We're backing Widdy!

Not that I've got a vote...but I'm backing Ann Widdecombe for Speaker. Not that I've got anything against the other candidates. Alan Beith, for example, represents me and is a brilliant constituency MP - a real-dealer. But Widdy's point about connecting with the public is what won old Yella over. The politically half-dead zombies that make up most of the electorate of this great nation need some touchstone which will help them reconnect with their Democracy. And Widdy - uniquely among the candidates - could be that touchstone. I also like the fact that she's standing down at the next election. She's enough of a maverick to have wielded the appropriate axes in any event. But given that this is an opportunity (a) for her to create a better political legacy than that "something of the night" shite and (b) for her to kick some fat Parliamentary butt without fear of reprisal, I think she's the perfect candidate.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse...

From Telegraph.co.uk: "For at least 21 months he had claimed £800 in mortgage interest for his constituency home, yet there was no mortgage on the property. In total, he had wrongly claimed more than £16,000."

How can you forget that the mortgage you're still claiming the interest on was paid off almost 2 years ago? How can this "man" be considered fit for public office? The Labour Party has already indicated to the BBC's Nick Robinson that formal "disciplinary action" against Morley is unlikely. And they've fallen back on the old chestnut of the "...fate of all the MPs caught up in expenses scandal ultimately being in the hands of their local constituency parties who could de-select them before the next general election." But this is simply not good enough. For the first time in hundreds of years, we've got a totally debauched Parliamentary democracy. Mr Speaker is an embarrassment, bullying rather than protecting back-bench MPs. And the "honourable" members themselves are mired in corruptions, large and small. We've let them away with murder. But I think its still pretty unlikely that the British people will grow a set and demand some constitutional change anytime soon. Let's either have a REAL Parliamentary democracy - where members are properly bound by Churchill's Duties of an MP. Or let's be honest about the elective dictatorship that we've allowed to develop, with tiny groups of men in suits running the country from Islington kitchen tables. But at least let's have a proper opportunity of choosing the men in the suits