Are our MP’s standards of decency falling?

I think humans have always been humans, but with 24 hour news and talk stations having to find more to fill their slots rather than the 10 minutes at 6pm we used to have in the olden days, they're looking deeper into everyone's subplots rather than just reporting the national and international outcomes of their doings.

lemongrove As the many other political threads demonstrate, you are not at all reluctant to criticise everything to do with the Labour Party.

You query whether the OP is politically biased in raising concerns as to the recent conduct of Conservative MPs. For someone who claims to have no faith in any of the parties, you always seem to jump to the defence of the Conservative Party so you too are also quite selective in who you choose to criticise. Yet you now deem it inappropriate to single out any party for bad behaviour - suddenly they're all at it, according to you.

I wonder if you would be making the same complaint of OP bias if it were a Labour minister being referred to in the thread instead of a Conservative one.

anniebach You say it is:

"Unfair to judge the morals of one party unless one is member of the party, I criticise Corbyn more than May because I am a labour member."

I don't understand your reasoning. Perhaps you could explain.

There are still some MPs who go into politics for very noble reasons and who have stuck by their vocation to try to improve society for the benefit of all. It feels the good folk are outnumbered by those who enjoy power and use politics to ensure any new policies benefit their business
interests or those of pals rather than wider society .

Yes Maizie, 48 years back, but Soames is still an MP

And The ghastly N Soames mocking a new labour MP because the man had been a ships steward.

Good heavens; you're delving a bit far back into the past, aren't you, Ab?

I think politics is a toxic environment, always has been across the board. It is good that we are HEARING more about the dark side because it means that its becoming less acceptable.

It would seem ( for once!) that we are all agreed on the venality, dishonesty, dishonourable behaviour of many of those elected to represent their constituents. This goes beyond party boundaries and I really do worry that we will have another general election, brought about by the cheating, desperate Tories; I worry because I truly do not know who I would vote for. They are all, in the words of Terry Thomas 'an absolute shower'. There are a few exceptions within the two main parties, but these individuals seem to be sidelined and trampled on by the others scrambling for power. It is all most unedifying and frightening. People like Boris and Jacob are not funny anymore. I feel sorry for May trying to hold this shower of sh*t together, and I hope she keeps her job, the alternatives such as Leadsom,Gove,Johnson,Davis are just too awful to contemplate.

Parliament has had more than its share of stupid, venal and immoral MPs since it began.

I do not think this lot are any worse than they were in the 16. 17, 18, or 19th centuries. It is just that nowadays it gets into the press and other media all the time. In the past it was known and accepted or hidden.

Parliament also has and has had its honourable and brave members who are true and honest to their cause and been prepared to suffer being ostracised and persecuted for their views.

This lot are a disorganised shambles - and I exclude no party from that condemnation, but they are not the first.

Read a parliamentary history of the first 60 years of the 19th century or try reading some of Anthony Trollope's Palliser novels

And The ghastly N Soames mocking a new labour MP because the man had been a ships steward.

I agree elfies and think calling it ' fiddling their expenses' is too polite, it's fraud plain and simple.
As other people said very few MPs seem to be there to help the country and their constituents but for advancing their careers and personal gain.
Don't get me started on the MEPs gravy train.

Always been so, just in the past much was not reported. And as for gentlemen , the lowest of the low was Corbyn inviting IRA leaders to Westminster when fellow members of the house were grieving following the Brighton bombing, if a person cannot respect grief this is as low as anyone can get .

First sack the MPs who fiddled expenses , the Mps involved in sex scandals , the Mps known to have personal involvement in businesses 'as a sideline'.
The few that are left , do we trust them implicitly to make decisions in the best interest of our country.
If we do, great, if not, lets have an election , an honest straightforward count the votes election

On a none party stance, I would like to see more females in the Commons and particularly those politically minded ladies of child bearing age. To achieve that and to encourage to stand for election we need a Parliament that caters for their needs. If it means proxy voting then so be it. What we do not want are deceitful politicians of any shade who manipulates young mothers who are MP’s in carry out their duties to the electorate. That is not taking a political stance but one of common decency.

The Conservative party are of course GillT57 and they are intent on carrying on with that business at any cost. So they will buy votes, abandon agreements and in fact do anything to cling on to power. And yes there were once gentlemen's agreements in the House that hadworked for centuries. But perhaps there is a brighter side, perhaps women MPs who had agreed to this system to see them through having babies will now demand proper maternity arrangements.

I am not sure that standards are falling - I suspect that it has been like this for a very long time, and that people are more prepared to speak out. Parliament has, since its inception, contained a bunch of dubious folk. I don't think much has changed.

Yes mostly exactly, in the past things were hushed up more and it was easier to do....now it isn’t, and poor behaviour by any MP of any party is known about pretty quickly and openly.

I agree mostlyharmless. The Tories have a few recent episodes as you have listed, and then Corbyn and his hateful pack of followers are hounding Margaret Hodge over who is allowed to define what is anti-semitism. Meanwhile, just who is actually getting on with the business of government?

I have to refute that Gill as I most certainly did not ‘start’
On the OP.I merely asked a question.
I haven’t got much faith in any political party at the moment, and am not a member of any either, so am certainly not the party faithful.
Should somebody like Keir Starmer or anybody who is intelligent and reasonable take over as Leader Of The Opposition, and the likes of Corbyn, McDonald and Abbot vanish overnight I would be very happy.
If any MP’s won’t abide by the pairing rule, then the rule will need to have some legal basis.

Pairing arrangements being honoured is important to the integrity of Parliament. It’s particularly important when the Government hasn’t got a majority and there are so many tight votes over Brexit.
Esther Mcvey managed to evade censure for misleading Parliament as a Minister a week or two ago and now it seems to have been forgotten.
The Leave campaign overspending, Boris being economical with the truth (take your pick), all the allegations (against both sides) over sexual misconduct.......
Theresa May sucking up to Donald Trump......
I suspect in the past things were hushed up more, but it would be nice if politicians saw themselves as working for the country, not just for what they can make out of it.

I just thought I would save you the trouble lemongrove seeing as you started straight away on realgrandad when he raised a valid point for discussion. It is extraordinary just how much faith you have in the Tory government, being a supporter doesn't mean you can't criticise them or be appalled by a particular action you know. There are cabinet ministers who are disgusted by the action of the Chief Whip so I am pretty sure their hides are tough enough to take the odd bit of criticism from the party faithful.

I have no intention of ‘starting on you’ Gill you are as entitled to your opinion as anyone else on here.

Yes, I do think that standards have fallen in the HoC, this disgraceful behaviour about pairing is just another desperate measure of a desperate government, and before you start on me lemongrove, this is not an anti-Tory criticism, it is criticism of a party losing control of its members. I am equally appalled by the behaviour of Corbyn and his cronies.

As it is a House rule to stick to the ‘pairing’ then of course all concerned should do, but if now and then some don’t, as appears to be the case, as I said in my first post on this thread, it needs to be something stronger than an agreement, otherwise this will happen when the voting could be a close result.Perhaps it will be in future.

I think Dominic Raab is a very lucky man to have had the pairing issue blow up just as he gets his big promotion to Brexit/DeExEU Secretary.

His recorded past with incidents relating to women he worked with is extremely sketchy.

The days of innocence MaizieD ? Think you may be looking back through rose tinted specs.
There has been plenty of un-gentlemenly behaviour from MP’s and Ministers over the course of my lifetime.
In any case, many may have been paragons of propriety in
The HOC but absolute swine outside it.