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Michael Martin has been re-elected the speaker of the house of commons. Whilst I’m sure from his record that Mr Martin is an excellent choice for this role, I feel that his Glasgow North East constituents (and those of other speakers before him) are terribly let down by this process.

The reason is that the main parties traditionally do not oppose him in his constituency. Consequently, his constituents are unable to properly express their opinion. Whilst the speaker is independent, the fact of the matter is that 30,000 people essentially had their opinions ignored by the system. He does not take part in votes other than in a casting vote capacity, and does not take an opinionated part in the debates.

I support the idea of an independent speaker, but surely as it’s a largely management role, it could be filled without drawing on the current MP’s. A previously elected MP perhaps? So long as they command the support of the vast majority of the House of Commons, it’d ensure that every citizen had the right to choose from a genuinely diverse set of candidates from all parties who would wish to contest the seat, and could ensure they have a MP who is able to represent their views on all matters.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 11th, 2005 at 4:57 pm and is filed under British General Election, Glasgow, Politics, Scotland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.