Too little, too late
Monday, May 18, 2009 I have just been listening to the Speaker, Michael Martin, making a statement in the House of Commons. Anyone with an ounce of honour would surely have accepted full responsibility and announced his resignation. Instead, he said that all MPs must "accept blame" for what has happened. (All MPs? Why? They're not all crooks or morally incontinent.) As for stepping down, now or in the future, there was not even a hint.
What a sad little man, and what an appalling spectacle - a discredited official hanging on grimly to power, unable (or unwilling) to face up to magnitude of his ineptitude. Anyone with an ounce of honour would have gone, or at the very least announced the date of his departure from office.
Instead the Speaker talks of urgent action - meetings with the prime minister and other party leaders - to find a solution to the present crisis. Sorry, chum, you've had your chance. It's too little, too late.
I just hope that when he is forced to stand down Martin isn't "rewarded" with a peerage. He's done enough damage to the credibility of one chamber. Don't let him loose in another!
The BBC has the story HERE.
Reader Comments (9)
I listened to him with growing disbelief.
Anyone with an ounce of self-respect would have said, "I'm off".
Not this little self-serving grasper.
He is the lunatic running the asylum. Even his "go to guy" Gordon has turned his back.
Is Gorbals Mick just stupid, or is he really blind and deaf to the calls for his resignation?
Mind you, his boss sticks his fingers in his ears and sings "La la la la", so why shouldn't Tricky Mickey?
Sorry, I should have read your post more clearly. I just repeated what you said about honour and self-respect.
WTF. It bears repeating.
I'm enjoying them all looking like sheep.
The longer they hang onto power, the harder they'll fall and the more the public (who vote them in) will despise them.
Mind you, they don't listen to the public - never have and never will.
It's about time we had our say - and we will - and I'm looking forward to it
So now we know: Gorbals Mick IS going.
And good riddance to him !
But - despite Wisteria Cameron's attempt to seize the moral high ground (what's kept him so long ?) - he chickened out earlier on the 'Today'programme:
The Conservative Party would NOT:
"act unilaterally to remove the Speaker in the House of Commons - I don't think that would be right".
Why not ? If the Speaker - of all people - seems to be guilty of moral turpitude, then surely it's the DUTY of EVERY member of the House to call for his immediate resignation.
Is Cameron ONLY capable of showing some guts when he knows that The Crowd is behind him ?
I only ask because I want to know.......
Speaker Martin and the Home Secretary are perhaps the most obvious examples of what happens when you promote people beyond their natural ability. As with the BBC and mainstream media, Parliament has been'dumbed down'under the current administration. Perhaps prospective parliamentary candidates should be forced to take I.Q. and other intelligence tests before being able to stand, which may help prevent further unreasonable laws being foisted on the populace via questionable means.
Ali -
You're quite right about the elevation of certain people above their natural ability.
But it's not ALL about 'intelligence'(in its narrow, academic sense).
It's also (perhaps even more importantly) about PRINCIPLE.
Sorry to be boring but:
These people are charged with the awesome responsibility of framing (20 percent of) our laws, and it behoves them to act honourably at ALL times.
Frankly, I'm heartily sick of all the Clever People (most - though not all - on the Left) who think that they're a) Cleverer than me, and that therefore b) They can completely ignore whatever I have to say.
Give me slightly less 'intelligent' MPs who at least understand the principle of Caesar's Wife (even if they lack the benefits of a classical education).
Ernest Bevin - a working class lad through and through - had little education, but became one of our finest Foreign Secretaries (helping to found NATO in the process).
Edward Heath (Chatham House Grammar and Balliol)
sold our nation to the emerging European Superstate - whilst lying through his teeth to the British People about the TRUE consequences of signing up for a 'Common Market'.
David Cameron (First Class Honours in PPE from Oxford) still seems to believe in the idiocy of 'Global Warming', and once remarked rather feebly of our membership that "Some good things have come out of Europe" (I doubt he meant cheap fags, cheap booze, and Claudia Schiffer).
Above all, PLEASE give me someone who has had a Life Before Politics (and I DON'T mean a brief spell in Marketing-And-PR or 'Political Research')), and not some pipsqueak overgrown sixth-former who's Learnt It All From Books.
But that's enough about David Miliband.........
I agree Martin but would also add, a good dose of Common Sense would go a long, long way!
Lyn -
Amen to that !
If only Common Sense were more commonplace....
IQ has little to do with honesty, compassion or common sense.