Michael Martin – aka Gorbals Mick – has finally resigned as Speaker of the British Parliament after being the first Speaker in over 300 years to be forced out of the job by his colleagues.
This is good news because Gorbals is, to be brutally honest, a tosser. Even better news is that he will also be applying for the Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds, one of the ways of resigning as an MP.
It’s not actually possible to resign as an MP so those MPs that no longer want to be MPs have to apply for a job as an agent of the Crown which means that legally they can no longer be an MP. So MPs apply for the Stewardship of the Chiltern Hundreds or the Manor of Northstead.
Anyway, archaic political lesson over, back to Gorbals.
Whilst it is a good thing that Gorbals has been forced out of office and is resigning as an MP, it is important that he isn’t made a scapegoat for the whole House of Commons over their expenses fraud. The other corrupt MPs mustn’t be let off the hook – they must be forced to resign, by-elections have to be held and criminal investigations and prosecutions must take place. Preferably, a general election should be called because the electorate has no confidence in the entire British government.
And someone really should tell George Galloway that Gorbals Mick, with his salary of £144,520 and the title of “Highest Commoner in the Land”, isn’t working class. Yes, he was born to a working class family in some sink hole in Glasgow but that was a long time ago. Alan Sugar was born to a working class family, he talks with a working class accent and he’s woth £830m – is he still working class? Mohamed Al-Fayed was born to a working class family in Egypt and he’s now worth £900m and owns Harrods – is he still working class?
Gorbals is part of the establishment, part of the ruling class and an extremely wealthy man (probably a millionaire by now). Working class he is not.
Let’s just hope that the next speaker is someone with the balls to stand up to the whip and carry out the job with the impartiality that Gorbals lacked. And with a bit of luck, the next speaker won’t be an English hating ignorant jock.
Technorati Tags: Gorbals Mick, Michael Martin, Speaker, Resignation
Strictly speaking, if Michael Martin was dependent upon only a wage, yes, he’d still be working class.
But as the rest of us don’t live in mansions overlooking the Thames or massive expense claims, and can be sacked if we fuck up, I think it’s safe to say he’s made it into the big league.
As you say, Wonko
“Alan Sugar was born to a working class family, he talks with a working class accent and he’s woth £830m – is he still working class? Mohamed Al-Fayed was born to a working class family in Egypt and he’s now worth £900m and owns Harrods – is he still working class?”
The answer is of course, no.
I was surprised that Galloway jumped to defend a man who only a year ago expelled him from parliament for a few days on some trivial matter – but then, there’s no doubt there was some snobbery in parliament about Martin. The same kind of disdain that old money has about the nouveau riche…
“…criminal investigations and prosecutions must take place.”
I bet they don’t.
george galloway is another weegie fuck we are well rid of, it seems a shame that you send to end up with all our spare fannies 🙁
george galloway is another weegie fuck we are well rid of, it seems a shame that you seem to end up with all our spare fannies 🙁
that makes more sense 😉
I wouldn’t hold my breath…
We do we need MP’s from Scottish constituencies at all ?
We have a an elected parliament in Scotland already , why not just send representatives from that parliament to the wasteminster parliament when there is a UK wide debate , likewise for Wales .
That way England gets its own parliament, and the UK issues are debated in national parliaments and their representatives can they thrash it out at UK level.
Oh yeah – I remember – that would bugger the big ‘national’ parties .. shame 🙂
“We have a an elected parliament in Scotland already , why not just send representatives from that parliament to the wasteminster parliament when there is a UK wide debate , likewise for Wales.”
Not a bad idea – but the MPs who will be dumped won’t like it one bit.
There will be a referendum in Wales on lawmaking powers for the Welsh assembly – making it in effect a parliament – and there’s sure to be some agitation around this.
Before the 1997 election, Labour promised us a vote on proportional representation. This hasn’t been kept – but both the Scottish Parliament and Welsh assermbly have a sort-of PR in the form of ‘top-up’ members.
McFeagle, the problem with that idea (basically what the Tories propose for England) is where do their loyalties lie and how do they separate their duties? How can a British MP elected in Scotland spend 3 days a week butting the UK first and 2 days a week putting Scotland first and if they debate something on Wednesday that’s good for Britain but bad for Scotland and something on Thursday that’s good for Scotland but bad for Britain, which one do they go for?