Oh dear, Ed. You’re making a mess even of your own feeble Big Idea

Further to my post this morning, Ed Miliband has exacerbated his feeble ‘Big Idea’ by refusing to confirm that the £6,000 student fee would be a manifesto commitment, nor would he confirm that £6,000 would be the maximum that Labour would support. His performance on the Andrew Marr programme will have hardly inspired. Watch it here if you can bear it.

I supported Ed Miliband for the leadership, and still believe that David Miliband would have been a disaster. David is, and always will be, associated with the worst aspects of Blairism. The Tories are keen on him for one or possible two reasons – he is more right wing that Ed, and there are sufficient suspicions about his record in office to allow him to be truly independent. The problem with Ed, he may have a cleaner past, but he is falling over himself to appear safe and to compromise.

On the other hand, Harriet Harman, Ed Balls or Yvette Cooper …?

MP Expenses: A Threat to Democracy

Harriet Harman today outlined three new offences targeting false claims, registering interests and payments to MPs for raising issues in Parliament.
She also announced the establishment of an Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) to run MPs’ expenses.

While many of the reforms are to be welcomed, there is one that sets a very dangerous precedent. The IPSA will have powers to expel Members of Parliament for breaches of the code. This is fundamentally wrong and needs to be rethought.

Send MP’s to prison for illegal acts, yes, but the only people who should be allowed to expel members of Parliament are their constituents. Perhaps the House authorities should advocate a recall system whereby local constituents, in sufficient numbers to sign a new the necessary petition, could trigger a vote on whether the MP should be forced to stand down, thereby causing a by-election.

Any system that allows unelected officials to remove elected representatives is fundamentally and democratic. Any system where the political majority can exclude a minority party or individual could result in decisions being made that are fundamentally undermine democracy and the relationship of a Member of Parliament with her or his constituency.