8 Feb 2010

Paliamentary Priveledge is Incomprehensible and Reduced to Satire.

It may be because I spend too much time reading satirical takes on the news, but this BBC article on the Parliamentary Priveledge Affair reads just like something by the Daily Mash.

A few choice quotes include:

Mr Johnson told the BBC people wanted to see MPs treated like everyone else.

Implicitely interwoven in this is the presumption MPs are not, of course, like everyone else.

"They are entitled to a fair trial and the public... would be aghast if they thought there was some special get out of jail card for Parliamentarians."

When, of course, there is.

"The Bill of Rights was intended to secure freedom of speech, the freedom of speech of members of parliament to speak freely rather than be at threat from an over-powerful monarch at the time."

Perhaps this reporter has a sense of humour?

There is, of course, an additional irony in Cameron lambasting Brown over the row

He is quick to jump on the bandwagon of public outrage over expenses when it suits him, yet he woulld not consider the grave issues within his own party on non domiciles or donations.

One has to wonder if he would be on the band wagon so quick if it had been a majority of his own MPs that were charged with fraud.

Aggressive and robust enquiries continue into Lord Ashcroft's donations and yet we are still without a complete answer.

The Russians have an idiom for corruption;

"The fish rots from the head down"

This is a wonderful way to describe it, and sadly, it does not only apply to the Conservative Party but to a vast amount of business and public holdings accross the country. But that's another story.

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