Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Taxi for Jim Knight...

At 9.30am today, a well attended Westminster Hall debate was held on Sixth Form funding. However, when Mike Penning, who had called the debate, stood up to begin his speech, the relevant Minister had not turned up. The chairman of the debate, Lib Dem MP Mike Hancock, said that in ten years as a chairman he had never experienced this and that the failure to be present at the beginning of the debate showed a lack of respect for Parliament. After the debate began, the Minister turned up, although without officials and without his Parliamentary Private Secretary. His excuse was that the traffic was heavy coming from his department in Marsham Street, 800 yards away from the House of Commons.

Given that the missing Minister, Jim Knight MP, is already facing allegations of misleading Parliament over the SATs fiasco, you would think he would be more careful about complying with Parliamentary protocol, wouldn't you?

UPDATE: From Hansard at 12.30. Mr Speaker is not best pleased.

Mike Penning (Hemel Hempstead) (Con): On a point of order, Mr. Speaker. You kindly granted an Adjournment debate in Westminster Hall for 90 minutes this morning on the important subject of the further education funding crisis. I wonder whether you are aware that no Minister was present for the start of that debate, that there was no Parliamentary Private Secretary either, and that the officials arrived 20 minutes late. Is there any way that this sort of insult to the House, with no Minister present for the start of the debate, can be addressed in future?

Mr. Speaker: I am not very happy about the report that the hon. Gentleman has made, and I must look into it. Ministers should always be courteous to the House and ensure that they turn up for debates. We all have to be good timekeepers in this House, and there is no reason why Ministers should not be good timekeepers.

16 comments:

HUW said...

He was late for a meeting, like millions of people in the real world are every day - get a grip, for goodness sake.

Lola said...

800 yds is less than half a mile. At 4 mph that would take him 7.5 minutes to walk it. Tosser.

Unknown said...

If you were late for an important conference as the main speaker and your excuse was bad traffic on your 800 yard route, you'd be told where to go! He didn't even phone to explain in advance! Bad manners and little order. A good representative of the Labour Party.

marcantonysjournal.blogspot.com

Get a life... said...

Wel done Iain - you have unconvered yet another Labour plot. This was clearly a deliberate act. Keep up the good work!

Ed said...

Walking the 800 yards would have done the honourable member a power of good - as well as getting him to the debate on time. But I guess our Jim boy feels the pavement should not be beneath him, rather a taxi seat should be.

Anonymous said...

For those of you saying it's no big deal, even Michael Myopic Martin disagreed with you during the points of order after PMQs when this was raised.

You do not turn up 20 minutes late when you live less than half a mile with no advance warning. After all, remember what Pickles said, Commons runs like clockwork(!)

Anonymous said...

It looks like the son of the manse is living up to his usual ethical standards in looking for a saviour for LDV.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/49919cc2-3a2e-11de-8a2d-00144feabdc0.html

Faceless Bureaucrat said...

Mmmm....

I had dealings with him when he was at Defra back in 2005.

Back then, he struck me as the archetypal overpromoted NuLab lightweight - I see no reason to revise that view any time soon...

FB

felix said...

So Mr Night missed the start of a meeting,He does have previous problems with meetings and as for his lame excuse, i would have been severly censured for a lame excuse like that, as for his 700m travel distance he should be forced to walk the distance it would save any future lame excuse and he probably needs the exercise especially carrying a briefcase of government lies that should be heavy enough.

Rexel No 56 said...

Maybe Eric Pickles had a point.

R56

davidc said...

perhaps he had mislaid his papers and was delayed looking for them

Peter Nc said...

800 yards?

I have no financial interest in, but must admit that I own an example of this fine English built folding bicycle the Brompton, which would be perfect. Mr Knight could keep it folded in the Department entrance, could dump his box in its capacious optional front bag, would be at the HoC in about three minutes. He's an anonymous looking chap so no-one would know he was a minister of the crown and try to do him harm.

What a dork.

Not a sheep said...

Why did he have to walk? Are government ministers now so important that they cannot walk anywhere but must be conveyed in air-conditioned comfort at all times?

john miller said...

Another thrashing with a Kleenex tissue from the Speaker then...

yellowbelly said...

I hope somebody reports him to Ed Millipede for taking an unnecessary car journey resulting in the deaths of innocent polar bears!

Geoffrey G Brooking said...

Its a pitty Sarah McCarthy Fry didn't stand in for him.

Would have made great entertainment.

The last time Hancock (Portsmouth South) and Fry (Portsmouth North) went on tv together on The Politics Show (South) it almost kicked off big time and Hancock nearly lost it.