Guido has good advice for MPs who apparently are turning up for work today with nothing much to do but find out where the toilets and the bars are.
Whoever and whatever emerges this week, the advice is sound.
The UK parliament has taken a beating in the last year or so. Its members have shamed us. It has been shown frankly to be more that half full of crooks. Some were just a tad on the dodgy side, some probably meant no harm but were careless about their accounting, while some, and quite a big some, were downright dishonest.
I completely endorse what Guido says. I’m not a supporter of the UK. I think it is a construct that came into being because the Lords in Scotland were broke and greedy, and it suited them to move to London with gold in their pockets. Scotland got nothing out of the deal, the Scottish Lords did.
There have been advantages since then of course, and there have been disadvantages. Rather more of the latter than the former in my opinion. That’s however for another post. We must deal with what we have at the moment.
Many of the people who are turning up today, like the first day at university, are brand new. But some are old hands. People like Hazel Blears, despite breaking just about every rule, and then insulting us waving a cheque for £13,000 when she got caught, are back – hopefully chastened, but who knows.
My advice to new entrants is to steer clear of ad
vice from people like her.
We are depending on this parliament to work at bringing back some sort of confidence in MPs. They will need to act to do something about the corruption of that other place: The House of Lords. Then they’ll need to start on the BBC and the Civil Service.
To do this they will have to be above reproach themselves. They shouldn’t think for a second that the Daily Telegraph won’t be watching for every wrong move (the Daily Mail too for anything but Tories).
So keep your trousers up and your skirts pulled down, resist the temptation to turn your Westminster job into money making machine, and whatever party you are from, go and do your best for us.
Good luck.
Whoever and whatever emerges this week, the advice is sound.
The UK parliament has taken a beating in the last year or so. Its members have shamed us. It has been shown frankly to be more that half full of crooks. Some were just a tad on the dodgy side, some probably meant no harm but were careless about their accounting, while some, and quite a big some, were downright dishonest.
I completely endorse what Guido says. I’m not a supporter of the UK. I think it is a construct that came into being because the Lords in Scotland were broke and greedy, and it suited them to move to London with gold in their pockets. Scotland got nothing out of the deal, the Scottish Lords did.
There have been advantages since then of course, and there have been disadvantages. Rather more of the latter than the former in my opinion. That’s however for another post. We must deal with what we have at the moment.
Many of the people who are turning up today, like the first day at university, are brand new. But some are old hands. People like Hazel Blears, despite breaking just about every rule, and then insulting us waving a cheque for £13,000 when she got caught, are back – hopefully chastened, but who knows.
My advice to new entrants is to steer clear of ad
vice from people like her.We are depending on this parliament to work at bringing back some sort of confidence in MPs. They will need to act to do something about the corruption of that other place: The House of Lords. Then they’ll need to start on the BBC and the Civil Service.
To do this they will have to be above reproach themselves. They shouldn’t think for a second that the Daily Telegraph won’t be watching for every wrong move (the Daily Mail too for anything but Tories).
So keep your trousers up and your skirts pulled down, resist the temptation to turn your Westminster job into money making machine, and whatever party you are from, go and do your best for us.
Good luck.
..................
Good luck indeed. The expenses scandal does not seem to have effected them very much.
ReplyDeleteI hope they don't think it's all forgiven. Just because the country is in a mess and doesn't hae a government doesn't mean that they can go back to their boot filling ways.
ReplyDeleteWe have our eyes on you.