And another thing…

you could always get up early on Friday morning like us mere plebs would have to do.

Sir,

On the basis that probably half the present incumbents with the title MP do not appear to have the intelligence, nor the ability, to do their jobs properly I do not see what difference there is when considering their presence in the chamber.

Needless to say, I exclude you from amongst those I castigate!

My god, what a shame some of you might have to stay in your primary workplace for longer than three days.

What a pity for you Scottish MPs I think its a great idea. There will be even less of you for PMQs.

I hope the Tories do all sorts of changes to make life as difficult as possible, and you will have a taste of what we have all had to put with for the last 12 years. Do you want a list.?

Can you let us know exactly what the average MP does during the week as there are usually less than 50 MPs in the chamber at any one time. Most of the committee meetings that I have seen are attended by only about 50% of the members of the committee (for example the Business, Innovation and Skills committee this morning there were only around 6 members in attendance at any one time).

I thought that we elected legislators, and instead what we seem to get are glorified social workers / councillors who act as lobby fodder for the rest of the time and dislike the time that they need to spend in Westminster.

Why’s it bonkers to expect MPs to actually be in Westminster on a Thursday evening? You are after all paid to represent your constituency in Westminster aren’t you?

Perhaps asking you to spend more than three days a week (Monday lunchtime to Thursday lunchtime) doing your actual job, instead of campaigning to get re-elected or acting as a glorified local councillor in your constituency is too much to ask.

You could still hold surgeries on a Friday afternoon or Saturday morning no problem.

He “suggested it could be held in the evening to allow more people to watch.”

I’ll be just starting my 2 hour commute home, as will most working people, and I’m not sure my children would want to swap The Simpsons for The Goon Show.

Simon: “you could always get up early on Friday morning like us mere plebs would have to do.”

Yeah, and my butler usually lets me sleep until noon. Look, sunshine, what makes you think I can have a lie-in on Fridays?

Andrew Spencer: Why’s it bonkers to expect MPs to actually be in Westminster on a Thursday evening? You are after all paid to represent your constituency in Westminster aren’t you?”

An MP is an MP wherever he is and whatever he is doing. Most constituents like to have their MP in the constituency at some point.

“You could still hold surgeries on a Friday afternoon or Saturday morning no problem.”

Ooh, thanks for the advice! Is that what you did when you were an MP? What’s that? You’ve never been an MP? Gosh, there’s a surprise…

I think that’s the first time I’ve seen Tom riled.

It’s like being mauled by a pussy cat

“An MP is an MP wherever he is and whatever he is doing.”

I agree, but do most MPs? When they are schmoozing with journalists, seeking party contributions from wealthy industrialists, holidaying in Tuscany etc. I have no problems with MPs doing any of these things, but do MPs not separate out when they represent: their own interests; their constituents; their party; their country; their morality?

How do MPs (yourself included) justify it when they vote for the party or the country (or, rarely, their conscience) at the direct expense of their own constituents?

“An MP is an MP wherever he is and whatever he is doing. Most constituents like to have their MP in the constituency at some point.”

Of course he is, and of course MPs should spend time in the constituency but parliament is only in session for just over half the year and you do get given “constituency weeks” as well as the usual recess, so your constituents get to see plenty of you. You could still carry out normal surgeries at time when parliament is sitting.

Obviously George Young’s proposals would mean a change to the way many MPs run their diary, but it seems to me to be a attempt to prolong the parliamentary week so as to put Westminster back at the centre of MPs’ lives for a little longer each week. I would have thought that’s a good thing, but then what do I know? I’m not an MP after all as you point out!

Move parliament to the north midlands.

Andrew Spencer: “Obviously George Young’s proposals would mean a change to the way many MPs run their diary”

No, it wouldn’t. We would just miss PMQs.

And Paul? Yes, I am a pussy cat…

Just checked with easyjet for you. As long as you book in advance, no problem. £24.99 one way, leaving at 21:45, you’ll be back for last orders.

and as 2/3rds of the fair is tax, cant see it causing a problem on the expenses.

No need to thank me.

ha ha yeah you could always get up early on Friday morning and travel from London to Glasgow to be at your desk for 9.

Totally reasonable

Setting aside the practicalities of having the event on a Thur evening…

…why does he think it will result in more people watching the event?

To be viable, the program would have to be on during the evening peak hours, which means people are going to be expected to switch away from Eastenders etc to watch politicians fire planted questions at the Prime Minister.

If he really thinks that is likely to happen, then he is even more than averagely out of touch with the public than politicians are usually accused of being!

The news media wouldn’t be too happy either – it screws up the early editions of the newspapers and kills off a chunk of the early evening broadcast news.

Don’t concern yourself Tom,I’m told that if the Tories win there won’t be any need for Scottish MPs!.

Having re-read this piece I think it is a brilliant(ly devious) plan for DC.

Think about it: most oppostion/Labour MPs will be from Scotland, northern England, Wales etc. They will be the ones having to leave early to get home that night so the opposition benches will appear empty – DC will go on about Labour not caring about the country while his benches are relatively full. A piece of spin worthy of AC or the Dark Lord himself.

Your response above is very funny.

I have not heard you come up with many reforms for Parliament. Yet you have criticised the views of others.

How about Wednesday at 7-7:30?

You chaps can be on the train for a long weekend as before but now the grand spectacle/blood letting will be witnessed by more than just housewives/(husbands, for the lefties), students, self-respecting unemployed folk and bored people in non-jobs with access to iplayer.

There we go, compromise in action.

BTW, how impressed were you with your colleagues for going with Bercow? Add that to the list of whys next May.

I think its a great idea, I must see PMQ’s about twice a year if I’m lucky.

As for MP’s that represent distant constituencies, well, maybe you should have thought about that before you put yourself forward.

Other than PMQ’s I’m quite happy to see MP’s spend as little time as possible at Westminster. It’ll cut down on all those pesky laws they keep making.

ChefDave, the problem with MPs spending less time in Westminster would be that those in the Executive would still spend as long coming up with their new whizzy laws, and and the rest of the MPs would not have time to reign in the worst excesses of these.

Is this due to the fact that Dim Dave would have less scrutiny? A bonkers idea and anyone who wants to view PMQ’s can view online for somelight entertainment.

Careful what you wish for.
If Tom has to spend more time in London, he’ll be able to claim the costs of the family home on expenses.

Oh, I can just see it now. Families gathered around the box on a Thursday night, 7:30pm Eastenders, 8pm PMQs, 8:30pm Corrie. Bliss.

“Except, won’t it look bad for him if most MPs have started the long schlep home by the time he stands up to answer his first question in a chamber that’s more than half-empty?”
Errr, no. Why would it? Surely it would look bad for the MPs who are among the top few percent of earners in the country who can’t find the time to stay in one of their principal places of work one evening a week.

If you don’t like your job, you can always quit you know. There are hundreds of other people lined up to take your place.

Having seen the start of business on Monday afternoons I would assume that many MPs are still “carrying out constituency business”

You may assume that many MPs are “travelling to London”. A difficult concept for some, I know.

This whinge would have more validity if Parliament currently sat for more than about half the weeks in the year.

Tom is dead wrong that David Cameron would look bad if he took PMQs for a half empty house. He would simply attack opposition MPs for slacking off.

Meantime, Tom seems to have a reasonable point. MPs SHOULD spend a fair amount of time in their constituencies, and Thursday evening PMQs for most MPs would make getting a train difficult for Northern, South Wester, Welsh and Scottish MPs.

Further, it’s difficult to imagine that SO many people will be able to watch given that they will only just be returning home or even still on their commute at 6pm. It’s also doubtful that TV would be willing to shelve evening programming for half an hour of public school yard ya-boo sucks. Perhaps it would make interesting alternative drive time radio, though.

Some will recall how Wm Hague often seemed to be running rings around Tony Blair at PMQs.

However his poor judgement and strategy left the Tories with an electoral mountain to climb, and, as yet, they have barely reached the foothills.

And Tom, if you voted for cycling Old Etonian baronet Sir Geo Younger I commend your lack of class prejudice. But I do question wether you might have asked if he really could think himself into the situation of others when making decisions.

Aristos I have known view Scotland as the place for salmon and ‘grice,’ not for hard working politicians beset with problems, some of them arising from the location of Westminster.

I love chefdaave’s comment. He could have gone further – surely it’s not just MPs that should have thought first before standing in constituencies that aren’t within easy commuting distance of London, their constituents who should really have given it some thought too. The silly billies.

I think that many of the attitudes expressed in this thread are typical of the London-centric attitude that pervade politics these days – and which really narks us off here in West Cumbria.

Jack Cunningham still elicits a strong reaction in his former Copeland constituency precisely because he wasn’t here often enough. People – especially in remote constituencies – want to see their MP – and get annoyed if they don’t.

My dad recently spotted two Tory MPs at a Home Counties golf club, neither of whom were the local MP. It made me think that maybe there are Tory MPs who geuinely think – and can get away with thinking – that being an MP is part-time work.

It’s a completely different world up here.

In 2005 Glasgow South had an electorate of around 70,000 while North West Hampshire (Sir George Young’s constituency) had around 80,000. Resident’s of Glasgow South can also call on MSPs resident in Scotland to deal with most of their concerns. Much of what Scottish Westminster MPs do has absolutely no consequences for their own constituents, it is merely the dicharge of their colonial duty in ruling the English.

Compared with Sir George Young, your constituency duties should be very light Tom (or are the Scots much more demanding than the English?)

Tory Tavern agrees entirely with Tom Harris. It will simply never happen. The PM – of whichever party – can’t be seen to be answering questions to a half-full chamber of predominantly southern MPs.

Wednesday evening and Thursday lunchtime are reasonable alternatives, although there are issues with any evening session – namely that they would never feature on the early evening news and newspapers would struggle to cover them as comprehensively. The last point, as already mentioned, is a genuine query as to how many people would switch off Eastenders or the football in favour of some televised parliamentary questions…

See this landlord’s views at: http://torytavern.wordpress.com/2009/11/25/more-thought-needed-on-tory-pmqs-plans/

[...] MP (Lab, Glasgow South) took some serious stick on his blog yesterday for complaining about a proposal to switch Prime Minister’s Questions to a Thursday evening to allow more people to watch. “You could always get up early on Friday morning like us mere [...]

“An MP is an MP wherever he is and whatever he is doing.”
Ah, the indelibilty of holy order! A priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

The idea that one is always acting as a councillor is a rather odd concept I found, and no doubt being an MP is similar.

When the admitted Conservative Chief Exec of the council I was elected and then appointed to (as I recall that is the way of it) explained that, he did so in an attempt to tame one whom he saw as a bete rouge.

I didn’t hide my views before I was elected, nor after, so it makes little difference to anyone acting honestly imho.

Look, the answer to the problem of PM question time on Thurday evening is dead simple -

1. Attend PM qt on Thurs ev.
2. Travel to constituence Thurs night.
3. Take Friday off.
4. Constituancy surgery Saturday – go home.
5. Take Sunday off.

What’s the problem? Millions of people do this all the time.

@Junican: If on a wednesday you have to decide to vote for or against a War . . ?

And on a friday you meet victims of that war?

On saturday your surgery includes people with relos killed by terrorists, those with sick children and nationality problems, relos of those who want to die?

Staff problems on a sunday, people are down with flu . . .