Speaker of the House Steps Down...

[DanaC]

... and a new entry in British Parliamentary History is made.

This is the first time in 300 years that a Speaker of the House of Commons has been forced from office.

The expenses row has turned into a hurricane through our Parliamentary system. I don't know how I feel about this. There is a worrying potential for this to politicise the office of Speaker. Then again, he was instrumental in the attempts to deny public access to the expenses information, and then turned out to be one of the people implicated in accusations of misuse and dishonesty. Most worrying, perhaps, is the possibility that this represents the Commons offering up a sacrifice to the Fourth Estate.

Noone really knows what effect all this will have on the workings of our democratic system. It could be a storm in a teacup before the dust settles into a slightly rearranged bunny; or it might fundamentally alter the ethos of Parliament.

Interesting times for politicians and constitutional scholars. I can't wait for the memoirs and exposes to come in a couple of years!

[ZenGum]

Cromwell would have known how to deal with this.

[glatt]

Holy crap. For a second I thought you were talking about US Speaker Pelosi. I was extremely surprised, but pleased. And then let down once I opened the thread.

[TheMercenary]

Originally Posted by glatt

Holy crap. For a second I thought you were talking about US Speaker Pelosi. I was extremely surprised, but pleased. And then let down once I opened the thread.

Me too, but then I knew that there was no such thing as a unicorn, rainbows, and in a land of happy puppies.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Sure there is, it's Pelosi's home district.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by glatt

Holy crap. For a second I thought you were talking about US Speaker Pelosi. I was extremely surprised, but pleased. And then let down once I opened the thread.

Looks like a near universal reaction... outside of her district. *sigh*

[Pie]

Me too. I'd love to vote Pelosi (and Reid, for that matter) off the island.

[DanaC]

Yes....and the fact that you were expecting that, and I disappointed you...turned me on

[Pie]

Dana, you're a sick puppy.

[DanaC]

I really should give due credit for that joke to the British comedian Rob Newman.

But yes. I am .

[TheMercenary]

[tw]

I keep hearing that Brown is also all but a lame duck. What are the details behind that speculation?

[DanaC]

Originally Posted by tw

I keep hearing that Brown is also all but a lame duck. What are the details behind that speculation?

*Nods* Well, the situation for Brown isn't great. He doesn't seem to have the Party behind him. But that's less to do with the expenses row (all parties have been implicated) than it is to do with a more generalised loss of personal authority within his own party.

[Kaliayev]

Originally Posted by tw

I keep hearing that Brown is also all but a lame duck. What are the details behind that speculation?

Well, he had to rely on the Democratic Unionists to get anti-terrorism legislation through Parliament last year.

Things have got worse since then.

Personally, being a professional political iconoclast, the expenses scandal has been like Christmas come early. I think Ian Hislop said it best "on any normal week, one of these stories would have been front page news, for the whole week. Having thirty of them come at once..."

Also, the class divide in how the expenses were misused is telling. Labour uses it to turn a quick buck on houses, or expensive food. The Tories abuse it for gardening expenses and cleaning moats. The Lib Dems? Trouser presses and packets of biscuits. Seriously guys, letting the side down there. This was getting into African dictatorship territory, before the Lib Dems mucked it up.

[Kaliayev]

Give it a month. I'm sure the media will return to their whipped dog status eventually. They can't sustain it, its in their nature to be servile and speak adordingly of their masters in Parliament.

Its also worth noting, as interesting as this all is, its not really much but an extension of the Whitehall Bubble School Of Reporting, ie; focus on personality, not the issues. So even though they are currently doing harm to Parliament's image, in a way its sustaining the status quo, that of politics as a sort of adult version of schoolyard gossiping and popularity contests.