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Suspend the Standards Board not Ken Livingstone

The Standards Board (or strictly the Adjudication Panel for England) showed the reason why they need to be abolished when they threw london's regional government into a mess for a month.

The Standards Board fails to deal with the increasing corruption in public life, whilst undermining local government.

The system has clearly brought itself into disrepute and should be scrapped.

Comments

Joe Otten said…
So, tonyf, you think quangocrats should have hire and fire power over politicians, who have done nothing illegal, just been a bit of an idiot?

I think the voters should have that power. Being a bit of an idiot is an occupational hazard.
2:37 pm
John Hemming said…
The primary accountability of politicians should be to the voters.

I accept that legal intervention is needed to deal with corruption and the traditional approach which disqualified councillors imprisoned for 3 months or more seemed to work well.

The SBE and APE actually act to undermine democracy.
3:35 pm
John Hemming said…
MPs could make those remarks with impunity before the law as could anyone else. It appears that only Councillors are likely to have any sanction.

It would be different if the comments were not made to the person's face or made to other people, however.
7:13 pm
PoliticalHackUK said…
What Ken Livingstone said isn't actually important. The issue that concerns me - like John H - is that an unelected committee have the power to throw somebody out of their elected position.

That gives me far greater cause for concern than insulting remarks made by a drunken politician. Those remarks are properly dealt with through the normal political process.

Let the voters decide Ken's punishment at the next election.
12:37 am
John Hemming said…
I am in favour of a House of Lords that is primarily elected. I don't mind some elements that represent interests other than geographical constituencies.
9:25 am
Bob Piper said…
PoliticalHack, was Ken 'drunk'? As far as I know his statement said he was deliberately rude to an obnoxious journalist working for an odious newspaper, and on that basis an apology would be hypocritical. I haven't heard him confess to being drunk. Having said that, if the public want to elect obnoxious people who get pissed from time to time, that's up to them (as I keep telling my voters).
5:23 pm
John Hemming said…
I did hear the recording he sounded "a bit merry" or "hogwhimperingly drunk"

Whether he was or not, however, does not matter.
5:27 pm
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