Frank's Westminster Blog

Another day, another mess. Yesterday it was the Government's turn to bugger up Parliament. Under the guise of bringing necessary reform to the payment of MPs' allowances - which is necessary and could have been quite a short Bill - the Government has introduced a whopping ill-thought-through constitutional landmine of a Bill. It would be serious if one thought such a measure would last any time at all on the statue book. I along with Richard Shepherd divided the House on the second...

No dark thoughts interrupted two stunning visits in Birkenhead on Friday. There were other visits too which gave me huge pleasure, but they illustrated problems rather than the town's successes. After a good meeting on what I call the Market Renewal Programme, and the safeguarding of our budget in these precarious times, I went off to Faiveley Transport, a company with a beautiful setting in Morpeth Dock and gave a hint of what the site will be like once Peel Holdings gets fully underway....

What shocks me to the core about the BBC expenses story is not the sums involved. Nor is it that people earning £250,000 a year still can find time in what we hope are very busy lives to record and reclaim the minutest of expenditure. No, the real shock comes from charging up presents that they give to their friends and acquaintances. What does poor old Bruce Forsyth now feel about that bottle of Krug Champagne? There might have been a passing pleasure that a "friend" sent him a...

There is another side to the expenses saga. Although it won't be popular, I hope nevertheless it will be worth telling. When I first came into the House thirty years ago, older Members told me to claim my allowances. They had been told by the then Chief Whip in the Wilson Government that pay was being frozen, but Members were expected to claim their enhanced allowances. And so the story was handed down as though it was some part of an apostolic succession. Over the last three decades I...

Congratulations to John Bercow on his election as Speaker. It is a great office to hold at any time. It is now a crucial one in helping to salvage the good name that should be associated with politics. Two things trouble me, however. The new Speaker made much about how honourable the vast majority of Members of Parliament are. That is not how the public sees us, I'm afraid. In one sense that doesn't matter too much. The allowance system is to be reformed by the Kelly Commission. Our...