Thursday, March 12, 2009

EDM Signature Whores® 2008/09

Early Day Motions - also commonly known as Parliamentary graffiti - are a means for MPs to show support for an issue but to not necessarily see it debated or even paid attention to by the Government. Occassionally they get used for pointless things like showing sympathy after the death of a celebrity chef's dog.

Sometimes they get used to show massive interest in a subject and possibly to force the Goevrnment into doing something. The recent Post office EDM showed there were split in Government. They also cost the taxpayer each year to administer.

The vast majority of MPs, if you go an examine the records tend to sign EDMs quite sparingly. After all, why put your name to things unless you really passionately believe in them. On average, and this based on glancing through the lists, since Decemebr most of them signed less than a 100 EDMs. That's not bad consider we're talking about 120 days. But there are what I am officially calling EDM Signature Whores®

The inspiration for this you see was actually a Tory MP, Peter Bottomley. You see Bottomley is a bit of an EDM Signature Whore® and it got me wondering if he even knows what he is signing - that is to say what his office is putting his name again. Since December you see he has signed 583 EDMs, which I thought was pretty impressive, but it actually only places him one outside the Top Ten of EDM Signature Whores® at Number 11.

This is the current session's EDM Signature Whores® Top Ten.
  1. Ann Cryer (Lab) 830
  2. Mike Hancock (Lib Dem) 802
  3. Martin Caton (Lab) 705
  4. John McDonnell (Lab) 676
  5. Alan Simspon (Lab) 667
  6. Rudi Vis (Lab) 665
  7. Lynne Jones (Lab) 658
  8. John Leech (Lib Dem) 639
  9. David Drew (Lab) 638
  10. Brain Jenkins (Lab) 621
We shall be returning to this little chart in a few onths to see if Mike Hancock has managed to knock Ann "6 EDMs a Day" Cryer off the top spot. Who knows, a Tory might even short up the chart as a new entry if they whip their little researcher monkey into action. Who will win the title of EDM Signature Whore® 2008/09 and show what an absolute waste of money to the taxpayer they really are?

Stay Tuned!

7 comments:

bustop said...

One must assume there is an expense to be claimed somewhere.

Not a sheep said...

Great piece of investigative reporting.

Anonymous said...

I have early day motions (in the smallest room in the house). But they are usually less offensive than those produced by MPs.

Anonymous said...

Hello Mr Dizzy

Not surprised to see my local in that list, um I mean Mr Vis. 667 you say? well well ..

What a waste of space he proved to be. To think he inherited the self same seat as the glorious one. Hmmmm ....

To give him credit, he has seen the writing on the wall and will not be standing when the next GE comes around. Good riddance to good rubbish.

imho (of course!)

Bill Quango MP said...

Tories a bit thin on the ground in the EDM stakes. I must Buck myself up.Had no idea there was some headlines in it..

Anonymous said...

It might be worth investigating whether any of these EDMs signed by a particular MP contradict one another...

Praguetory said...

Lefties rate meaningless protests above meaningful action and there are certainly a lot of Lefties on that list.