Wednesday 23 December 2009

One Rule For Labour, One Rule For The Conservatives

William Hague has lambasted Gordon Brown and his Ministers for the decision to delay their appearance before the Iraq inquiry.

Hague states: "It is becoming clearer and clearer why Gordon Brown delayed setting up the Inquiry for so long after it should have begun its work".

Oh William, if it is becoming clearer and clearer why Gordon Brown delayed setting up the Inquiry, so it is becoming clearer and clearer why David Cameron delayed setting out his position on EU membership following the Lisbon ratification process. And please don't respond with the official 'crap' about waiting for the last member state to ratifiy; David Cameron could just as well said, months earlier, if (a) happens, we will do (b) - and so on.

Hague makes the point that government should be open and accountable, in which case does this not apply to opposition parties? It would seem that the Conservatives are just as devious as Labour or the Liberal Democrats in that they are far from 'open' and 'accountable'.

If William Hague, as an MP - and the fact that he is a Shadow Front Bench Spokesman is neither here nor there - can make a pronouncement on matters which affect people outside his constituency, then so can any other MP make a statement on whether they would promise to put country before party and whether, within the first year of the new parliament, they would promote, and/or actively support, a Bill calling for a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU.

Unfortunately, where the Albion Alliance has attempted to obtain such a statement from MPs, the inquirer not being one of their constituents, all Conservative MPs have fallen back on what they call 'Parliamentary Protocol' which prevents them responding to any query from someone who is not a constituent. Yet how many - and how often - do MPs appear on programmes like Question Time and Any Questions and inform an audience, none of whom live in their constituency, what they think on a variety of subjects?

Just thinking, William, just thinking.........

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