Comments on: Another Lib Dem boost from ICM

By: John B Dick

John B Dick — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:49:47 +0000

This has gone off topic, but you could have more AND fewer legislaters if devolution was completed with an English Parliament and a smaller federal parliament.

MEP’s (!!) would get out and about constituencies as Alec wants on the issues most constituents engage with.

By: Alec

Alec — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:04:45 +0000

@Neil A – I think it’s a poorly thought out move done for party political advantage for both the Tories and LDs. The cost savings are miniscule, but I would agree that there is a real need to make MPs work much better. We’ve had a really good example recently of the problems with the child protection legislation thta would have crippled volunteer groups. All parties supported it, but MP’s failed to grasp its impact. This was because they fail miserably to scrutinise legislation and have very little contact with the real world. I would make constituencies half the size, introduce a quorum for House business, and work out ways to get MPs into constituencies more of the time.

By: Alec

Alec — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:55:52 +0000

AW – thanks. I thought that sounded rather fanciful, although questionmarks over the independance of the sites might be a more appropriate criticism I guess.

By: Luvvies, Labour’s Lost « The Horsell's Mouth

Luvvies, Labour’s Lost « The Horsell's Mouth — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:28:07 +0000

[...] find the link on the BBC website – maybe they’ve seen sense and pulled it – but this poll, which states 41% of people think Brown is almost certainly going to lose is bad, bad news. [...]

By: Anthony Wells

Anthony Wells — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 15:07:22 +0000

Alec – there’s only been one so far, and it was published on the PoliticsHome website last autumn. The idea is bonkers anyway, since it wouldn’t work – it would still count as a gift in kind and be declarable expenditure.

It’s a bizarre theory. If Michael Ashcroft wants to buy big polls of marginal seats he doesn’t need to spend money on buying several websites to commission them on his behalf, he just needs to phone up a pollster and commission a private poll – after all, that’s what he did at the last election when he commissioned loads of private polling from YouGov and Populus to write his book.