Jack and I have just got back from our early morning walk. Half an hour out in the sun and the fresh air, wonderful for clearing the head and getting the systems going. It won’t surprise you to know that I was thinking. Just before I went out I was listening to Andrew Cameron in full flow on the Today programme. His general theme was that we need a vote of no-confidence in the government and a general election as soon as possible. I think he is wrong, his proposal is disingenuous and the concept is dangerous.

Before you think ‘Oh Dear! Here’s lefty Stanley defending Labour’, think again. He is wrong because the worst time to have an election which decides the shape of government for the next four to five years is when politics is in a state verging on chaos. He seems to have made the calculation that in such an election Labour would be out, he would be in as leader of the majority party and therefore Prime Minister. This is by no means a certainty and the odds are that if an election was held tomorrow based on present voting intentions it is far more likely that we would have a divided house where nobody had a clear majority and we would have five years of infighting and dissension.

His proposal is disingenuous because under the cover of a desire for reform of the House and a cleaning of the stables his primary aim is political, it is to gain power by any means whatsoever. Cameron is a man in a hurry and it would be as well to ask the question, ‘What’s the rush?’ Could it be that there is a nagging doubt at the back of his mind as to what the consequences of a full examination of all expenses will be? Does anyone really believe that the proportion of bad guys in Labour is bigger than that in the Conservative Party? Remember that the only source of information on expenses at the moment is the Telegraph who might be suspected of having a right wing agenda. They weren’t even-handed about the choice of MPs to target, they went for Labour first. Could it be that Cameron has realised that as the complete picture emerges the Conservatives standing with the public could deteriorate? The official publication of expenses by Parliament is scheduled for July. This gives Cameron two months to get his way, I believe that he is in a hurry and this is why.

It is dangerous because at the exact time when we need party politics to be pushed to the back of the agenda and some cross party unity in making decisions of how the internal mechanisms of the House can be improved he is making it a political objective. Apart from the obvious dangers of a skewed Parliament what does this say about honesty and statesmanship? It’s no use mouthing platitudes about the damage to the electorate in a time of financial stress but at the same time ignoring the best interests of the voters by pressing for a potentially flawed general election.

The systems of Parliament are broken because the House has allowed them to get into that condition. The primary blame for this rests with those who have embraced the modern system of sofa/quasi-presidential government with a consequent diminution of the role of the House. This is the first thing that needs fixing and it cannot be done by the men and women who have fostered this disastrous deterioration in the power of Parliament. We don’t need an election, we need a cross party body of the good guys led by an able Speaker and a neutral Leader of the House with a brief to think the unthinkable and force radical change on how we run our government. Remember Blair appointing Frank Field to do just that? When he responded in the terms of his brief he was deep-sixed. Perhaps someone like Frank Fields or similar is what we need. I hope that the good guys see through the Cameron smoke screen and reject naked electioneering in favour of good statesmanship. Watch this space.

SCG/19 May 2009   


Stanley Challenger Graham




Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk

I have a problem. I’m sure that everyone has realised by now that a standard defence put forward by MPs caught out manipulating the Capital Gains Tax by designating the home sold as their main residence is that they consulted the Fees Office and the evasion ploy was passed by them.

I assume that HMRC was consulted and agreed to the manipulation of the system. Surely the Fees Office can’t act unilaterally and adjust tax law to suit itself? We need to know if this was the case before anyone rushes to judgement otherwise injustice is being generated at the heart of our government process.

I have a secondary problem generated by the above. How can the HMRC accept a cheque from Hazel Blears if there was no debt? Have they indeed accepted the payment and if so, what was the mechanism used to allow this to happen?

In my experience, capital gains in general can be complicated but in respect of selling a main residence it is quite simple. The CGT is not required. This raises the question of whether this neat little avoidance ploy is open to ordinary mortals. If so, what is the position of the remaining residence (if only two are involved)? Does this then become the main residence and if so does it still retain it’s former immunity from CGT? I doubt if HMRC would wear this and if so it means that even if an MP has used this ploy they are still liable to the tax but it will be transferred to their remaining property. If this is the case the MP hasn’t avoided CGT but postponed the payment until the other residence is sold.

How is the voter to come to a decision about the position of an MP if these matters are unclear? The fact that I am bemused points to the basic flaw in this system of avoiding clear remuneration rules which has grown over the years to avoid the headlines of a rise in the pay of our legislators. It is arcane and devious and I begin to wonder how it is possible for an MP to avoid these murky ploys without in effect accepting a fall in remuneration. I am sure that these members exist and that’s the list we need, a roll call of the good members. It would then be easy to decide who to vote for.

    


Stanley Challenger Graham




Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk