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A solution to the Dorries non-resignation saga? – politicalbetting.com
A solution to the Dorries non-resignation saga? – politicalbetting.com
The veteran Labour MP Chris Bryant thinks he has found a way that could force Dorries to do what she announced on June 9th when she said she was resigning with immediate effect.
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Other than serious illness, there's really no justification for an MP abandoning their responsibilities for over six months.
They would be defending the indefensible.
Is Sunak really going to make that the subject of a three line whip ?
If he doesn't, then every MP who chooses to vote to defend the ability of members to abandon their constituents will be reminded of that at the next election.
It's not solely targeted at Dorries.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/aug/05/investigation-after-57-world-triathlon-championship-swimmers-fall-sick-and-get-diarrhoea-in-sunderland-race
..An Environment Agency sampling at Roker beach on Wednesday 26 July, three days before the event, showed 3,900 E Coli colonies per 100ml, more than 39 times higher than typical readings the previous month. E coli is a bacterial infection which can cause stomach pain and bloody diarrhoea,
But British Triathlon, the governing body for triathlons in Great Britain, said the agency’s sampling results were not published until after the weekend’s events and were outside the body of the water where its competitions took place. It said its own testing results passed the required standards for the event...
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/05/nadine-dorries-tory-mp-bedfordshire-replace-akinbusoye/ (£££)
Non-paywalled version on MSN
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/crime-tsar-picked-as-tory-candidate-to-replace-dorries-failed-to-bring-car-thieves-to-justice/ar-AA1eQpcI
A now commonplace device, Joseph Priestley’s timeline revolutionised how we view history.
https://www.historytoday.com/archive/history-matters/invention-time
Two Ukrainian robotics entrepreneurs launched HOMErs, range of factory-made tiny homes worth $18,000 that can be built within days
https://twitter.com/EuromaidanPress/status/1688012012469600256
"Note that Bryant's suggestion is part of a package of reforms he's advocating for Parliament.
It's not solely targeted at Dorries."
As a matter of interest, is there a list of MPs' attendance? There is data for votes, but what about attendance?
(And as the late Stuart Bell showed, attendance in the press lobby does not mean you are actually doing the job in your constituency...)
There have been lots of MPs in recent years who have gone missing from the Commons (the most obvious example in my mind was Jared O'Mara, elected as Labour MP), so it is nonsensical to say that this reform is being proposed to target one individual.
Obviously Mike is interested in it from the angle of the betting on the hypothetical Mid Beds by-election, but I don't think that is upper most in Chris Bryant's mind. You do him a disservice.
And the threader indicates that's what it is.
Another poster claims this change is part of a wider package, but does not provide a link for that assertion. In addition, if Bryant is selling a package of changes on the basis of getting at one MP, then that is also wrong.
And here's a link for you so that you don't have that excuse any more: https://guardianbookshop.com/code-of-conduct-9781526663597
I don't see what the problem if the Dorries example prompts some kind of change so MP's maintain a satisfactory attendance record, same as school or work.
Bryant is not introducing a new law just for one person. From the FT:
Criticising Dorries as an “absentee MP”, Bryant said that when MPs returned to parliament in September it would be “perfectly legitimate . . . to table a motion saying the member for Mid Bedfordshire — and, for that matter, anybody else who hasn’t turned up for six months — must attend by such-and-such a date or will be suspended from the House for 10 sitting days or more”.
Why do I have a 'responsibility' to do research into a comment someone else made? I was going from the threader, which mentions none of that. And seemingly unusually, I read the threader before the comments.
I don't like Dorries. I can't say how good or bad she has been as a constituency MP, but IMV she has not been a good parliamentary MP, and I disagree with many of her views. But changing the rules to get at her is wrong IMO.
It's quite likely that I have caught Covid from the wedding I recently attended, I feel awful, have barely slept, and I will gnaw on this bone for as long as it distracts me from how bad I feel.
Why is it so rare for people to admit to simple and minor errors?
Hope you feel better soon, Mr Password.
Is an MP who is very rarely in their contituency, but turns up to parliament 80% of the time, a good MP?
Is an MP who spends 90% of their time in their constituency, but turns up to parliament 10% of the time, a good MP?
Then there's the wording of the 1801 law, which throws up a load of questions.
Hope you feel better soon; Covid was not pleasant when I got it earlier this year.
Lawyers, in their wife’s kimonos, would be striking heroic poses on the steps of the Supreme Court.
I’ve long argued that we need to have a good look at what MPs jobs actually are. And have an actual career structure, complete with ongoing training.
The answer seems quite simple to me: let voters decide. We have regular elections in this country. If an MP does something very wrong, they can be subjected to recall. Otherwise, let the voters decide at an election.
But this also requires data on attendance to be publicly available - however you define 'attendance'.
You are being ridiculous.
There is another MP who hasn't attended Parliament for ages. I don't want to get into their case, beyond saying that noting that they are always keen to emphasise the Not Londoness of their constituency. Forcing them to argue that staying in their constituency qualifies as being "in town" would be a small amusement.
As Malms indicates below, the current working practices of MPs and parliament as a whole are a mess. This proposal seems like a sticking plaster put on a clean piece of skin rather than the hundreds of slash marks that cover the body politic.
In my case, Andrew Lansley was my MP for a while, and he was Mister ****ing Invisible in the constituency.
I hope you feel much better soon
xx
And if I remember rightly, the months when Parliament sat corresponded to the social Season, so anybody who mattered was bound to be "in town" anyway.
The rest of the year was for hunting, shooting, fishing, visiting friends in their stately homes and travelling abroad.
But what is Ms Dorries actually doing with her time?
Bryant has written an entire book suggesting Parliamentary reforms - this is one if them.
No doubt the government will try that line.
"Criticising Dorries as an “absentee MP”, Bryant said that when MPs returned to parliament in September it would be “perfectly legitimate . . . to table a motion saying the member for Mid Bedfordshire — and, for that matter, anybody else who hasn’t turned up for six months — must attend by such-and-such a date or will be suspended from the House for 10 sitting days or more”."
It's difficult to see how you can say he is not targeting her. Retrospectively, in fact.
https://a.pgtb.me/8MVZwm
If course he is targeting her - but he is not "targeting one person", as you claim.
The rule has been around since 1801, so it's hardly retrospective.
Even then, it is clearly targeting her. Why did he not propose it for (say) O'Mara after his time in parliament?
If he had said: "This will only apply to MPs from the next parliament," I would be less unhappy - with the caveats I've said below.
And, for the record, Bryant is very serious about parliamentary reform and is just about the only MP around who reads, thinks and writes deeply about how our parliamentary democracy could be improved. So good on him.
Bryant = Carey
As it probably has not been used for many decades, who gets to decide what the archaic wording means in the context of a modern parliament? Parliament itself? The committee?
And yes, he is clearly targeting her alone. If he was not, he would have mentioned other cases that would also have warranted this. And sadly, there are a fair few.
But the same could be said for many MPs of all parties.
If you want to get rid of Dorries, do it properly. Not like this.
You may be surprised but I agree with you about Chris Bryant and he is consistent in wanting to raise parliamentary standards
As far as Dorries is concerned, nobody can condone her contempt for Parliament and Sunak was right to call her out this last week
Now, if you can identify other MPs who are simply not doing any work at all for their salary, Bryant would, I'm sure, be after them. But there is something in between doing nothing at all and doing a good job.
Criticising Dorries as an “absentee MP”, Bryant said that when MPs returned to parliament in September it would be “perfectly legitimate . . . to table a motion saying the member for Mid Bedfordshire — and, for that matter, anybody else who hasn’t turned up for six months — must attend by such-and-such a date or will be suspended from the House for 10 sitting days or more”. The proposal, which Bryant said he had presented to government and Labour whips, is detailed in his new book, Code of Conduct: Why We Need to Fix Parliament — and How to Do It. In it he explained the rule: “If the House nominated you, you had to attend. Thus when William Smith O’Brien refused to serve on a railway committee in 1846, the House had him detained overnight in the Clock Tower cell.”
Home secretary’s fears over spies’ links to gangs
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/iranian-state-now-biggest-threat-to-uk-0bdmb9b8t (£££)
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) are naughty boys, says Suella. This is more interesting than it sounds because her Cabinet colleague, the Foreign Secretary, has been copping flack for not banning the the IRGC. So ignoring the merits of the issue, we might be looking at a split in the Cabinet and even between MI5 and MI6.
So it sounds as if "go out of town" was interpreted in that case to mean not turn up for the job, rather than literally leaving London. Be good to see the book and its sources.
Make sport of her uselessness by all means, but no real need for a byelection would be my advice to Labour.
Parliament needs to introduce some kind of don't take the piss rule for MPs attendance, but use a new rule rather than rely on a relic.
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/5/2184924/-Ukraine-Update-Ukraine-s-war-of-attrition-can-break-Russia-and-it-won-t-take-years#comment_86739750
It gives every sign of NOT running out of ordnance
Perhaps I higher threshold for a recall petition when an MP is not suspended too.
There isn't much evidence of a master plan on either side; it's all just hit and hope.
I would presume that Parliament would be ultimately who gets to decide, as that is what happens with all other suspensions.
This is a technicality, but the law is nothing more than a heap of technicalities.
Both of the two leading in the betting for Ru'glen are criticising SKS as Kid Starver. Yes, including the Slab candidate.
Not in the least surprised.
This coheres with the likelihood that they have some domestic production, and they are able to buy more, abroad. From Iran and so on
As of today everything says Stalemate to me. Russia hasn’t got the weaponry to overwhelm Ukraine’s NATO stiffened defences. Nor the missiles to bomb Ukraine into submission
But Ukraine doesn’t have the manpower to push Russia out of its captured, heavily mined positions
It’s an ugly state of affairs
The most important part of this article, for me, is the efficiency and effectiveness of counter-battery operations by western designed artillery. The Russian military model is very dependent upon artillery and these losses are significant. It is perhaps telling that in wars over the last 20-40 years the Russians have almost never faced a foe capable of firing back with advantage. They are now.
My bus out of Ukraine on Friday was held up for two hours as the Ukrainians minutely inspected all the documents. The Romanians waved us through in 10 minutes
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/aug/05/labour-chris-bryant-interview-code-conduct-book
With life increasingly dangerous for Jews in Nazi Germany, tailor David Makofski set out to rescue as many as possible – and saved hundreds
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/08/06/david-makofski-yorkshire-unsung-holocaust-hero/ (£££)
Almost everywhere was RAMMED. Streets so full of people cars couldn’t get through. Yes it was a Saturday night in summer but it was also filthy: 13C and raining
Central London is booming, at least around W1/WC2
https://twitter.com/LvivJournal/status/1687432449330913281?t=1lY7tb2com80vwcTDnCEhQ&s=19
https://twitter.com/schiedamseschot/status/1687557549434830849?t=Xc5b5gEs5RA8VBmzsrkwyA&s=19
They might have better luck with delay tactics - many delays can be justified - if Trump shut his mouth for five minutes and had not both complained it took this long to be charged but also talks about pushing them beyond the election, making his motivations clear, if that were still needed.