But there’s a lesson from Tolstoy’s words about unhappy families: each departing MP is departing in their own way.
If politicians will create a big, interventionist state, then voters will expect them to manage it on a full-time basis.
The palaver over MPs’ pay is a consequence of our collective unwillingness to decide what they are and what they should do.
Instead of prohibiting second jobs, we should treat serving as an MP as being a second job.
We need more Parliamentarians capable of earning £1,333 per hour – not fewer.
And: Clegg – where is he? Simmonds – what’s he on? ISIS: they have no Islamic state and we should bomb them. Plus: The new peerages – on the whole, a mistake.
He suggests that the ’22 is a more reliable guardian of backbenchers’ interests than the leadership
The former Culture Secretary on leaving the Government.
The Government’s proposal to give recall powers to the Standards Committee simply won’t do.
The attempt by the press to bully the Culture Secretary out of public life has got completely out of hand, and must be resisted.
The public needs to know which MPs on the Standards Committee voted to cut Miller’s repayment to only £5,800.
MPs will always mark theirs – and everyone else’s, since we vote them in. Which is why Sir Ian’s new idea makes no sense.
They should do a job as elected representatives and be suitably paid for it.