Discussion Thread: Right to recall MP

This is an archived discussion thread for the "Right to recall MP' voting page. Voting, and this discussion thread, have now closed.   

alantroake 1 month ago
 
frederickwilliamgilling liked this.
Yes. Why not?

Jim D 1 month ago
 
frederickwilliamgilling and 8 more liked this.
There are sitting MP's who have announced their retirement after the next election, because they know they have less chance than a snowball in Hades of ever getting back in after their expenses were revealed. They're staying because of the whopping great grant they'll get on losing their seat. Their electorate ought to be able to kick them out immediately.

Aki 1 month ago
 
frederickwilliamgilling and 3 more liked this.
Denny - 

The people are angry about expenses, but much much angrier about the big banks

scrutoneer 1 month ago
 
frederickwilliamgilling and 1 more liked this.
Care would have to be taken that an MP was not unfairly vilified for voting with his conscience: not all issues can be defined with such precision that they can be put to a referendum.

Of course, in cases of proven misconduct by an MP, recourse must be had to such a mechanism.

GJW 12 hours ago in reply to scrutoneer
If an MP elect has a consciense on certain matters, then he should make them known before the election so that voters intending to vote for him can make their own minds up whether to vote for him or not.

irenefyfe 1 month ago
 
frederickwilliamgilling and 5 more liked this.
Yes thisw has my vote, am fed up with MPs doing as they like and to hang with what voters want.
We should be able to recall them and sack them if not up to standard of commitment and honest

cim 1 month ago 

2 people liked this.
This one is incompatible with the proportional voting system idea. In a proportional system, even with small 5-seat constituencies, almost every MP will be elected with the support of less than 50% of the electorate, because they only need the support of around 16% of the electorate to take one of the five seats. This means that the point of PR - to give (local or national) minority views the level of representation proportional to their support - is gone, because the majority supporters could almost always cause and win a recall vote (and then what happens? By-elections in PR situations don't work very well either: either the seat gets left empty, or they must be replaced by a nominee of the same party, or you break proportionality)

I think Power2010 will have trouble getting a coherent proposal together if both this and PR end up in the top 5.

zarinabhatia 2 weeks ago
The MP in my constituency hardly ever signed any EDM's or replied to letters. He suffers from health problems and was known for corruption when he was a Councillor in Birmingham losing money and his seat for non-attendance of meetings. As an MP he was a strong Blairite and had gained seat by bungled up postal voting. He should be replaced as he is not taken for accountability for incurring vast expenses. He chose to stay in expensive hotels with jacuzzis etc and suites for pleasure purposes. Please de-select him, Labour Against the War, (latw) has not done this yet! I was in the Labour Party as an ordinary member till 2004.

Frederick W Gilling 1 week ago

2 people liked this.
A simple, but fair way, for voters to force the immediate resignation MUST Be A TOP PRIORITY.The only reason to do so can be that voters are not satisfied with THEIR MPs performance. This legislation must be enacted NOW. A few weeks ago I sent copies of an open letter, on this matter, to the leaders of our three main parties and asked them to kindly supply all of their MPs with a copy. Kindly read my blogs at http://blrcfwg.blogspot.com Thank you.

Hilary Allen 5 days ago
 
frederickwilliamgilling and 2 more liked this.
Our MP in Darlington decided a year ago he would not be standing again - and he has done NOTHING on our behalf since. I want to know why his own boss has not sacked him for not doing any work? The general public would get sacked if they didn't do anything!

JulianTisi 4 days ago
 
2 people liked this.
I would support this idea slightly amended. I would suggest that a by-election is called on the basis of being found guilty of serious wrong-doing but this should be on the basis of rules being broken. Otherwise I can see a scenario where a party could try to force out a perfectly good MP because they perceive opinion polls have moved their way.

If an MP has done wrong and broken rules, the voters should be able to be able to have their say in a by-election, but I don't want to see trial by tabloid media.

JulianTisi 4 days ago
I would support this idea slightly amended. I would suggest that a by-election is called on the basis of being found guilty of serious wrong-doing but this should be on the basis of rules being broken. Otherwise I can see a scenario where a party could try to force out a perfectly good MP because they perceive opinion polls have moved their way.

If an MP has done wrong and broken rules, the voters should be able to be able to have their say in a by-election, but I don't want to see trial by tabloid media.

frederickwilliamgilling 4 days ago
In respectful reply to Julian Tisi It should be possible to lay down rules regarding what some people, including the Crown Prosecution Service, regard as a serious offence. If an MP is suspected, admits or is judged to have committed such an offence then it should not be necessary for voters or fellow MPs to force that MPs recall / resignation, in which case, so be it. 

However, voters or MPs should only need to claim they are not satisfied with "their" MPs / or fellow MPs performance to force that MP to resign. For example if voters think that their MP did not follow through with his or her pre- election promises then they can institute the required action
to force his / her resignation. Such "lack of follow through" is not likely to warrent classification as a serious offence, but local voters may well be aggrieved enough to take action.
I have suggested penalties, that could apply, to deter such action being undertaken lightly and, obviously, that whole aspect should be discussed at length. Penalties could be invoked, for example, if an MP who had been forced to resign wins the resulting by-election.

If a party were to make an effort to force out a perfectly good MP, then that would be another prime example in regard to my heartfelt conviction that " Party Politics" should be binned.

AT THIS PRECISE MOMENT I FEEL THAT EVERY MP SHOULD BE APPROACHED, BY THEIR VOTERS, TO IMMEDIATELY PASS LEGISLATION THAT WILL ALLOW VOTERS TO BE ABLE TO RECALL / FORCE RESIGNATION OF THEIR MP. SUCH LEGISLATION TO BE EFFECTIVE FROM 01 AUGUST 2010.

I sincerely hope that this "IDEA" makes it into the top five. I feel that it is an essential step towards a more effective DEMOCRACY.

In closing I wish to record my sincere thanks to POWER TWENTY TEN for providing such an effective soap box and helping to level the playing field for everyone. Thank you 
Frederick W Gilling. Thursday 18 February 2010

stan69 3 days ago
Apologies for the modified cut and paste, but my post elsewhere applies across the board...

This is (also) a noble suggestion, but unfortunately, like many of the proposals on here, it is a secondary concern to the much more pressing issue of reforming our currently totally undemocratic system of (electing) government. Apart from anything else, it won't happen UNTIL that system is reformed.

The same is true of the PR proposal. Gordon Brown is only talking about AV because he knows the game is up and that he needs to appear as a reformist to stand any chance of being re-elected. In reality, neither Labour or the Tories will ever voluntarily dismantle FPTP, it is how they stay on top.

The only way that any of the proposals currently in the top 5 would ever stand a chance of becoming a reality, would be after the introduction of a None Of The Above box on the ballot paper. There is an awful lot of ignorance flying around on this site about what NOTA is and how it would work. The truth is, it is THE starting point for dismantling our undemocratic system and taking the power back. The 'how's' and 'why's' are covered in depth on the NOTA-UK website: http://www.nota-uk.org

If the None Of The Above proposal doesn't make the top 5, it will be a tragedy for the fight for true democracy. Without NOTA in place, all the rest is largely unachievable.

So please vote for NOTA proposal, otherwise this noble POWER2010 mission is in danger of being all for nought: http://www.power2010.org.uk/votes/entry/a-none-...

Thanks for reading.

T.Hooper 13 hours ago
Any one wanting to be an MP should realise they are working for the public,and should be abswerable to the public,after all we pay there wages.

T Hooper

Mrs Slater 13 hours ago
I'm supporting the right to recall, I no longer care for or trust my local MP after the expenses scandal. MP's have had it easy for too long, it's about time they were held accountable for their wrong doings. They need a reminder of who put them in power in the first place, and who they ultimately work for.

don verell 12 hours ago
everybody else in the real world has to come up to a certain standard regards their work and have to answer for their actions they should be no exeption

P. A. Whitaker 11 hours ago
The right to recall M.P.s would be a significant deterrent to abuses of expenses and privileges.

Jack Shaw. 11 hours ago
This appears to have been kicked into the long grass, as it were, owing to the expenses scandals, but surely, we, as employers of our MPs should insist that they be an MP for 100% of the time, representing their constituents' interests to the best of their ability, and having no other paid employment. No one forces anyone to become an MP, indeed there is great competition to become one. Most of us in the real world would not be employed for long if we only worked part time for our employer,(for full salary), and had another little earner for a couple of days a week or so. I would regard this as being a reason for recall, should recall be introduced.

P Latour 10 hours ago
We the British public are requesting that all Mp's follow the example of others who are pledging their alliance to the British public. Along with the fact that they should be held accountable to their constituants to uphold the laws of this Country that are pass in Parliament for the good of British Public

davebyford 9 hours ago
Sack all dishonest(proven criminal) MPs

scrutoneer 8 hours ago
Stan69 puts a passionate case for the NOTA proposal. I think he deserves an answer, from Guy Aitchison and his colleagues, as to why this proposal is not being given greater consideration.

General "end of voting period" comments

I am afraid that I must resign myself to defeat on the proportional representation question - although STV seems to have the greatest merit amongst the proposals. My advocacy of the sheer decisiveness of FPTP probably hails back to the days when politicians really did put their heads on the block. Lloyd George's extraordinary foresight in the matter of social insurance, Nye Bevan's soaring oratory in furtherance of the lot of working people; Churchill's matchless oratorical prose, and his crossing the floor of the House, on several occasions, in support of positions profoundly believed in; and Michael Foot's taking up the baton, handed to him by Charles James Fox, Tom Paine and others, and manfully running his "leg" of the political race, surely deserve to be admitted into the pantheon of the political gods. Theirs was the most personal of commitments, both to their constituents and to their causes; and it would have been unjust indeed to have buried their scintillating contributions in a blanket of judgemental fudge.

We have entered an age where a powerful communication technology has become available which may have the profoundest effects upon the political process. It may not be wise to attempt the re-design of the political system, based upon its performance in past eras, without taking this fully into account. Indeed online accountability, where everything is on the record, may be the political "holy grail" that we have all been looking for in our attempts to find the best "fix" for our broken democracy.

May I wish good fortune to all those willing to put in the effort to achieve this vitally important objective.

Guy Aitchison 8 hours ago in reply to scrutoneer
Scrutoneer - NOTA has been given exactly the same level of consideration as all the other reforms: each has an equal chance of making it on to the Power Pledge. It just needs to win sufficient votes. At the moment NOTA has won a lot of votes, but not sufficient to be on the Pledge (4464 votes as of 2.30pm on Monday). This could all change of course in the last few hours of the vote, but it's out of our hands and depends on how many people vote for it.

C. Rayner 7 hours ago
The right to a representative also exists in certain provences of Canada. It musr be legislated for in the UK.

Leo 3 hours ago
I think this proposal is great. However, some thought should go into deciding how many petitioners constitute a sufficient number to force a referendum. I suggest some sort of proportionality relative to the demographics of the constituency, if this isn't already the case?

Power_2010 2 weeks ago

From Twitter via BackType

@nick_clegg thanks for promoting Right to Recall for the Pledge. Could you RT it to your followers as well? thx http://tiny.cc/tYLyR

sblatchley 2 weeks ago

From Twitter via UberVU
One more retweet from magicjem
RT @Power_2010: @nick_clegg thanks for promoting Right to Recall for the Pledge. Could you RT it to your followers as well? thx http://tiny.cc/tYLyR

T_i_B 3 weeks ago

From Twitter via BackType

just voted for the right to recall to make the #POWER2010 Election Pledge, do the same athttp://tinyurl.com/yhc3xwt #38degrees

denny 1 month ago

From Twitter via BackType

I'm surprised that 'Right to recall MPs' hasn't got more votes on @Power_2010, after the expenses mess. http://bit.ly/62RYM2