Sunday Times 2
Losers are winners even in the British parliament, lawmaker laments
View(s):It is not just in Sri Lanka that discards regain political power and the trappings. The UK Parliament, where no applause is allowed, (“hear, hear,” is in order) also has a revolving door, it seems.
And the system of back door entry for rejects appears to have been handed to Sri Lanka by the British colonials.
A lawmaker elected to the British Parliament from the Scottish National Party has taken a dig at the UK’s apex political body and its past-the-expiry-date practices.
Tommy Sheppard, the Scottish National party lawmaker for Edinburgh East has highlighted some oddities of the Palace of Westminster in a speech to the party conference in Aberdeen.
Losers who are Members of Parliament can come back as members of the House of Lords, the Guardian in London cited him as saying.”Within members of parliament, we have a situation unique in the civilised world where we actually accept that most of our members of parliament are not elected by the people. And that seems to me an anachronism whose time has come. And if we do nothing else, we must advance the case for the abolition of the House of Lords.”
The Lords is not the most popular institution in the UK. In the second chamber, members are not elected. Prime Minister David Cameron has been scorned for appointing cronies to the House of Lords – 26 out of 45 new peers appointed were Tories.
Appointments are seen as rewards for support and recognition for failure. Some are rewarded for the money they give to the party.
Indicating his disdain for rejects who come back to parliament, the Scottish MP Sheppard, also lamented: “My first occasion walking into the terrace of the House of Commons was to come across no less than three people whom we had just defeated at the election in Scotland, standing there with the same pass that I had, with the same access and privileges that I had. And that’s because, once you join the House of Commons, you are members of a club. And you can stay a member of the club even if the electorate decide you are no longer fit to be there.”
He also found amusement in the comical costumes of door staff in parliament.”This is, quite simply, Georgian pantomime dress. You will have seen these men, quite literally, in tights and swords, and the most ridiculous part of the uniform that I have come across is a curly ruffle thing that they wear down their back which is called a wig bag. It seems to be just unfair to these poor souls to make them put on this costume in a chamber which is meant to be about making political and important decisions for the country and for the world,” the Guardian reports him as saying.
At the last elections, the Scottish National Party built up a powerful presence in the UK Parliament with 56 lawmakers. Some MPs took their oaths in Gaelic, the Scottish dialect. One of the SNP lawmakers is a 20-year-old.
After a pathetic showing at the polls, the Liberal Democrats were cut to a mere eight members.