Thank you Twitter

Well its official. John Bercow is the new Speaker and good luck to him. I think he’ll do a good job but I’ll be continuing to push him to move the balance of power away from Westminster and back to the people.

I’d also like to say a big thank you to the many kind comments I had about my speech on Twitter. I may not have won the contest in Parliament, but I’m told I won it on Twitter! So I need to start twittering myself which I mean to do asap.

Also, there was a nice post on the FT’s website after the speeches I thought I’d share with you…

http://blogs.ft.com/westminster/2009/06/speakers-speeches-a-brief-summary/

The Role of the Speaker

Parliament is in crisis. Just a few days ago we saw the election of two members of the BNP to the European Parliament. But I don’t believe that the British people are racist. Many MPs feel we need to make some radical changes to reassert the values of our democracy and to restore the public’s faith in its representatives. I’m one of those MPs.

This is a unique time and opportunity to reform Parliament. To do so the next Speaker of the House will need to be someone who will work to clinically shift power away from the Executive and from Parliament and place it firmly back in the hands of the people. Only then can we begin to put behind us the on-going destruction of public confidence over MPs’ allowances. It’s too late for evolution and time for us to be brave. I believe that if we firmly shift the pendulum of power back to the public they are more likely to put their trust in us again. To put these changes in place we will need a Speaker who is comfortable in, and able to communicate with modern Britain.

I think he or she will need to do 3 key things. Firstly, take Parliament out of Westminster. We need to give ownership of Parliament to the people. Hence Ministers, Shadow Ministers and whips will need to relinquish their control of the Parliamentary Agenda. Through new technology like internet polling the public should choose the issues for ‘topical debate’. And instead of poorly attended debates lacking atmosphere in Westminster Hall, Parliament should relocate Ministers and the entire apparatus for these debates to Town Halls around the country. A day of adjournment debates on local issues in the regions would be top billing in regional media and give us the chance to draw crowds to Parliamentary proceedings.

Secondly, we need to change our personnel to reflect modern Britain. The next Speaker needs to do much more than preside over committees and Parliamentary proceedings in the Chamber. In a more public way than ever, the Speaker will be the interface between Parliament and modern Britain, championing the role of MPs and encouraging greater participation amongst the public. But to truly change the settlement in favour of the public, the personnel who represent our Parliament will have to change too. At the current rate of progress Parliament will not be representative of its racial, gender or class mix at any time in the next 100 years. The Speaker must actively encourage political parties to make changes, through law, to catalyse these changes over one or two terms, not 100 years.

Just one example of Parliament’s abject failure to move with the times is the fact the Palace of Westminster still does not have even rudimentary crèche facilities to allow MPs access to child care. And then we leave MPs to face the music when they take it upon themselves to use their archaic allowances system to come up with alternative child care provision. Parliament not only stitches them up at the outset, it then hangs them out to dry afterwards. That’s not a defence of those that abuse the system, but an acceptance of how far removed from reality the system has become. Surely the Speaker’s job is to make Parliament more representative of society and to actively articulate how it will be done.

Finally, Mr or Madam Speaker needs to change the balance – to create a more relaxed executive, a stronger Parliament. As politicians we need to accept that we are living in changing times. It’s time for us to be more deferential towards the public. The British public want to see the executive loosen its grip. At present party whips don’t just influence membership and chairs of our committees; they even decide which MPs deserve a nice office. Parliament should elect its chairs, and all of the administrative matters (like allowances and accommodation) should be entirely independent of politicians.

In the current set up it is inevitable that there will be a large element of ‘buggins turn’ and a closed shop mentality, partly because our upper chamber is still full of political appointments and hereditary peers. Parliament is in danger of being left behind while the world moves on, so the next Speaker needs to be brave and play a leadership role in championing reform of the House of Lords.

I hope whichever candidate comes forward with a radical agenda encompassing these principles of reform will prevail on June 22nd. Just as importantly such an agenda will have the support of the public.

Can this guy be allowed to continue?

Apologies in advance for the disgracefully bad language in this blog. But this was posted by my Tory opponent on his website – a man who wants to be Gloucester’s MP. Do you think this kind of language is acceptable for somebody in public life?

I’ve written to David Cameron saying that Cameron and his PPC owe me an apology, but I think Gloucester residents deserve one as well for putting up with this kind of language from somebody who wants to represent them. Cameron needs to show some leadership and say whatever disagreements we have on issues, this kind of thing just damages politics full stop. I’ve told Cameron he should sack him and do it now, or does he buy his PPC’s arguement that what he meant was ‘councillor’ and not c***

Are the tables turning in Quedgeley?

Are the tables turning in Quedgeley? Since the march to the Javelin Park incinerator site a few weeks ago dozens of anti-incinerator posters have been popping up in windows across Quedgeley and the whole of Gloucester.

Local people still stop me in the street to convey their surprise that not a single one of their local Tory councillors bothered to turn up for the march against the council’s incinerator plans.

It just goes to show. While things may be tough for the government on a national level, local Labour campaigns can still have a real impact.

Quedgeley may not traditionally be Labour. But one thing’s for sure. Unless the Tories back down on their plans for a giant incinerator and listen to local people, the tables could turn against them.

A better system for MPs’ expenses?

One of the most controversial issues in recent months has been MPs’ expenses. I recently received this letter from the Prime Minster and I have been asked to vote on it this week. Do you think this would be a better system for MPs’ expenses?

Dear Parmjit,

Going round the country I have been struck by the comments that are made by young people when I meet them about the jobs they want to do when they grow up.

I meet large numbers of people who want to be doctors and nurses, many who want to be teachers and firemen and ambulancemen and many who want to be in the caring services. And when I ask them why they want to do what they plan to do, they say because they want to make a difference.

But these days I rarely meet anyone who wants to be a Member of Parliament when they grow up and that is a shame, because I think MPs can make an enormous difference to people they represent – whether its voting for laws that improve the whole of the country in or whether it is fighting the cause of a single constituent who needs your help. And we need future generations of committed young people to come into politics.

Now the vast majorSo I am announcing today urgent proposals to make our system of MPs’ allowances and expenses simpler and less generous.

Sir Christopher Kelly and the Committee on Standards in Public Life are continuing to carry out an independent review into the system so we can make permanent changes.

But I believe we have to act urgently with interim proposals to restore people’s confidence that MPs are there to serve the public and not serve themselves.
And I want a vote to take place to overhaul the current system as early as next week.

A detailed written statement setting out our will be made by Harriet Harman but its main points are:
- the additional costs allowance – or second homes allowance – should be abolished and replaced by a flat rate daily allowance. This will reflect the fact that MPs do incur extra costs from working in two different places but it should be based on attendance in the House of Commons.
- those ministers who live in official residences would not be entitled to this allowance. Nor would MPs within travelling distance of Westminster – they would receive a London supplement similar to London weighting of salaries.
- the Committee on Standards in Public Life is examining the rules governing employment of spouses or other relatives. But in the interim, staff appointed by MPs should, without exception, become direct employees of the House of Commons, which will now be centrally responsible for their employment terms and conditions, contracts, and the payment of their salaries within the statutory limit allowed – and will have the right to make an audit and independent assessment of such contracts.
- while the committee on standards in public life looks into the issue more fully, we will ensure there is greater transparency on second jobs held by MPs. Where members of parliament have a second source of income from second jobs, every payment should be declared with a full description of what it is for and who paid it. There shall also be a full declaration of the hours worked for the payment received.

I want to discuss these interim proposals with the other party leaders and hope we can reach consensus. We will ask the House of Commons to approve them next week. With these changes I hope that the work of MPs can become recognised again for what it should be – a service to the public.ity of MPs I know do an excellent job. They are in public service not for what they can get, but for what they can give.

Yet the issue of expenses is casting a cloud over the whole of Parliament. So MPs need to have the humility to recognise that the country has lost confidence in the current system. To restore our faith in Parliament, and the good that it can do on the public’s behalf, we must commit to tightening up the system of allowances urgently.
Every MP I know wants to live by the rules, but for too long some of these rules have been insufficiently clear. So we need to make the rules clearer, and we also need to save money.

From red rag to bull…

Whether or not Damian McBride had to go should not even have been a matter for debate. Tom Harris is absolutely spot on in his blog when he says: “…the Tories might privately have hoped McBride would survive. After all what could be more damaging to the government and to the Prime Minister himself than to be seen to endorse such behaviour by taking no action against him?” Likewise for anyone else found to have been involved in ’smeargate’.

The more I read about these e-mails, targeting not just politicians but their families, the more I can only conclude this is one of the most  sordid and damaging things that have ever been produced by ‘allies’ of a Prime Minister, certainly in my lifetime.

So what happens now? Firstly, don’t underestimate the damage this will do to the body-politic in this country, so the clearer and louder the apology, the better. But beyond that, things have got to change. I know current ministers and ex-ministers who have been briefed against or ’smeared’ by people who have then been allowed to just carry on in their posts, encouraged and rewarded even.

Journalists have informed me that at the last reshuffle I got a dose of the ‘briefing’ treatment by one or two who I thought knew better too. And this is from people who are meant to be on our side! But when they brief people, they always think they’ll never get found out. They’re wrong.

The Prime Minister needs to be strong and firm on this issue, because this goes way beyond party-politics. If people want to play university student union style politics in the blogosphere by smearing people with lies and innuendo, then frankly they should either leave and go back to the campus or the PM should kick them out.

It was bad enough that people don’t want to go into politics because they think politicans are disreputable, now they’re unlikely to for fear of being lied about.

Say it ain’t snow!

As I tottered in to the office this morning, listening to Radio Gloucestershire and trying to pay heed to the Police advice not to make unnecessary jouneys in this weather,  I couldn’t help but wonder whether things have to be quite like this.

For those of us who actually like to be out working, this gritty situation, or lack of grit, is a real problem. I appreciate there may be one or two people reading this who like nothing better than staying at home and rocking gently in front of a computer, but that isn’t the case for most, I know.

Cllr Bill Evans (Labour, god bless him) decided to take Gloucestershire County Council to task. Places like Norfolk seem to have a good stock of rock salt and I undersatnd they haven’t come a cropper, so why us? So Bill asked Gloucestershire County Council if they would supply him with agreed delivery dates, contact details of the supplier so he could check if they had defaulted and tonnage. He also asked Shire Hall if there are penalty clauses in the contractor’s contract for failing to deliver.

And the reply? Here it is:

Well, that’s cleared that up, hasn’t it?!

A Young Frank Bruno?

Whilst discussing the recent exchanges between Gordon Brown and David Cameron with a couple of friends I got some odd looks when I suggested Cameron was behaving like a young Frank Bruno. I received some quizzical looks until I got the chance to embelish my theory. It goes something like this.

Brown has been getting the better of Cameron at PMQs since Parliament returned from the Summer break. Prior to that Cameron had done very well. But every week now he seems to get caught by the ‘clunking fist’ and gets a lecture on the economy. Most weeks Cameron tries to toe-to-toe it on the economy for all or at least most of his six questions. Its built GB’s confidence up and he is now on top of his game.

Harry Carpenter always used to say when Bruno got beaten in his early title fights that it was because in order to be champion, Bruno thought he had to be the best fighter – in every department. So if ‘Bonecrusher Smith’ wanted to turn it in to battle on the inside involving low blows, kidney punches and ear-biting, Bruno felt the need to partake and try to be better at ‘fighting inside’, instead of playing to his own strengths.

 You can’t avoid the economy as the battleground, but there have been other issues out there. Cameron used to thrown in a wild card on Darfur or the prescribing of Hizb-ut-tahrir. The fact of the matter is that no matter what subject Cameron goes on now, he has given his opponent the time to grow in confidence – Brown is now a different proposition at the despatch box each Wednesday.

Bring home Gloucester City Football Club!

Earlier this week I went to a really nice fundraising dinner with colleagues from Gloucester City AFC. It was a fantastic night. The guest speakers were former Liverpool, Chelsea and Wrexham full back Joey Jones and former British Lions Captain Phil Bennett.

It was well attended and the speeches were funny as well as inspirational. Hopefully we managed to raise some useful cash for the club in the auction.  I put my hand in my pocket and bought a wonderful print of Henry Cooper in his prime knocking down my hero Muhammed Ali with that famous left hook in the 1960’s.

But the bottom line, from our guest speakers, the club chairman and our devoted football fans is this – we need the club back in or around our City. Since we lost Meadow Park in the floods last year our supporters have been left travelling to Nailsworth last season and left making a 40 mile round trip to Cirencester this season.

Enough is enough, we need help from our councils to bring us home. Expect to hear more from me on this in a debate in Parliament soon.

The call that no minister wants to receive

Last night I received the call that no minister wants to receive. I was told by the Prime Minster that he wanted to move me on to a non-ministerial post. Of course it was a disappointment, but Ministerial jobs come and go. It’s been a real honour to serve my country as an education minister and then as a CLG minister covering the fire service and community cohesion issues. I am now looking forward to having more time for bread and butter causes in Gloucester. It was for this reason that I decided to turn down the Prime Minister’s offer and return full time to the backbenches.

One thing I do hope this reshuffle takes into account is the fact that for too long I’ve been the only MP with Indian roots to be serving as a minister. I do hope this will be rectified in the near future. But personally I can now look forward to cracking on with my job for the City of Gloucester.