Sharing Platforms

Gordon Brown - Member of Parliament for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath - took some time out from his day job and other 'extra-parliamentary' commitments yesterday to visit the fair City of Glasgow - for a Labour Party event.

Now the purpose of the event was for Gordon to throw his weight behind the Better Together  Campaign which is urging people to vote No in next year's independence referendum - though it was a strictly Labour Party only affair as Gordon and some of his chums are not at all keen on sharing platforms with the Conservatives. 

I have to say I find his attitude quite pathetic, but not in the least surprising - because the very fact that we're having a referendum at all is down to the Conservative part of the Coalition Government - and a Conservative Prime Minister who was willing to put the matter to a straight vote of the Scottish people.

In stark contrast, it has to be said, to the behaviour of his Labour predecessors - in particular one Gordon Brown - who was in a powerful position to push for a Labour inspired plebiscite during the 13 years that his party was in power at Westminster - with an absolute majority of MPs, of course.

Gordon's pitch on the day was that Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland all benefit  from pooling and sharing resources right across the UK - which I agree with, I have to say.

But you could make the very same argument for the European Union - yet few people or politicians these days would agree with ceding effective control of the UK economy to a Parliament in Brussels.

In which case why should the Scottish Parliament not have the power to direct and manage the Scotland's economy - instead of leaving all the important decisions, as they are now, in the hands of politicians in Westminster.  

Sometimes I wonder if Gordon Brown is just a big 'feartie'.

Suspending Belief (28 November 2012)

I received a very helpful reply to my recent letter to IPSA (Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority) about the payment of MPs' salaries and expenses - while they're off swanning about in the Australian jungle somewhere.

See post dated 22 November 2012 - 'Money For Old Rope'.

The answer is that IPSA is only the administering body when it comes to the MPs' payroll - any decision or instruction to cease payments to an individual 'honourable' member - must come direct from the House of Commons.

In other words MPs just make up the rules to suit themselves - and MPs like 'Mad Nad' Dorries continue to be paid even while suspended - unless the House of Commons instructs otherwise.

Which I imagine would take a vote on the floor of the House of Commons - or a decision from the Speaker of the House that a member should be suspended without pay.

What puzzles me is how an MP can be suspended with pay - if they are clearly unable to do their job?

And in the case of Nadine Dorries that particular point was clearly unarguable - though we may now hear more now that the MP for Mid-Bedfordshire is back in the country.

I heard a Labour MP on the TV the other day gleefully sticking the boot into Nadine Dorries and the Conservative Party - over the 'I'm a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here' debacle.

At one level I have no problem with heaping derision on this particular MP - but what I would like to know from the Peoples' Party is:

'How can Labour make fun of Nadine Dorries and the Tory Party while they turn a blind eye to Gordon Brown's absence abroad for 70 days a year - at the Abu Dhabi Campus of the New York University?.

Now that really is the politics of the madhouse - if you ask me.