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British MP loses seat for making false statements about election opponent

  • 05-11-2010 2:30pm
    #1
    gizmo555
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,948 ✭✭✭


    Why don't we have something like this in Ireland, say, for candidates who falsely claim their opponent is running a brothel?

    Former immigration minister Phil Woolas lost his seat as an MP today after an election court ruled that he knowingly made false statements about an opponent in May's general election.

    The Labour MP is to be barred from the Commons for three years and the election contest for his Oldham East and Saddleworth seat re-run.

    Even more topically, I notice the report mentions that it is the Speaker of the Commons' prerogative to decide when to run the ensuing bye-election - democracy can't be blocked by a vote of government MPs, unlike here . . .

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/former-minister-phil-woolas-loses-his-seat-2126251.html


Comments

  • #2
    Robbo
    Moderators, Social & Fun Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 10,581 Mod ✭✭✭✭Robbo


    Compare this to our beloved Movember poster boy, Willie O'Dea and his carry on with Maurice Quinlivan and the false affidavit...


  • #3
    Sir Oxman
    Closed Accounts Posts: 8,492 ✭✭✭Sir Oxman


    60 miles away but universes apart.


  • #4
    Biggins
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 34,567 ✭✭✭✭Biggins


    Robbo wrote: »
    Compare this to our beloved Movember poster boy, Willie O'Dea and his carry on with Maurice Quinlivan and the false affidavit...
    gambiaman wrote: »
    60 miles away but universes apart.

    Absolutely correct. The first two replies that says all that there has to be said.
    Couldn't agree more.


  • #5
    bijapos
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,003 ✭✭✭bijapos


    Two words: List System.


  • #6
    Rabble Rabble
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,367 ✭✭✭Rabble Rabble


    Lol. This is the UK with it's massive expense scandal pushed under the carpet? O'Dea resigned, as far as I can see.


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  • #7
    Rabble Rabble
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,367 ✭✭✭Rabble Rabble


    bijapos wrote: »
    Two words: List System.

    Like Britain does not have for parliamentary elections.

    Five words: post in the correct thread.


  • #8
    charlemont
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,725 ✭✭✭charlemont


    it wouldnt happen here, cos our lot are rotten out


  • #9
    Rebelheart
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 3,077 ✭✭✭Rebelheart


    This Britain place seems to be a proper little utopia. It would be interesting if other countries existed beyond mother England. Maybe then Irish people could have higher expectations than the Westminster List System? A backward step if ever there was one.

    There are many serious alternatives to PR-STV. The British system is not one of them.

    And it isn't that long ago that a British MP was forced to resign because he was "exposed" as having a homosexual relationship. And of course, corruption does not exist in the British parliament. Nope. Jesus - where have you people been? Ireland and the Irish, it seems, are uniquely incompetent and corrupt in the mindset of some self-flagellating Irish people here who have lost all international perspective, and their grip on reality.


  • #10
    Rabble Rabble
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,367 ✭✭✭Rabble Rabble


    Rebelheart wrote: »
    This Britain place seems to be a proper little utopia. It would be interesting if other countries existed beyond mother England. Maybe then Irish people could have higher expectations than the Westminster List System? A backward step if ever there was one.

    There are many serious alternatives to PR-STV. The British system is not one of them.

    And it isn't that long ago that a British MP was forced to resign because he was "exposed" as having a homosexual relationship. And of course, corruption does not exist in the British parliament. Nope. Jesus - where have you people been? Ireland and the Irish, it seems, are uniquely incompetent and corrupt in the mindset of some self-flagellating Irish people here who have lost all international perspective, and their grip on reality.

    Bertie resigned for the kind of expense scandal which goes unreported here. Mandelson got a house from a guy he was investigating. Minor scandal. Semi-resignation. Came back.


    ( And, yes, when it comes to Irish politics the sleveen mentality still holds. It' s possible that the Swedish parliament is less corrupt than the dail, but the UK parliament isn't).

    On Mandelson
    Mandelson had bought a home in Notting Hill in 1996 with the assistance of an interest-free loan of £373,000 from Geoffrey Robinson, a millionaire Labour MP who was also in the Government, but was subject to an inquiry into his business dealings by Mandelson's department.

    An interest free loan is code for a "gift" - you can write off the loan later and nobody pays any taxes. He probably didn't. he was also - his department was - investigating the guy who gave him money. But that was not the end of Mandelson.


  • #11
    bijapos
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,003 ✭✭✭bijapos


    Rabble Rabble wrote: »
    Like Britain does not have for parliamentary elections.

    Five words: post in the correct thread.

    I know that the UK does not have a list system. Point is that if there is a list system it negates the need for any bye elections and the need for a politician to hang on to their seat because their political party is afraid of losing power. Its something that we should bear in mind here. The fact that Phil Woolas had to resign his seat, as opposed to O'Dea merely resigning his ministerial post is something we could do with here.


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  • #12
    gizmo555
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,948 ✭✭✭gizmo555


    bijapos wrote: »
    The fact that Phil Woolas had to resign his seat, as opposed to O'Dea merely resigning his ministerial post is something we could do with here.

    Woolas didn't resign his seat - his election to the seat was annulled and he's disbarred from sitting in the Commons again for three years. That's something we could do with here - a few more people being dismissed with ignominy instead of being given the option to resign and plausibly claim they're going for the good of the country/party/company and they never actually did anything wrong.


  • #13
    steelcityblues
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 4,630 ✭✭✭steelcityblues


    There is something particularly nauseating about a Labour Party candidate making these false allegations, given uncontrolled immigration really spirallled under his party's long tenure in government!


  • #14
    Lapin
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 18,184 ✭✭✭✭Lapin


    charlemont wrote: »
    it wouldnt happen here, cos our lot are rotten out

    I agree. This is a perfect reason for Ireland to reunite with the United Kingdom.


  • #15
    OS119
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,518 ✭✭✭OS119


    Lapin wrote: »
    I agree. This is a perfect reason for Ireland to reunite with the United Kingdom.

    thats the ultimate indicator of the cause of Irelands political woes - people wonder why Ireland seems to have an astonshingly corrupt/incompetant/short term political class, yet people just 'accept' that thats the way it was, is and must be for all time - like the sky is blue and the grass is green - and then look for someone else to fix the problem or bale out the state.

    you voted for them. again. and again. and again. its your fcuking problem!

    60M UK citizens are not going to put their hands in their pockets just because Irelands electorate like voting for banana republic politicians but don't like the all-to-obvious consequences.


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