The week in Westminster
Some weeks in Westminster are about issues – not this one. Hard, gritty ethical problems you can really get your teeth into are the usual fare. The 42-day agonies over civil liberty. The question of when to give a foetus rights. Even whether to compensate those losing out on 10p income tax.
Not this week, which – in the headlines at least – has been a desert of issues. It’s politics, politics, politics all the way and there’s been a strong sense of seediness about the whole affair. MPs’ expenses have been a regular feature of this column in recent weeks but this week’s developments really pushed them to the forefront. You can take in our editor’s delightful ruminations on the subject here.
The problem is a real one, as David Lammy explained to a Progress meeting in Portcullis House on Monday evening. There is a widespread disaffection with Westminster as there is in the US with Washington, he explained. Political elitism is at the heart of it all. The perception of MPs enjoying their cushy job is proving difficult to shake off. Whether or not you think the Commons voted the right way this week, it is hardly going to help end existing concerns about the problem.
Expenses has not been the only area where things have been a little uneasy. The week’s prime minister’s questions, though largely pedestrian, was overshadowed by David Cameron’s piercing semi-allegations about home affairs committee chairman Keith Vaz. Might a deal have been made between Mr Vaz and the government over the former’s strange decision to change his mind on 42 days? Gordon Brown was spluttering in anger at the implied allegation but a well-timed intervention from speaker Michael Martin stopped the matter getting out of hand. Mr Vaz denied any impropriety.
The handing over of Peter Hain’s file to the crown prosecution service by the Metropolitan police completed a trio of unpleasant news stories in a week which has not really been about the issues at all. True, there was a kerfuffle over vehicle excise duty. Shock, horror – the government was forced to publicly concede what it has known all along, that the 2p hike delayed until this autumn would have to be delayed further still. The focus here was on what the Treasury was publicly saying and its backroom dealings on the issue. Backroom dealings? That won’t help the government’s reputation one iota.
