MP's...

[Chrisoldinho]

Yes I know similar threads must of been covered a 1000 times before.

Watching Question Time last night it struck me that MPs were consistently argueing their points, not just with expenses but with a range of topics.

Surely the point is to listen to public opinion and act upon this and not try to argue their corner?

Obvious post of the year I know but it winds me up, especially when a young lady from the audience had a valid question about the EU and the female MP (forgot her name) instead of listening to her and responding, explaining why things are as they are and make a note of her comments just leaped into the typical MP spin and stats.

It's such a shame that even when you can ask them to answer you, they simply rebuke anything you say. They clearly just do what they want and ignore the public concensus. I hope something changes with politics although I seriously doubt it will.

BTW slightly off topic but I wont be voting in the European Elections, I don't support any of my local MEP's at the best of times, even less now.

Thanks for listening to my rant, just needed to get it off my chest.

[NewMan]

Originally Posted by Chrisoldinho

Surely the point is to listen to public opinion and act upon this and not try to argue their corner?

I especially enjoyed Harriet Harman on BBC Breakfast this morning telling us that "the public want the money to be paid back and people who have broken the rules to be barred from standing for re-election".

Thats not what I want, or what a lot of other people want. We want prosecutions and sackings.... "I was acting within the rules" should be as much a defence as "I was only following orders" was during the Nuremburg trials.

[krish]

Listening to Bill Cash's excuses on 5 Live this morning, and similarly Julie Kirkbride yesterday just hours or minutes before she announced she was stepping down ... the overall feeling from listeners was THEY JUST DON'T GET IT!!!
- so what if they've got family to look after, young children, a partner to see etc ... we all have our priorities, but we spend our net income on it, not taxpayers' money

[loz]

Originally Posted by Chrisoldinho

Yes I know similar threads must of been covered a 1000 times before.

Watching Question Time last night it struck me that MPs were consistently argueing their points, not just with expenses but with a range of topics.

Surely the point is to listen to public opinion and act upon this and not try to argue their corner?

Well that is the problem that many are pointing out that MPs are no longer representing their constituency in parliment, but instead are representing their party in their constituency.

Big, big, difference.

People don't often vote for the person (half the time no one even knows who they are), they vote for the party.

Hence the MP is just a mouthpiece, and unable to voice anything other than the party line.

At least Cameron has recognised this must change. BBC NEWS | Politics | Cameron in 'people power' pledge

Originally Posted by Chrisoldinho

BTW slightly off topic but I wont be voting in the European Elections, I don't support any of my local MEP's at the best of times, even less now.

Don't waste your vote, it is your only opportunity.

If you want to send the MPs a message, vote UKIP or Green, but not Labour, Conservative or LDem.

The more that do, the more they will realise just how much they are detested. So don't waste it.

[Decadence]

UKIP will be getting my vote anyway...Euro MEP's are able to claim £1,000,000 over 5 years in expenses and there is even less transparency!!!

[reddevil63]

Originally Posted by Chrisoldinho

Yes I know similar threads must of been covered a 1000 times before.

Watching Question Time last night it struck me that MPs were consistently argueing their points, not just with expenses but with a range of topics.

Surely the point is to listen to public opinion and act upon this and not try to argue their corner?

Obvious post of the year I know but it winds me up, especially when a young lady from the audience had a valid question about the EU and the female MP (forgot her name) instead of listening to her and responding, explaining why things are as they are and make a note of her comments just leaped into the typical MP spin and stats.

It's such a shame that even when you can ask them to answer you, they simply rebuke anything you say. They clearly just do what they want and ignore the public concensus. I hope something changes with politics although I seriously doubt it will.

BTW slightly off topic but I wont be voting in the European Elections, I don't support any of my local MEP's at the best of times, even less now.

Thanks for listening to my rant, just needed to get it off my chest.

Watched it too and agree with what you say.

They just won't answer direct questions and blah blah blah with spin.

One particular question got distracted how been in the EU helps our economy, makes it stronger and something about social reform white paper blah blah blah, the whole audience laughed at the comments and someone in the audience shouted something about 'tell that to the unemployed and how can it be good for the economy with so many jobs been lost.

It really is them and us with a big brick wall dividing.

Slightly off-topic but I can't see our government helping to save jobs at Vauxhall.

[Codehead]

I thought we were getting somewhere when the news came out yesterday that loads of MPs were stepping down.

I never thought they'd have the integrity to fall on their swords. Turns out they haven't. Half of them are asking to up to the Lords.

So MPs agree that bankers who cock up shouldn't get a payoff, but MPs who cock up should get a 'promotion'?

[Chrisoldinho]

Originally Posted by loz

Well that is the problem that many are pointing out that MPs are no longer representing their constituency in parliment, but instead are representing their party in their constituency.

Big, big, difference.

People don't often vote for the person (half the time no one even knows who they are), they vote for the party.

Hence the MP is just a mouthpiece, and unable to voice anything other than the party line.

You just hit the nail on the head, absolutely spot on and exactly what I was trying to get across in my own jumbled way

[loz]

Originally Posted by Chrisoldinho

You just hit the nail on the head, absolutely spot on and exactly what I was trying to get across in my own jumbled way

well it is as much our fault as their's.

Let's face it, most of us vote for the party, not the person.
And with a first past the post system, I guess we almost have to, if you want your 'party' to win.

Whereas, we ought to spend more time asking is this person going to represent me and my neighbours well in parliament.

But it is pointless when the parties employ whips to beat their personal opinions out of them. So, no matter how good they might appear pre-election, they still end up just towing the party line.

I bet the majority of people don't even know the name of their MP. Even less their MEP.

[mij]

I know this is cliché, but our governments are no more than an elected dictatorship.

The difference between the main parties is so small that getting worked up and wasting your life worrying about it is just not worth the effort, apart from the small and mostly insignificant bits what is the difference between them.

Nothing major will change, we will end up exactly were they want us to be, when they want us to be there, whether we want it or not.

Look at the example that is Europe.

[krish]

Originally Posted by loz

Don't waste your vote, it is your only opportunity.

If you want to send the MPs a message, vote UKIP or Green, but not Labour, Conservative or LDem.

it's also PR, not first past the post, so no vote is wasted

the Greens got mine over a week ago (postal vote)

[johntheexpat]

Originally Posted by Chrisoldinho

BTW slightly off topic but I wont be voting in the European Elections, I don't support any of my local MEP's at the best of times, even less now.

Originally Posted by loz

Don't waste your vote, it is your only opportunity.

If you want to send the MPs a message, vote UKIP or Green, but not Labour, Conservative or LDem.

The more that do, the more they will realise just how much they are detested. So don't waste it.

The less people who vote, the more chance the dangerous lunatics (ie extreme left/right etc) have of gaining serious power. If you don't like any of them, vote for the least offensive, otherwise the most offensive may well get in.

When not voting, never forget that a few years ago apathy in France gave the French National Front a very real chance at the presidency and France ended up with a President that less than 1 in 5 voters in the first round had voted for.

This quote from wiki

Chirac faced his fourth presidential campaign in 2002. He was the first choice of fewer than one in five voters in the first round of voting of the presidential elections in April 2002. It had been expected that he would face incumbent prime minister Lionel Jospin (PS) in the second round of elections; instead, Chirac faced controversial far right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen of National Front (FN), and so won re-election by a landslide (82 percent); all parties outside the National Front (except for Lutte ouvrière) had called for opposing Le Pen, even if it meant voting for Chirac. Slogans such as "vote for the crook, not for the fascist" or "vote with a clothespin on your nose" appeared, while huge demonstrations marked the period between the two electoral rounds in all of France. Chirac became increasingly unpopular during his second term. According to a July 2005 poll,[28] 32 percent judged Chirac favorably and 63 percent unfavorably. In 2006, The Economist wrote that Chirac "is the most unpopular occupant of the Elysée Palace in the fifth republic's history."

So, please think carefully before not voting

[binbag]

If this had happened in France, the Houses of Parliament would by now bear a strong resemblence to Ground Zero. Our politicians have been allowed to get this way by a culture obsessed with celebrity trivia 'and it's OK as long as you don't get caught' morality (of which I am as guilty as anyone).

People have been complaining so much that the MP's do not represent them; maybe the problem is that they represent them too well, albeit on a grander scale.

[TylerDurden]

Originally Posted by loz

If you want to send the MPs a message, vote UKIP or Green, but not Labour, Conservative or LDem.

Thats what I intend on doing

[johntheexpat]

Originally Posted by loz

Don't waste your vote, it is your only opportunity.

If you want to send the MPs a message, vote UKIP or Green, but not Labour, Conservative or LDem.

The more that do, the more they will realise just how much they are detested. So don't waste it.

Originally Posted by TylerDurden

Thats what I intend on doing

The only problem is that by voting 'Green' you will be voting for a bunch of hairshirted 'activists' (that's the polite word) with little political experience and a 'passion' (another polite word) that is not really based in the real world. Thus they would be open to cynical manipulation by those very people who are the cause of our current malaise (ie the worst elements of the politicians and the wealthy/powerful/corrupt etc etc).