Douglas Hogg to stand down

Douglas Hogg, the Conservative MP who had a dirty moat, has announced his resignation. The Sleaford and North Hykeham MP has announced that he will stand down at the next election and apologised for the "collective and personal" failure over expenses.

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Speaker resigns

Speaker Martin resigned at 2.35 pm. In a short, sharp and not so sweet statement, he told the house of Commons he was to be gone by 21st June. Some sort of midsummer madness will descend on them then. His exact words were - "I have always felt that the House is at its best when it is united. In order that unity can be maintained, I have decided that I will relinquish the office of Speaker on Sunday 21 June. This will allow the House to proceed to elect a new Speaker on Monday 22 June." And with that he moved on to the next piece of business.

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Michael Martin to step down!

I was wrong in part. He didn't go yesterday as some believed he would. Or at least they thought he would announce his retirement date. However, pressure is mounting and it would appear that the Westminster kettle is at boiling point.

At 2.30 this afternoon Michael Martin will announce he will be stepping down. It is understood he plans to step down "soon" rather than immediately. What that means is not clear, but perhaps it means he will step down before the summer recess.

However, the effective removal of the Speaker does not in any way change the fact that MPs themselves were taking advantage of "the system". Scapegoat or not, there are plenty of feral creatures running around the Houses of Parliament.

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