All change please
Tory MP: Commons Speaker should quit
Such has been the controversy over MPs' expenses of late it can't be long until the next scandal emerges - when we find out that ministers have all been frantically spending public money on books like How To Shred Unwanted Receipts Properly or Fingers In The Penny Jar: A Self-Help Guide.
An enquiry into politician's expenses has been launched, of course, yet this attempt at damage limitation has one fatal flaw: it's being spearheaded by Michael Martin, Commons Speaker, who has recently come under scrutiny himself for his own possible financial misdoings. All which perpetuates the image of a self-feeding corruptathon ... and the reason why Tory MP Douglas Carswell is calling for Martin to quit.
Scribbling down his thoughts in the Mail On Sunday, Carswell said:
"We need to clean up Westminster politics and take action to restore faith in our political system.First, Speaker Martin must step down. Perhaps not immediately, but he needs to set a date for his departure now. Second, MPs need to choose a Speaker who understands that there is a problem with Westminster politics - and is willing and able to see something done about it.
Finally, we need to scrap the 'gentlemen's club' rules used to run our legislature, and make Westminster politicians much more directly accountable to the voters. Until Speaker Martin goes, we will make little progress with anything else."
Carswell is the first MP to step forward and publicly urge Martin to resign. No doubt he'll be followed by many others, though - like vultures circling a Death Valley picnic, the opportunity for other MPs to swoop in and deflect attention from themselves must be about as tempting as it gets.
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