MP's diary entries and expenses

I am currently reading the third of the Alan Clark Diaries (Called The Last Diaries) and found an interesting entry early on. It is on p8 of the 2003 paperback edition. It is revealing of Alan Clark's attitudes.

MoD, Thursday, 28 February [1991]

There is now talk of a General Election in June. Just time to claim, massively, some allowances out of 91-92!

[I have removed the rest of the entry, but it doesn't change the meaning.]

I doubt anyone would be surprised by that! Clark's diaries are amazing reading and easily obtained second hand.

Another interesting quote is in Chris Mullin's diary. I think this one shows how easy it is for people to end up becoming part of an institution.

Wednesday, 1 May [2002]

Andrew Mackinlay dropped a little bombshell at this afternoon's meeting of the parliamentary committee. Apparently, under the Freedom of Information Act, by January 2005 MP's expenses will be subject to public scrutiny, retrospectively. Goodness knows what mischief that will cause. 'We are in a jam,' said Robin Cook. 'Few members have yet tumbled to the juggernaut heading their way.' He said he had been advised that we could probably get away with publishing headline figures and it would be desirable to start publishing a year before the deadline so that any fuss would have died down come the general election. It was agreed not to minute the discussion.

[My emphasis and I have removed a second unrelated paragraph from the entry. p284-5 of the hardback first edition. The Parliamntary Committee mentioned is a Labour Party committee to allow backbenchers and the government to stay in touch (see the preface and p226).]

I have a lot of respect for Mullin but this isn't good. I will be careful to note that he doesn't record his view on this, merely reports the committee results, but it is fair to note that he didn't kick off a stink about the decision. It is clear he knew that the claims had issues ("mischief" would result, a "juggernaut", the expectation of "fuss") and agreed to conceal both this (headline only) and the discussion (minutes).

I think what this shows is how easy it is to become loyal to institutions and organisations when you belong to them however honourable and independent you may be.

I am surprised this passage hasn't been picked up on more.

STV considered... normal? (somewhere!)

There is a nice article on STV by an Irish political activist over at Libdem Voice.

Whilst no voting system is perfect, indeed it is impossible to invent one which is (see below), STV has many nice features and the article us written by someone with experience of the system.

That's one key feature of STV conservatives (small c, many are in the Labour party too) miss: it is being used successfully in other places. Heck it is being used in the UK: in Scottish Councils and in NI's Euro elections. It isn't a dangerous experiment.

Currently we have a system that gives a landslide to a party polling under 40% of the votes cast. ConLab get 86% of the seats for 67% of the vote. That means just under half the seats haven't changed hands since 1970 (40 years), and just over 1 in 4 (29%) haven't changed since 1945.

This isn't healthy: it leads to a sense of entitlement that explains the ConLab attitude to the other parties. Why don't we know our place and accept the crumbs? A sense of entitlement that creates the expenses system.

For those who want to know why you can't gave a perfect election system have a look at wikipedia's article on voting systems.

DC and families

It is an old joke but a favourite from the era of Cecil and Alan Clarke that the Tories are so keen on family values they want to have as many as they can.

So the Tory attempt to mobilise their base has begun with tax breaks for married couples with children. This worries me as a liberal as the state interfering in the bedroom: most certainly not the business of the government.

Marriage is designed to protect people in the risks of long term commitment needed to raise families. It isn't a moral issue, the history of English marriage shows this. Early modern (16th/17th century) marriage amongst the majority of the population was considered to gave taken place when a couple started cohabiting, but the legal marriage was delayed until pregnancy. Not a million miles from today. The Victorians tried to change all this, but not very successfully outside the upper classes.

The evidence that children do better in stable homes is clear: but that doesn't mean they do better in volatile households. Also the evidence on cohabiting couples isn't much different from married.

This clearly is not about child welfare. It also won't make anyone tie the knot. It might help people at an expensive time when money might cause a split, but this is true of cohabiting couples who face the same strains and whose kids would also benefit. If it was about children it'd therefore be an announcement of child tax relief or credits. It is about promoting one way of life above others to pander the base.

This could be the less nasty edge of Toxic Conservatism reasserting itself.

PS I imagine everyone and his cousin has now seen the childish opportunity to create your own spoof DC poster and the collection of silliest at the my DC spoof site. If not have a look.

New candidate in Cambridge

I must be honest: I am a LD activist and not a neutral commentator.

I was at the selection and the person who was by far the best candidate won: Julian Huppert.

His speach came last when we were all tired and feeling politic-ed out and yet it energised the hall. It lifted me. Made me want to get out there and, erm, deliver leaflets.

The sentiment was that we had 6 excellent candidates who would all make excellent MPs yadda yadda. This may be true but wasn't shown on the night. One candidate I felt would do well suffered from nerves, another fell flat, a third over ran: a dreadful sin. I won't say who as they will know who they are and I know they will do better in future. All 5 who didn't make it would make excellent MPs and shouldn't give up.

However I will say that at least one ought to think carefully about whether Cambridge is the right city for them.

Imagine pigs flying...
I do hope that if we get STV that they will come forward as our second/third etc candidates.
End flying pigs.

What I expected to be a draining and rather tiresome evening was actually excellent. Cambridge seems to have a talented local party.

Arrest of MP "not proportionate"

In the well obviously stakes:

A report into the arrest of Damian Green MP has said that the police didn't need to arrest him.

To quote from the BBC: article on the subject:

Mr Johnston says in his interim report: "In my view, the manner of Green's arrest was not proportionate because his arrest could have been carried out on an appointment basis, by prior agreement, and when he could be accompanied by his legal representative.

"I recognise the significant political context in which the leaks occurred and the professional anxiety they caused within the civil service.

"However, I regard the leaks for which [Christopher] Galley can be clearly held responsible in law, as amounting to 'embarrassment matters' for government.

"I do not think, from the material presented to me, that the leaks in themselves are likely to undermine government's effectiveness."

Well quite.

Hang on.

Something odd in the first sentence quoted: "In my view, the manner of Green's arrest was not proportionate". Wo-ah.

The manner? It went on "his arrest could have been carried out on an appointment basis". I love this image. Take a ticket from the queue and we'll arrest you when we call out the number. But hang on....

What seems odd is that he needed to be arrested at all.

Was he likely to run away? Abscond from the country? Was he going to be remanded in custody? Attack an old lady?

Could he not just have been interviewed?

I'm not a Tory and I'm not someone that worried about what was leaked, but when an MP can't do his job then we have a problem. We had the establishment attempt to bully an MP into not doing his job. Even now those investigating it won't just say "we were wrong."

Oolon arrives

Testing... testing... 1.. 2.. 3.. 4...

So this thing is working. And it is time to start ranting and raving at the universe.

Today the MP's expenses issue returns. I am awaiting the list of the 325 MPs who have been bad with interest. I may even do some analysis on it. Yippee.

In local news it has stopped raining and is a nice sunny day.