One thing which the Conservative and Unionist project has achieved to date is the focus on double/triple-jobbing scandal and its logical consequences, the almost non-existant role played by Northern Irish MPs in our national parliament.
In the interests of transparency and "cleaning up our politics", all Conservative & Unionist candidates are pledged to a declaration of interests; Ian Parsley's has been posted up here.
The electorate are entitled to know how likely it is their prospective MP will play any part in the legislature to which they are being elected - what will happen to political positions presently held, how may business or charity commitments impact on their representative role etc. That being the case, I can see no reason whatsoever why the other parties shouldn't follow the lead given here by the C&Us.
3 comments:
Oh dear this isn't a CU initiative. It is the initiative of the Commission for Standards in Public Life which made the recommendation in its twelfth report. There is even official guidance for the Ministry of Justice guidance on what it should contain.
http://www.justice.gov.uk/guidance/docs/parl-election-candidates-guide.pdf
I note that there are a number of areas that Parsley's declaration does not follow the model form given in the guidance.
Key point in that guidance:
"The production of a Declaration of Interests by election candidates is voluntary."
Ah..."voluntary"". Will, for example, the DUP candidates be taking that "voluntary" action, if not why not?
"Candidates who do choose to issue a Declaration of Interests will want to consider how best to make this publicly available."
And if they do, I suspect for a whole host of reasons they (the DUP) will not be wanting to make it public...what do you reckon?
I reckon you'll be very disappointed
Post a Comment