He Would Say That, Wouldn’t He?

Expensegate grinds on; it’s being milked very heavily by the Maily Telegraph. Now, in a further drip feed, are coming a succession of MPs deciding to stand down at the next General Election. That election cannot be more than a year away, but cometh the hour, cometh the opportunity: Corporal Clegg, the one party leader with the wind in his sails after all the revelations, is on the charge once more.

Clegg isn’t satisfied with the idea of MPs hanging on until the General Election. He wants a system whereby those caught being less than totally upstanding can be sacked. That is not provided for at present, although an MP can go voluntarily, as Young Dave’s jolly good chum Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson did after becoming Mayor of London.

The Clegg idea might look worthwhile, but I’ve got two thoughts that come to mind on the subject. Firstly, any vacancy means a by-election, and guess which party has the best track record there, especially when it comes to previously Tory held seats? Also, given that the Lib Dems are the only one of the three main parties that are broadly pro European, wouldn’t it be a good idea to put a similar proposal to the European Parliament, where there also seems to be no way of mid-term dismissal?

Such a move would deal with the double standards of UKIP: one MEP caught in an expense fiddle, and of course Kilroy not being here after taking his bat home. Both may have left UKIP, but they have been able to remain in the European Parliament, taking up seats on what looks to be a fraudulent prospectus.

So let’s see Nick speaking up consistently.