet metal worker to Baronet
St. Patrick's Boys School to Eton, Christ Church and Oxford
Speaks volumes!
Posted by: Peter, Fife 28 Feb 2008 13:09:49