Michael Martin to tough it out

Much speculation is about at present, mainly suggesting that the Speaker of the House of Commons will be forced out. My senses are that he will stay, at least until the general election next year. He will tell the House this, that and the other, which will basically boil down to the fact that he stays and the members can bring it on if they want, but such action will look like they want a scapegoat rather than a solution. Tomorrow will amount to a lot of talking and nothing much else.

Everything Michael Martin has done as Speaker is to confirm to the world that a sheet metalworker from Glasgow can hold his own amongst those perceived as being far more educated than he is. He has put up with snobbery and slurs. It a lot of ways he may not have the sharpest mind, but he has always struck me as having something of the cleverness of a streetfighter. Some may call it ducking and diving, although for me it rather ressembles being streetwise.

Much of this talk about the Speaker tells more about the members themselves than about him. With an electorate baying for political blood, all bets are off as to who gets what votes. Both Labour and Conservative parties have taken a hit in the opinion polls. The Liberal Democrats are voicing the "sack Martin" message, amplified today by leader Nick Clegg. In a sense, Michael Martin is not so much a scapegoat as a heat deflector. He's expected to absorb all the criticism so that MPs can return to "normal" politics.

Tomorrow will confirm what Speaker Martin will do. Unless I'm totally wrong I am certain he will be Speaker at the end of the week as he was at the beginning.

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Andrew MacKay has "everything to fear"!

Andrew MacKay says he has nothing to fear. I think not. He is in deep doo-doo and should go quietly. He has let down the constituents of Bracknell by his cavalier approach to public money. Public money for a private purse. He may well be a very good constituency MP. Some may back him to the hilt. Others, though, are gunning for him and it is not just the usual suspects in the opposition parties. Conservative voters are lining up in the "ditch MacKay" camp.

The local newspaper, known online as GetBracknell, is not out to get MacKay. But they are not pushing his cause as a continuing MP either. Their online poll is "Should Andrew MacKay step down as Bracknell MP after he claimed unacceptable expenses?" and when I checked 78% said yes.

MacKay has decided to hold a public meeting next Friday in Bracknell. Could be a noisy affair given the volatility of the BBC Question Time audience last night. If the public meeting goes ahead, I doubt very much that he will come away with an answer that he likes. In that, he has everything to fear.

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Honour amongst thieves?

The Daily Telegraph has been assiduously sorting the million pieces of information relating to MPs' expenses. The revelations of wrongdoing, as perceived by that newspaper and now by the public in growing numbers, is causing a corrosive action on the fabric of British politics. It is driving a wedge between electors and elected.

The Telegraph is not at fault for publishing the information. Nobody has suggested it is not in the public interest. Only the Speaker got uppity about the actual leak but appears to be quiet about the publication. It is now becoming fashionable to suggest that all MPs are on the take. This is patently absurd, as this abuse is limited to a minority.

In calling them all thieves the public does a disservice to democracy. It is said that there is honour amongst thieves, meaning that a thief does not tell on another thief. Here we have something rather different. We have possibly a handful of thieves in amongst a majority of honourable people. That majority is honourable in its pursuit of parliamentary democracy and working for constituents.

That said, I do wonder if MPs have fallen into a trap that human vices find acceptable. Not one MP finds it easy to say sorry if confronted by the glaring evidence of manipulative greed. They blame the system. But there appears nothing wrong with the system. It is only to allow MPs to fund the proper functioning of their duties as MPs. It is not a supplementary income, or a bonus, or a dividend. It is an allowance to be utilised in an honourable way.

It is said that the chief whips inducted new members into the subtle art of exploiting the allowance. We are told that the clerks in the Fees Office were sometimes "told" to pay up. Whatever did go on, there has been a culture of connivance between that office and the badly taught amateur accountants that some MPs are admitting to being.

Nick Brown is the Labour Chief Whip. Yesterday he came out of the House of Commons blinking in the daylight to mumble about the fact that he sort of knew that Elliot Morley was in trouble over his non-existent mortgage. In fact, Nick Brown must know heaps of dodgy dealings and allowance bending, but he chose to sound all confused and unknowing. A chief whip that knows nothing is not a very good one. And he is a good one!

All this has been like the Army's approach to homosexuality used to be. "We know it's going on but we turn a blind eye. Our policy is roughly 'don't ask, don't tell' and it works just fine!"

The House of Commons needs transparency in its accounting system, fair and proper salaries for MPs and a real solution to this second home allowance. It needs to be done soon.

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