Monday, March 23, 2009

Plus ça change

At the tale end of last week it was widely report that the Labour Chief Whip, Nick Brown was unhappy with his lazy Labour colleagues. He told a press gallery lunch that "It is not unreasonable for the electorate and taxpayers to expect their MPs to be attending debates in the House of Commons or to vote when they get there" and announced his intention to crack the proverbial whip.

Thus I found it highly amusing to see that the one time leadership candidate of the Left, John McDonnell tabled an early day motion stating,
That this House notes press reports that the hon. Member for Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend is planning to bring forward rules for Labour hon. Members on how many times they must vote in a Parliamentary Session; and therefore urges that in future procedures are put in place to ensure that abstentions are able to be recorded in any vote in the House.
You have to love the style of that one surely? Essentially, McDonnell is calling for the ability of all those lazy MPs to pick up a phone and say they abstain on vote X, Y or Z, and this have it recorded that they did vote by not voting, and so they can all remain lazy bastards.

After all, how dare anyone suggest that MPs, especially Labour MPs, do what they're paid to do and attend and vote on debates? I mean, they've got more important things to do than vote, like getting their legover in their office with the mistress/hooker and recording it in pictures for the world to see at a later date.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I most certainly do not agree with many of John McDonnells political views. but I do have a certain amount of respect for the guy in that he is one of the few honest MP's in the house.
He is one who does vote regularly and is one of the few who does not appear to claim every single allowance going.

Letters From A Tory said...

Trying to get their legover while fighting for their political survival is a double whammy - or perhaps the former suggests that the latter is already a lost cause?

Anonymous said...

Just where does McDonnell say anything about phoning in abstentions?

Do you even know what an abstention is?

Many legislatures allow Members who are present to record that they neither agree or disagree with what is being voted on but you've still got to be present to vote. (e.g. the Welsh Assembly - see voting time )

The final nail in the coffin of your made up argument is that TheyWorkForYou.com rate McDonnell as speaking in a well above average number of debates in the last year, strange for someone who wants to phone in his performance

Anonymous said...

I don't think McDonnel was referring to himself, rather his more lazy colleagues who can't be bothered to turn out ot vote unless whipped to do so.
I noted he is one of the busier MP's