Bottomley 1 : the Filkin Affair/Committee Life
We've heard much on the merits of self-regulation for Parliament on these pages, primarily from... well.. errr.. Members of Parliament...
Arguments along the lines of - it's speedy, efficient, convenient etc. proliferate.
For your speed and convenience, we give you - Mr Bottomley, Martin Bell... and Sir Phillip Mawer - the 3 degrees of opinion. All on one post.
"The whispering campaign was not imaginary. It was real and intense. It coincided with her investigations into complaints against Peter Mandelson, John Reid and Keith Vaz, who were not only Labour MPs but government ministers at the time."
For the record – we’re big fans of all these guys.
Good Luck with Lord Falconer!
ReplyDeleteI wonder how Falconer will compare with these three...
ReplyDeleteCuriouser and curiouser... How many times did he say "curiously"? ; )
ReplyDeleteBottomley very succinctly pinpoints the problem with having a strong party system: even independently minded MPs have to toe the line when election day draws near. They need the support of the party if they are to keep their seat, so they meekly do as the party whip tells them.
ReplyDeleteWe have to give them a different set of incentives if we want them to more actively represent the interests of their constituents.
Filkin was totally screwed over. Fact.
ReplyDeleteHave I got this right ?
ReplyDeleteBottomley says three of his colleagues on the independent committee were curiously given honours by those they were supposed to Police.
He said one colleague became a whipping boy for his party come the general election and another didn’t always say what he believed but you could tell when he was lying.
He agrees with Martin Bell that Sir Phillip Mawers’ predecessor was ousted by the very people she was supposed to be policing.
He then goes on to say it’s probably as good as an independent jury system if the Commissioner and the committee can do their job.
Sir Philip Mawer says he can’t investigate Ministers and doesn’t know why not ?
Has the world gone crazy ???? Where was the press when this was going on ?
Think you'll find the media were dealing with something the public were interested in. Victoria Beckham titjob//Rebecca Loos wanking off a pig etc.
ReplyDelete