Have your Say!

What do you do when you join a club, are not very happy about its direction or some of its rules, but it is the best club in town and you don't fancy being out there on your own? Isn't that precisely where we are with the European Union? (Now that I have mentioned the E word, 70% of you have stopped reading while a trenchant minority have started swivelling your eyes.)
We are between a rock and a hard place. We joined the Common Market 35 years ago and really only wanted the trade advantages, not full blown integration. Most of us have never really agreed with the focus on ever closer union or some of the institution's barking mad rules. But other members of the club have successfully pushed an integrationist agenda which has taken us to a degree of shared decision making that would have horrified the British people in 1975. Of course, our membership of the club has brought many benefits; mainly economic, but also travel freedoms, opportunities as well as underpinning peace and stability in western Europe. So we like being in the club, (apart from a determined handful) even though the committee keeps making decisions that frustrate us!

Starting shortly, the House of Commons will be debating the new Treaty for 20 days. As we cannot amend the treaty, but only accept or reject it, the logic behind allocating so much time to debate it is beyond me, but others have so decided. There is only one vote during this long process that really matters and that is whether or not the people of this country get a say on ratifying this treaty.

I am not the world's greatest believer in referendums, but I do feel strongly that we should have one on this treaty. Every political party promised that the European Constitution would go to the people for formal approval in the run up to the last election. That Constitutional Treaty was stopped dead in its tracks by a vote of the French people, but most commentators privately agree that the revised treaty is substantially the same text as the one that was thrown out.
As this treaty does give more power to European institutions it would seem a good time to test British public opinion. So watch out for a close vote coming up soon in both the Commons and the Lords. It could give you the final say.

Any thoughts?
Gary

posted by Gary Streeter M.P. on Sunday, January 27, 2008

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I hope you all had a very good Christmas and New Year break and feel refreshed and ready for all that 2008 will throw at us. No predictions, except this: I know that I will make many mistakes this year. How? Because the only way to avoid making mistakes is to avoid making decisions.
One of the first issues on which the wisdom of Solomon is required is MP's pay. Not a great topic for the New Year you may think, but as the story of "snouts in trough politicians" is already running I thought I'd grasp the nettle.
First of all, I think it plain wrong that we should have a vote on our own pay and this must stop. Some years ago our pay was linked to a certain grade in the civil service, but one year the automatic upgrade suggested such a large uplift that the government felt inclined to oppose it. So the link was broken, big mistake.
Now we have an independent body that makes recommendations every three years or so. It always seems to recommend hefty increases which the government of the day tries to oppose, so it still comes back to the House to decide.
We need a major exercise, with full consultation, to decide where your elected representatives should rank in the public sector pecking order. There are few comparable jobs, so this has a measure of creativity about it. In my opinion, not many would complain if we were grouped in the same pool as secondary school head-teachers, General Practitioners and senior local government executives. After all, we are the only law-makers in the country and carry a measure of responsibility. So why not decide where we fit into the hierarchy and then peg us there with inflation only increases thereafter. That way we don't get to vote on our own pay.
The trouble with my analysis is that secondary heads get paid about 90,000 GBP these days, GPs over 100,000 GBP and top local government people well over 100,000 GBP. MPs get 60,000 GBP - still a lot of money for most people - but imagine the outcry if we suddenly jumped to the level of my suggested comparators. It can't be done.
So we are stuck with a system that involves the indignity of us voting on our own pay. There has to be a better way than this. Anybody out there got any wisdom? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Yours,
Gary

posted by Gary Streeter M.P. on Monday, January 14, 2008

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