I SEE yet another butterfly politician, MP Heidi Allen, has joined the LibDems. Once a Tory, then Change UK (maybe should be renamed Small Change – only four remain) then an independent, and now the party’s 19th Liberal Democrat MP.
Her motives may be honourable as she denounces Boris’s move to the far right. But as she flits from one party to another one cannot be blamed to think her survival instincts may have set in.
One could argue that LibDem leader Jo Swinson has also been a bit of a butterfly. She chose to fly with the Tories. In the infamous coalition government, she held the position of Parliamentary Private Secretary to deputy prime minister Nick Clegg. She also voted to raise England’s undergraduate tuition fees.
But to be fair to Heidi, unlike two of the seven MPs who have joined the LibDems, she has the courage of her convictions to contest her Cambridge constituency at the next General Election. The two who are looking for new constituencies are ex-Labour MPs Chuka Umunna and Luciana Berger. In their case their survival instincts have seemingly overwhelmed their duty to represent their constituents.
If any of those butterfly MPs lose their jobs, “hell mend them”, you may think. But I suppose they are only human, and win or lose at the next General Election the perks will keep on coming! They will receive up to £39,734, ie half their annual salary, as they are due one month’s salary for every year they’ve been MPs up to a maximum of six months.
And (this is no wind up by the way) they get a winding-up expenses budget for up to two months after polling day. This could include staff salaries, office rent, travel and removal costs. This could be at least a further £55,000! But that’s not all! There’s more! They can claim home rent or hotel accommodation for two months while they supervise their wind-up!
To the cynics amongst us this will be no surprise. If any of the butterfly MPs are sacked by the electorate there will be no food banks for them. Instead they can join an exclusive club, the association of former MPs (420+ members), to gain support through this traumatic period in their lives! So as I say, it should be no surprise to anyone why they don’t fall on their swords. They can’t lose whatever happens. But who knows, they may take a leaf out of the Glasgow’s Lord Provost’s book, apologise and pay back some of their expenses they will receive when the inevitable happens and some lose their jobs! Only time will tell!
And PS – please, SNP, no more own goals!!
Robin MacLean
Fort Augustus
THE Scottish claim of right was discussed between the Scottish and English in1689. it was inserted into the Treaty of the Union of the Parliaments of 1706. The Scottish claim of right was that the Scottish people were sovereign, the English claim of right was that the English Parliament was sovereign. The Scottish claim of right was upheld in 1989. The English claim of right was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2019; it had no option as it had to conform to the Treaty of Union. It follows that it would have to uphold the claim of right of the Scottish people.
The Scottish PEOPLE should hold a referendum to repeal the Treaty. As soon as the result was announced, the Scottish people would have decided to be an independent country or to stay in the Union. The Treaty of the Union of Parliaments allows the Scottish people to vote for the repeal of the union of parliaments ANY TIME THEY WISH.
The Westminster Parliament is the English Parliament, which was never put into abeyance like the Scottish Parliament. The Scottish Parliament was reconvened in 1999.
William Purves
Galashiels
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