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Comment Threads

• cepetit.myopenid.com commented on We appear to have a hung parliament
  <{sarcasm}> The need for a coalition government at present reminds me a great deal of an American aphorism from the First War of American Secession (1774-1783, approximately): "We must all hang together, for we shall surely hang separately." Frankly, I'm in favor of either for the parasitic "class" of professional politicians (on both sides of the pond): I know too many of them. Either a mass execution or individual ceremonies will do. Oh, OK, I'll stop inciting violence against politicians... at about the same time they stop inciting violence themselves (and I feel fortunate I don't live in Arizona... or...
• vatine commented on We appear to have a hung parliament
  What I'd like to see is MPs having their parliamentary pay docked (and, ideally, expenses declined) if they're present for less than X% of the votes in Whitehall. I'm not sure what X should be, I am tentatively in favour of X=75, but even X=50 would cause quite an upsurge in MPs being present. I'd even go as far as saying that'd make me happier (since I am not allowed to vote for parliament anyway)....
• davharris commented on We appear to have a hung parliament
  Being present for the vote isn't quite the point - the Whips already manage attendance for voting because they want their party to win! I think it's more important that MPs actually attend and take part in the debates, which are often kept going by a handful on each side, rather than just streaming in when the division bell goes (various sites round Westminster have a feed for the division bell, including, I think, the Red Lion pub in Whitehall and of course the bars in the Palace itself...) Of course MPs do have other things to do (Committee work,...
• vatine commented on We appear to have a hung parliament
  davharris @ #81: So, make it "voting and debate attendance" (preferably with debate attendance taken at the start and several points during the debate, to make it harder to game). What I want is for MPs not turning up to do their job not getting paid for the job (and, possibly, not get expenses paid). Imagine an ordinary Joe turning up for only eight hours, three days a week, how long would they last (and I am implicitly assuming a 40-hour, 5-day week here) before being fired? Two weeks? Three? Of course tehre's the issue of ill health and the...
• Charlie Stross commented on We appear to have a hung parliament
  MPs have other duties. For one thing, they're representatives; this entails spending time in their constituencies, dealing with constituents' problems and talking to local councillors, etc. For another thing, most MP's constituencies are some distance away from parliament -- my MP has to make a round trip of nearly a thousand miles every week to deal with his weekly constituency surgeries (and have a weekend at home). We might do better on attendance if we attempted to provide for MPs to vote on issues remotely and monitor or contribute to parliamentary debates and business while travelling. (Skype, anybody?)...