Politics amused more when you don't get to vote...

[thecesspit]

I see, reading the press, that London's finest arrested a Conservative MP for being Tory in a built up area. Twenty years too late for that, thanks, Mr Plod. However, the squealing and shifting by the MPs is interesting. Many seem outraged that one of their number can be arrested for passing on information that may, or may not, be covered under

Comments

[zenithed]

Suspending parliament to avoid a vote of no confidence? Nice! Can they do that again five minutes after paliament re-opens?

And are you first past the post over there, or PR? Ellen sometimes tells me about the situation in Austria with about five billion tiny parties forming coalitions which fall apart every few months and it makes my brain hurt.

[thecesspit]

It's a first past the post here, much the same as it is in the UK (though some of the ridings are smaller in population and much much bigger in size... Nunavut has one MP for the 31,000 people leaving in the Territory, which is 2 million square kms... or the size of Mexico). There's 5 main parties (Greens, Liberals, New Democrats, Conservatives and Bloc Quebecois), which isn't much different from the UK... just some provinces will swing between the three larger parties much more than areas of the UK do.

Prorogue (which is what has technically been done) is the end of the session until recalled by the Governor General... who will recall parliament for the budget. So technically I suspect she could prorogue it again, but won't, as she'll need the budget passed by someone.

The alliance is already showing a couple of small cracks, and Harper's aim is to hope that the six week break erodes an unstable coalition.

[onebyone]

MPs are shocked that they could be held accountable to the same laws that they enact and that the rest of the civilian population has to followThat's certainly the way the cabinet will spin it if they can. Laws concerning government whistle-blowers are awful, because the government of course wants to treat itself as a special exception to usual rules. Hence the existence of the Official Secrets Act and other provisions which go far beyond what any private organisation can expect of its employees. So for instance a regular employer cannot prosecute an employee for revealing that he has committed a crime. The government can, but usually doesn't

[onebyone]

I guess what I say in summary is that laws which the government enacts to protect itself from being held accountable for wrong-doing are bad laws. Any sensible citizen should break them where necessary, and support others who do the same. In this case, it has been suggested that the leaked documents included evidence that the Home Office was misleading parliament and the public. I don't want the Home Office to have the right to do that, especially since history tells us that the Home Secretary is the "cabinet role most likely to be found guilty in court of unlawful conduct".