David Cameron has acted like a leader today. But our Prime Minister has acted like an insignificance, and is being laughed at and ignored. I saw a clip of him on Newsnight, and cannot remember what he said - and then we had Michael Crick telling us that what he said has not been agreed by the appropriate persons anyway. David Cameron has taken a first step on the long, long road to restoring public confidence in the British body politic. No messing about. Shadow Cabinet members have been writing cheques, returning money to the taxpayer. Its clear that the same thing is going to apply to every other Conservative MP. And if any MP does not accept the judgement of the 'Scrutiny Panel' they will cease to be Conservative MPs. That's the way to sort it.
In my opinion, the most important decision that David has taken is that every claim must be made public when it is submitted. This will pour disinfectant on the system. Its such an irony that if MPs had not fought so hard to prevent their expense claims being made public, there would not have been an opportunity for the Telegraph to wreak such havoc. There's no doubt that much of the humiliation has been self-inflicted.
There was an interesting discussion amongst the Newsnight panel about whether the Sir Christopher Kelly Report should be accepted in full - now. The Labour and Lib Dem spokesmen agreed it should. Theresa May looked uncomfortable when trying to avoid making the same commitment. Must admit that I'm with Theresa on this one. I do think its highly likely that Sir Christopher's report will be accepted as a whole, but its a big leap of faith to state unequivocally that it will. The Labour spokesman said that MPs have lost the right to have any say whatsoever on this issue. I think that is going too far. And I can think of several reasons why the report might not be acceptable to Conservatives. It may well be that Sir Christopher will recommend that a much wider range of second home expenses should be eligible than the much-curtailed list David Cameron announced today. The public would not want to see that. But lets cut the carping. David Cameron's decisiveness has made today a slightly better day for British politics.
9 comments:
slightly better? The fact the claims were made in the first place suggest a wholesale rviewof the political system needs to take place Glyn - in Wales also, I see Cairns has realised that 1 3mile commute isn't jutsifiable for a second home, about time. We need to remove the political class entirely, make standing for elction a public service with rewards but not a career, I 've said to you before - public sevice should be for two or three terms out of every 5. We need tochnage people, bring freshnes in and remove the chance for courruption.
I have to agree, I thought Cameron showed his true strength today with real decisive action. Brown on the other hand looked haggard and pretty much down and out.
David Cameron showed true leadership today in answer to the critics. When the going got tough Cameron got going.
from the Scottish perspective......
The Tories will never be voted for as New Labour fills the right wing vote in Scotland.
I was impressed by Cameron's leadership on this though, Brown seems really flustered and frankly out of his depth and control.
It's time for an election
Avanti!
David Cameron has made PR gestures, trying to cover up and deflect the even more profligate way his crowd have acted than Labour.It cuts no ice.
Will he do anything to stop them doing two or three very well paid jobs or directorships.
Maybe he could give his man in Wales a few PR tips too,Nick Bourne is a farce of a man.
Eric - I agree about the need for the wholesale change of approach, but not about the two/three term limitation - though I can see what you are driving at. In my opinion, voters should be allowed to vote for whom they wish. I also wish they would put a lot of thought into who they want to vote for, rathere than just voting for the party no matter what.
BG - It was a day that began badly for my party, but ended on a better note - because of David Cameron's decisiveness.
Deleted - If anyone happened to visit during the two minutes before I deleted this, I apologise for inadvertently hitting the publish key, rather than the eject key. It may well have been libellous and while these accusations may all be true, I cannot allow them. It was an error.
Mr M - Personally, I still believe there is a strong possibility of a General Election in Oct/Nov.
Ex-Voter - Sorry you feel unable to give David Cameron some credit for changing the way all political parties are now having to react. According to today's press, it seems that not many people agree with your dismissive comments about PR gestures.
Well done David Cameron, the sooner we have him as our leader the better! Well said Eric I agree with you about the political system in Wales too. I have just resigned from my Community Council because of what I consider to be very undemocratic rules.How can it possibly be right that a councillor who was elected because his constituents agreed with him that we shouldn't have any more Wind Farms in Mid-Wales,is not allowed to vote on their behalf at the council meeting,because this is considered predetermined. Yet councillors that are farmers who have them on their land can vote in favour?!I also think it's totally wrong that these Wind Farm developers are allowed to offer vast sums of money to communities it's nothing short of bribery, and sadly because of the greedy society that we live in today, some people don't see beyond that.This was made quite clear when discussing Llanbrynmair Wind Farm, because in my opinion it was proposed that this planning application be accepted purely for finacial gain.I was told by ex councillors present that I too was predetermined because I had pointed out some worrying facts and figures, like there having been 622 wind turbine related accidents,5 of which were fatalities 3 of these were attributed to "driver distraction by turbines".I also brought to their attention the governments plans to build 11 new nuclear power stations,9 of the locations having previously been home to nuclear reactors including Wylfa on Anglesey. Apparently RWE plans to dismantle one of the oldest and most efficient wind farms in Britain at Haverigg in Cumbria, to make space for a new nuclear reactor, yet the two local farmers whose land this wind farm is going to be on reckoned that they were "stopping nuclear"?!
No amount of money will make up for what will happen here in Montgomeryshire if all these Wind Farms go ahead, it will kill off our biggest industry, which is tourism, and for what, just so that this useless government can be seen to be doing their bit for the environment, but the fact that these Wind Farms do very little doesn't seem to be in the equation. Sorry Glyn if I've gone beyond what you consider to be acceptable to put on your blog, but it's done me good to get it off my chest even if you don't post it.
Well David Cameron's scrutiny committee is the way to go regardless of whatever Sir Christopher Kelly reports.
The reality is, if you want to be an MP in the Conservative Party, your expenses must be cleared by David Cameron's scrutiny committee.
It's DC's way or the highway!
Good show! Well done David Cameron! Lay the law down, sack those members of your party that don't comply!
I'm sure 90% plus will comply, and the other 10% will leave the party by attrition or via the exit door.
Problem solved.
Now if only the Welsh Assembly Government would use the same level of decisiveness to come up with an integrated patent/R&D/job creation policy.
Then the problem of Wales being at the bottom of just about every economic league table will be SOLVED TOO!
Helen - I have said much the same thing myself many times. The worst aspect of the debate is the disgracefully misleading claim that the building of wind farms will prevent nuclear power. I've heard our local AM say this, and it angers me that he should spread such a deliberate untruth. The Government are moving with all haste to delivering new nuclear power generating capacity as we type. Anyone who says that wind farms will avoid nuclear is behaving in a way that is tantamount to deliberately misleading people.
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