Michael Martin sickens me

Listening to "Mr Speaker", Michael Martin, during the commons debate on expense today was absolutely sickening.

Mr Martin, a man not averse to taking full advantage of the expenses system and perhaps, in some eyes, being seen as just as bad as those MPs now caught out by The Telegraph, decided to launch a fierce verbal attack on Labour MP Kate Hoey and Lib Dem MP Norman Baker, both long time campaigners for greater exposure of MPs expenses.

What made Mr Martin's responses to Ms Hoey and Mr Baker was the way he chose to lecture other MPs about their conduct but then criticised personally Kate Hoey for going on Sky news to talk about the expenses issue and accused Mr Baker of giving the press "exactly what they wanted to hear".

This is the same Mr Speaker who refused the advice of his own legal advisers and spent extra tax payers money seeking a second legal opinion on whether he could challenge previous attempts to allow public scrutiny of MPs expenses. He is also the same person who now six months after he was ordered to reveal the full details, has still failed to do so.

To call in the police to deal with the whistle blower rather than to ask the police to investigate possible fraud by MPs shows just how out of touch Mr Martin is.

The problems with parliament and expenses start with the systems within parliament, and Mr Martin, it appears to me, is more concerned with defending these indefensible systems and not with ensuring parliament is relevant and trusted by the electorate.