The Papal Union Congress

It's taken two days for me to realise that for the duration of the Pope's visit to the UK I will not be able to watch the news. It seems that, while many either oppose or are entirely indifferent to the Pope's state-funded visit to the UK, Mark Thompson sees it as so important an event that the BBC News channel has been given over to coverage of the various prayer services Pope Benedict is leading. Fortunately, where BBC News has failed, BBC Parliament has pulled through in dramatic style with coverage of that once-yearly masterclass in polemics, the Trades Union Congress. The gaffes and controversial throwaway comments of Benedict's visit to the UK are replaced by the nervous man stood on the podium with a Dragon's Den style panel to his right, fumbling his way through a defence of employment rights against an increasingly hostile judiciary. In what is essentially a Dave-style rerun of Taff Vale, the TUC (or the bit of it that I watched while cooking breakfast) is discussing the role of judges in the area of employment. Obviously fueled by the judgment earlier this year that ruled the ballot calling for a strike of British Airways staff as illegal, the TUC feels that its legal rights are threatened. Appeals against strike action that has been determined by ballot are becoming commonplace and appear to be a threat to the continued functioning of the Trade Union movement. The solution is simple; employers launch judicial appeals against "illegal" ballots when the result supports a strike action, in turn the TUC should, in its 142nd year, launch a legal appeal against every ballot that doesn't result in industrial action. If the ballot is illegal then the result shouldn't matter, the ballots that condemn strike action are just as illegal as those that uphold it so why not just invert the results and you've got a nice representative system; the usually peaceful unions would be on almost permanent sympathy strike for the more disruptive ones. Granted, under this new system it would be nearly impossible to get hold of knitting accessories and the Association for Clinical Biochemistry would be picketing your local University chemistry department but at least Unite wouldn't go on strike again. Adam Zejma.

Has the ConDem Coalition Claimed its First Senior Political Scalp?

As David Laws, MP for Yeovil and (currently) Chief Secretary to the Treasury, has been revealed to have claimed for over £40,000 in rent to his partner, Westminster is given an unwelcome reminder of the taint of the expenses scandal. Laws played a key role in the negotiations that preceded the formation of the coalition between the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats following the indecisive General Election result. Throughout the election, the Lib Dems scrambled frantically for the moral high ground by maintaining that "no Liberal Democrat MP "flipped" their home" (Clegg, 2010), though the relevance of this is jeopardized by the widespread nature of other erroneous and potentially illegal expense claims.

Laws' position as a Lib Dem MP is significant not only because of his party's position on the expenses scandal but also due to his personal and very public efforts to appear whiter than white. The Chief Secretary to the Treasury, during his time on the Lib Dem front bench, publicly revealed his expense claims and stated; "I will continue to be as prudent as I can with my own personal expenses" (Laws, 2010). Laws also condemned proposals for an increase in the pension paid to MPs in 2002 (Laws, 2002). Though David Laws never specifically spoke out against the practice of breaching the House of Commons expense regulations (that he claimed to hold fast to) in order to keep one's sexual orientation hidden from the public, it stands to reason that his previous moral position makes the revelations of his claims even less comfortable for him. While Laws' claim that he has the right to keep his private life just that (The Telegraph, 2010), it is unlikely that the general public agrees that he should be assisted in that by £40,000 of taxpayers money.

Laws' role as the 'cuts man' of the coalition government looks increasingly untenable. David Cameron is left with a number of key decisions to make; firstly he must decide whether or not Laws should continue in his role and, if he chooses to oust Laws from the government, he must then decide whether to have the 'face of the cuts' wearing a yellow or a blue rosette. A Conservative MP as Chief Secretary to the Treasury might appease some Tory MPs who fear they've surrendered too much power to the Lib Dems in forming a coalition though the role as the government's 'cuts man' is unlikely to further the career of aspiring Conservative MPs. A Lib Dem replacement would likely anger the Conservative backbenches however it would provide the advantage of being able to share responsibility for the upcoming and inevitable public spending cuts with the Liberal Democrats.

A simple, though undoubtedly unpopular solution, would be to retain the current Chief Secretary to the Treasury and allow the already shattered remains of his political career to soak up the loathing of the general public. Whatever transpires, the following list of expense repayments from earlier this year found on the Yeovil Lib Dems homepage is in dire need of updating:

David Laws MP (Yeovil): ZERO.

David Heath MP (Somerton and Frome): ZERO

Jeremy Browne MP (Taunton): ZERO

Iain Liddell-Grainger (Bridgwater): £350.00

David Heathcote-Amory (Wells): £29,691.93

Oliver Letwin MP (West Dorset): £3,883.70

Robert Walter MP (North Dorset): £1,228.32

Jim Knight MP (South Dorset): £3,451.67

Adam Zejma

Clegg (2010). Nick Clegg Speech to Liberal Democrat Spring Conference. http://www.nickclegg.org.uk/news_detail.aspx?title=Nick_Clegg_speech_to_Liberal_Democrat_Spring_Conference&pPK=8fafa999-9dc8-4b19-909e-654b15afbba2

Laws (2002). Laws condemns MP's pension hike. http://www.yeovil-libdems.org.uk/news/press/322.htm

Laws (2010). Laws is again first MP to release new expenses figures. http://www.yeovil-libdems.org.uk/news/press/1305.htm

The Telegraph (2010). David Laws apology: his statement in full. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/7782226/David-Laws-apology-his-statement-in-full.html