Putting our House in Order

Good riddance to Michael Martin
As it is Michael Martin’s last day as Speaker, I thought I would share my thoughts on the sorry state of public affairs in our Houses of Parliament.
In the first instance, Michael Martin should never have been made Speaker. The tradition is that the political parties take turns and the previous Speaker, Betty Boothroyd, was a Labour MP. When she resigned, it followed that it should have been someone from the opposition and at the time it happened to be the Conservative Party.
All we hear in the media is how nice a guy Michael Martin is; not that he was a dreadful Speaker, not that he never had any air of authority, not that he had no control over the house at any point during his career as Speaker except when, every now and again, he acted like a spoilt child and had a fit of peek when he wasn’t getting his own way.
I think I know of someone who would bring the House back in order: Ann Widdecombe. Even if you don’t like her or her politics, she is a force to be reckoned with, she has definite views, would definitely keep everyone in check and as an extra bonus, she has a great sense of humour, which is essential! She definitely would have my vote, if I had one to cast which I don’t!!
A dishonourable and dishonest House of Parliament
If we, as taxpayers, defrauded the Government, they would come down on us like a ton of bricks. You only have to look at all the TV advertising on benefit fraud and an excellent example is the old age pensioner who didn’t want to pay her council tax as it was excessive and she couldn’t afford it; if I recall correctly, she was imprisoned for a short while!
So, I have to ask myself, “What have many MPs been doing with our money”? They have been spending it on lavish lifestyles to which they feel that they have become accustomed, including flipping houses (which is rich considering that one of the “baddies” is our Chancellor who should know better!!) expensive duck houses, having trees felled on their large estates, and the list goes on. These few examples may be in accordance with, but are definitely not in the spirit of, the “rules” that Tony Blair very interestingly brought in to save him from having to deal with MPs’ salary increases!
So what happens to those MPs who get caught with their fingers in the till, having broken the rules? Do they feel any lack of integrity? As a matter of honour, do they think they should resign? No. It is a great shame that we seem to have a parliament made up of self-made men, at our expense, who lack both integrity and honour.
My feeling is that all the MPs who have been caught breaking the rules should not only be banned from ever standing for office again, but if they have been caught defrauding us, the tax payers, that they should be charged with the offence of theft and imprisoned upon conviction.