Wednesday, July 15, 2009

John Bercow, Commons Speaker fails transparency test


Dear All

Hardly having sat in the Speaker’s chair and John Bercow is already messing up.

Parliament has been rocked by scandal after scandal but now questions are being raised over new Commons Speaker John Bercow's commitment to transparency.

His office refused to reveal how much he is getting paid.

Completely unacceptable!

His spokeswoman said it would breach parliamentary "protocol" to say whether he had stuck to a wage freeze agreed by his predecessor.

One of the prime reasons for Martin to go was his lack of transparency, something Bercow pledged to turn around.

The Commons website now lists the Speaker's total pay entitlement as £144,520, suggesting that Bercow has kept the increase and earns 1.9% more than his predecessor.

It seems the old adage that you cannot trust a Tory remains true.

The Speaker's salary is traditionally been linked to that of cabinet ministers but no reference to a freeze for Bercow.

During his candidacy, Bercow made much of the need for change and that he was the man to bring forward that change to restore trust and reputation of the House of Commons.

We are now at the stage were repeated requests have been made for the Commons authorities to clarify the situation since the new Speaker was appointed and have been met by continual refusal.

This is not good enough.

During his campaign for the job, Bercow insisted: "It is high time the house was run by professionals on a transparent basis, ensuring that we are accountable to the people who put us here."

It seems that Bercow has misrepresented himself during his application for the job!

I was never a supporter of the view he was the right man for the job, so early into his tenure I have been proven correct.

Nothing ever changes for the corrupt in power.

Yours sincerely

George Laird
The Campaign for Human Rights at Glasgow University

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