Maria Miller Quits

[quarry2006]

BBC News - Maria Miller quits as culture secretary after expenses row

Quelle surprise. Be sure to see her career blossom now as appearances on Have I Got News For You and I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here await.

What a dreadful piece of work she is. And typical of how some MPs are perceived: aloof, arrogant and above the rest of us. She won't be missed.

 

[sidicks]

About time too.

 

[pragmatic]

Pity it didn't drag on for a little longer.

 

[Sonic67]

Amusingly on the radio last night was a tory MP defending her. Then they interviewed her constituents and they all said they were switching to UKIP. The BBC couldn't find a single member of the electorate of her constituency to say they would vote for her.

 

[IronGiant]

Yet Cameron is hoping to sneak her back into the cabinet when all the fuss has died down. Or is he telling porkies?

 

[Sonic67]

Could be either.

BBC News - Maria Miller expenses row: What led to her quitting?

In his blog, Channel 4 News' Gary Gibbon says she was "discreetly pushed" by Downing Street, with "someone close to the prime minister" visiting to tell her the "game was up". But Mrs Miller insisted in a TV interview that it had been her own decision to go.


Mr Cameron is certain to have come under pressure over her position at prime minister's questions on Wednesday.


In his response to her resignation letter, the prime minister said he hoped she would return to government "in due course".

 

[quarry2006]

There's no way it was her decision. Her actions have proven that she is completely shameless and has no grace about her at all. No, I'm far more inclined to believe that she was told to jump before she was pushed. The woman has embarrassed her party enough.

 

[Greg Hook]

There's no way it was her decision. Her actions have proven that she is completely shameless and has no grace about her at all. No, I'm far more inclined to believe that she was told to jump before she was pushed. The woman has embarrassed her party enough.

Agree.

Any MP regardless of party affiliation should resign if they are found guilty of fiddling their expenses. Which is basically stealing from the taxpayer.

 

[quarry2006]

Absolutely agree that the party she represents is academic. That said, Ian Duncan Smith dismissed the whole thing as "nonsense" when interviewed by Andrew Marr and I think the arrogance with which this man (so-called) conducts himself seems to know no limits. He's another albatross around the neck of his party and I'd take a lot of personal pleasure if he resigned.

 

[lostinspace]

She's resigned as a minister but not as an MP.

She must resign her seat as well- she fiddled her expenses as an MP not as a minister (sorry - I forgot she's in parliament - made a mistake).

 

[NewMan]

She's resigned as a minister but not as an MP.

Yep, like all these thieving, horrible creatures, they ride out their stint as MP so they can get the big payout for "resettling into private life".

This, in my opinion, is a bigger insult to the taxpayer than the actual theft. The "I've been caught out, but you're all still going to pay me off" gambit.

 

[Iain42]

If any of us in "normal" life were found to be fiddling our expenses, we would be sacked.

She should be the same, and I mean sacked as an MP, not just as a minister.

 

[Cliff]

When asked if she resigned or was pushed her answer was typical politician style. Instead of just saying "It was my decision to resign and I wasn't pushed-fullstop.... her reply started with along preamble-I take full responsibility for my resignation to resign etc etc. meaning she probably was pushed and her bit was to write it down in a letter to the PM.

 

[pragmatic]

She was probably given a piece of paper and told to sign it.

 

[kav]

Haven't been following this, but aside from resigning from her ministerial post, surely her constituents should be calling for her dismissal as their representative.

 

[NewMan]

Haven't been following this, but aside from resigning from her ministerial post, surely her constituents should be calling for her dismissal as their representative.

Well the irony there is she was one of the people who signed I think it was an open letter to the Telegraph or something (can't be arsed to go dig out the actual thing) insisting that constituents be able to dismiss their MP mid-term...

 

[tapzilla2k]

You know if we had the right to recall MP's they might not abuse the expenses system (which remains a murky trough). But it's yet another one of Cameron's broken promises. So much for new politics, same old same old. Cameron has shown again how utterly weak he is when dealing with the press and the public mood.

Miller should have resigned as an MP, UKIP could get an MP out of this debacle.

 

[sidicks]

You know if we had the right to recall MP's they might not abuse the expenses system (which remains a murky trough). But it's yet another one of Cameron's broken promises. So much for new politics, same old same old. Cameron has shown again how utterly weak he is when dealing with the press and the public mood.

Miller should have resigned as an MP, UKIP could get an MP out of this debacle.

Well at least some good might come out of this whole sordid affair...

 

[krish]

Miller should have resigned as an MP, UKIP could get an MP out of this debacle.

Looks like Nigel hopes so. He just so happened to be in MM's Basingstoke constituency announcing UKIP's candidate in the seat for the 2015 general election

Nigel Farage: Miller's resignation is not enough - Telegraph
Let the people decide - Nigel Farage demands the electors of Basingstoke get the right to a by-election over Maria Miller debacle - UKIP

I expect he'll try not to go all Martin Bell on the situation, after the fraud convictions of MEPs Ashley Mote and Tom Wise.

 

[tapzilla2k]

Well at least some good might come out of this whole sordid affair...

You mean UKIP splitting the Tory vote in key marginals letting Ed Miliband to form a coalition of some kind UKIP can't be too moralistic about this, as their MEP's have not exactly been great with expenses in the European Parliament. The only good that could possibly come out of this is if MP's voted to give us the right to recall MP's who fiddle their expenses or commit other wrong doing. It's the biggest thing they can do to start to repair trust in Parliament.
The former speaker of the house Baroness Boothroyd nailed it on why this has been bad for Parliament -
BBC News - Miller resignation 'question of honour' - Boothroyd

Looks like Nigel hopes so. He just so happened to be in MM's Basingstoke constituency announcing UKIP's candidate in the seat for the 2015 general election

If I were Nigel Farage I'd be trying to capitalise on as many of Cameron's goofs as possible. Seems fairly clear that Tory voters are drifting away from the party and they can't attract enough of the mainstream voters to vote for them. Thatcher was perhaps a blip in the long decline the Tory party has been in over the last century. Major got it right - Placate the base, win the wooden spoon.

I expect he'll try not to go all Martin Bell on the situation, after the fraud convictions of MEPs Ashley Mote and Tom Wise.

He'll play on the anger of the constituents and perhaps offer the right to recall an MP.

 

[krish]

He's already taking the credit on recall
... from UKIP's own link in my last post:

Mr Farage was the first senior political figure in Britain to propose a right of recall. He added: “When I first suggested this idea it was met with stunned silence by the political class. Since then Zac Goldsmith and one or two others have picked it up and run with it. It is an idea whose time has surely come if we ever expect politics in Britain to recover the esteem it has lost in the eyes of the public.”

"senior political figure"

 

[quarry2006]

Betty Boothroyd, wonderful lady, everything that Maria Miller could never hope to be. The ex-speaker of the house outclasses Miller in every way and I think she's absolutely right that it is parliament that is dragged down by behaviour like this, not simply the party to which Miller belongs.

I wouldn't know how many Tory voters have left the party since Cameron became leader. Lord knows there wasn't enough of them to elect the party into government in the first place so I can't imagine how few there are now.

 

[tapzilla2k]

He's already taking the credit on recall
... from UKIP's own link in my last post:"senior political figure"

It's been kicking around for a while, Cameron proposed it during the last election campaign if I remember correctly.

Betty Boothroyd, wonderful lady, everything that Maria Miller could never hope to be. The ex-speaker of the house outclasses Miller in every way and I think she's absolutely right that it is parliament that is dragged down by behaviour like this, not simply the party to which Miller belongs.

She's I guess a throwback to how Parliament used to be before the SPAD's invaded. Forthright and always puts Parliament before her Party. She'll speak out when she feels Parliament has been disgraced by a Politician's actions, regardless of the party. Parliament is too important to be let to fester in the hands of a political class who are out of touch with the real UK.

I wouldn't know how many Tory voters have left the party since Cameron became leader. Lord knows there wasn't enough of them to elect the party into government in the first place so I can't imagine how few there are now.

Lord Ashcroft has done some interesting polling, he seems to think UKIP are going to scupper any chance of the Tories A>Staying in power and B> Forming a majority Government. Cameron is not going to enter into any sort of agreement with UKIP as his backbenchers want him to do, purely because they are scared of losing their seats. Which is another thing I hate, being an MP is not a job for life. It's the whims of the public who vote that decides if you get another go at it.

 

[quarry2006]

Well, let's face it, one very famous Tory PM came to a point where she was blind to the whims of both the people and her own party and had to practically be prised out of Downing Street when her time was up.

 

[sidicks]

Well, let's face it, one very famous Tory PM came to a point where she was blind to the whims of both the people and her own party and had to practically be prised out of Downing Street when her time was up.

The same could be said of the most recent Labour PM!