You stand in the line just to hit a new low
You're faking a smile with the coffee you go
You tell me your life's been way off line
You're falling to pieces every time
And I don't need no carryin' on
Because you had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know
You tell me don't lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
The camera don't lie
You're coming back down and you really don't mind
You had a bad day
You had a bad day
Will you need a blue sky holiday?
The point is they laugh at what you say
And I don't need no carryin' on
You're faking a smile with the coffee you go
You tell me your life's been way off line
You're falling to pieces every time
And I don't need no carryin' on
Because you had a bad day
You're taking one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know
You tell me don't lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
The camera don't lie
You're coming back down and you really don't mind
You had a bad day
You had a bad day
Will you need a blue sky holiday?
The point is they laugh at what you say
And I don't need no carryin' on
This morning's newspapers will not have made happy reading for Mr Speaker. The word 'beleaguered' is overused in these circumstances, but it is certainly an apt description of his position. When rent-a-quote MP Stephen Pound is the best you can get to defend you on the Today Programme you know you're in trouble.
Harriet Harman's Newsnight interview is still reverberating around the broadcast media and the fact that she has to face Business Questions will keep the story going for another day's news agenda. She is then followed by the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, who will make a statement to the House. It's difficult to see what there is for her to say. Will she, for instance, talk directly about what the Speaker said yesterday about the lack of a warrant? If she disputes in any way Michael Martin's version of events, then it will be yet another nail in his coffin.
Confidence is a key thing when considering Michael Martin's future. Several Conservative MPs (Richard Bacon, Douglas Carswell and Nadine Dorries) are openly calling on him to quit, as they have lost confidence in his ability to properly carry out his duties. If MPs of other parties follow suit, his position becomes increasingly shaky.
I now expect many broadcast interviewers to routinely ask Government ministers the Harriet Harman question. If they all follow her lead and fail to express total confidence in The Speaker, there is only one consequence. Of course, the same question will be asked of David Cameron too. He will not want to be the man who directly brings down The Speaker as it would no doubt result in Labour MPs deciding to get their own back and elect a Labour successor.
* The lyrics are from Daniel Powter's hit song 'Bad Day' (which used to be my mobile phone ringtone!)
9 comments:
"It's difficult to see what there is for her to say."
She will simply say the police operate independently of the Home Sec, an investigation is underway and therefore it would not be proper for the HS to comment on the details of the case while a criminal investigation is underway. She may also add sthg about this all being a distraction and that we should instead be focusing on is the govt's rescue plan for the economy as thats what concerns voters. I say this cos that is what Hazel Blears/Chipmunk features tried to do yesterday on the PM programme (ably assisted by the presenter Carolin Quinn I might add who asked what sounded like a planted question to me).
In other words Jackie will distance herself from the whole thing which is what Ministers have been doing all week.
End of.
Very uneventful if you ask me.
What has come out from all this is just how frail, undefined and chaotic the British "constitution" and the rules surrounding the role of Parliament truly are. The police and the Home Office/Cabinet Office simply exploited this.
So although Iain and other Tories are gunning for the obviously incompetent current Speaker, I am sceptical it will make much difference having a new one. At least not on the point of protection of national democracy and liberty. It may make a difference to how many Tories get called in debates.
Also note that the "re-organisation" of the Serjeant's office has been key to all this and one cannot help but suspect a long-planned campaign by the authorities. The H of C appears to now be little more than another civil service dept in actuality.
The public are very concerned but they also smell a rat when they smell one and the rat here is the very effective removal of powers from backbench MPs. Presumably all part of a wider plan to demote Parliament, the Monarchy, etc, as a forerunner to full control from Brussels by unelected officials.
Brown won't let him go because that would count as a Tory 'scalp.'
Re: 'The word 'beleagured' is overused', check your spell checker:
'beleaguer, v. [a. Du. belegeren, f. be- + leger camp; . .]
. . 2. transf. To surround, beset (generally with some idea of hostility or annoyance).
. . 1741 RICHARDSON Pamela (1824) I. iv. 239 The girl is..beleaguering, as you significantly express it, a worthy gentleman.'[OED]
Rob's Uncle, I hate to be pedantic, but is the apostrophe in your name correctly deployed?
Reminds me of that joke - "Who led the Pedant's Revolt? Answer - Which Tyler".
No-one that I have read has made the connection with the Sally Murrer case, in which the same obscure 18th century 'offence' was dredged up to attempt to prevent a journalist from reporting based on a leak from a police source. At least Damian Green did not suffer the indignity of a strip search and a latex clad police finger shoved up his rectum, as the unfortunate Ms Murrer did, twice. The matter she was reporting on was that of a loutish local footballer thumping the DJ at his own wedding reception, fairly normal activity in Milton Keynes, and not much of a whiff of 'national security' about it.
In Sally Murrer's case, the judge threw out the whole thing as contravening European Law (never thought I'd be cheering about that!).
In both cases, the whole apparatus of state security has been brought down on two individuals, who were trying to do their job in a manner that has been accepted for generations, the leak of material embarrassing to the government in Damian Green's case, and a tip-off from the local plod in Sally Murrer's.
Those who deny that there is any touch of Stalinism about the whole thing and that the police are merely 'pursuing their enquiries' delude themselves; however I accept that the Great Helmsman is not in the same league as that dreadful tyrant, the Red Tsar. Bit more like Eric Honneker, perhaps.
Yes Steadmancinque, we are talking Stasi here.
There is a pre-planned assault on our ancient liberties going on at every level.
Co-ordinated I suspect by our Brussels rulers and their corporate friends.
I'm curious to know what posters here think about the Murrer case being thrown out on the basis of a statute which the Conservative Party is committed to repeal.
Well, yes, that and m' learned friends in Brussels throwing out the DNA database of the uncharged and unconvicted, has made me think again somewhat; the European dimension is obviously a better defence against Zanulab's Stasification of our society than HM's loyal opposition, David Davis excluded.
Curious that having the innocent on the DNA database is abhorrent to democracy in Scotland, but a valuable aid to policing in England and Wales.
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