Word: mps
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...Martin could have pushed harder and faster for reform, and his own extravagances have drawn criticism (his wife claimed more than ?4,000 for cabs to buy food). But his ouster - Martin's resignation was forced by angry attacks from fellow MPs, which culminated in the introduction of a no-confidence motion against him - is unlikely to ease the tumult in Westminster or the anger across Britain. A number of MPs face being dropped or disciplined by their own parties; others will no doubt be voted out at the next general election (one is due within a year). Sir Paul...
...British voters - or at any rate, those voters who work for Britain's robustly opinionated media - are calling for heads to roll as each day brings new revelations about MPs' overblown expense claims. Today, Michael Martin, the Speaker of the House of Commons, became the scandal's highest-profile victim, announcing that he will stand down in June, the first time a Speaker has been forced out in 300 years. The Speaker's primary role is to maintain discipline in parliamentary debates, but he also chairs the House of Commons Commission, responsible for advocating changes in the rules governing MPs...
...know things are getting weird when Britain's largest mass-market daily, the Sun, co-opts a regicidal 17th century republican who shut down Parliament at gunpoint as an avatar of democracy. But Oliver Cromwell's angry exhortation to MPs supplied the paper's front-page headline yesterday: "In the Name...
...Details of MPs' expenses were due to be published by the authorities in expurgated form this summer. Instead, the uncensored information reached the opposition Tory-supporting Daily Telegraph and its Sunday sister paper. The imbroglio piles on the discomfort for Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who already trails the Conservatives in public affection. A general election isn't due until the spring of 2010, but Tory leader David Cameron has called for an immediate poll. Voters "want to elect a new Parliament. Their view is that swapping one person in a funny black costume for another funny black costume...
...mess, that hasn't stopped the parties' getting political in their response. And Gordon Brown, Britain's already browbeaten Prime Minister, has had the worst of it. In response to publication Tuesday of his party's own profligate claims, Conservative leader David Cameron was quick to sound contrite. Tory MPs, he thundered, "appalled" by the detail, would be made to cough up for "excessive" claims. Rules on what his MPs could and couldn't claim for, he added, would be tightened. A day later, Cameron goaded Brown to "show some leadership" in slashing parliamentarians' generous allowances. "How can we bring...