WITH Parliament now dissolved pending the five-week General Election campaign, and a new Speaker elected ahead of the House rising, it was interesting to read one of your headlines last week, "Speaker vows to end bear pit politics" (The Herald, November 5).
Whilst, no doubt, Speaker Bercow’s successor, Sir Lindsay Hoyle is sincere in his desire to "set the right tone" when Parliament reconvenes next month – presumably before immediately awarding itself a month-long Christmas recess while the most important post-war issue, Brexit, continues to fester like a ticking time-bomb in our midst – I would suggest one simple, straightforward and immediate course of action that would go a long way towards toning down the aggressive rhetoric and perhaps even improve the quality of the analysis and subsequent decision-making across Westminster.
Summarily, immediately and permanently revoke each and every one of the alcohol licences associated with the 11 bars, restaurants and cafés licensed to sell alcoholic beverages to MPs, with more outlets on offers to the Noble Lords across the Palace of Westminster, all open morning, noon and night.
And, to compound what is surely one of the greatest anachronisms in 21st century British public life, alcohol served to MPs, Lords – and it must be said, in some cases, lobby journalists who regularly pontificate about the aggressive and abusive nature of political discourse masquerading as debate – is heavily subsidised by us, the taxpayer, to the tune of a reported £3 million per year.
That’s a lot of meals on the table for the record number of Britons now relying on food banks for the daily sustenance of themselves and their families.
And, lest the incoming intake and returning incumbent elected members and appointed Lords of the Realm forget it, Parliament is a place of work, a business premises, not the gentleman’s club it once was; what other contemporary workplace in 21st century Britain would even consider permitting employees to openly, routinely and legitimately consume alcohol at work, never mind encouraging them with extended opening hours and heavily discounted prices, far more generous than anything legislated for in the Alcohol (Minimum Pricing) (Scotland) Act, 2012?
Perhaps, too, incidents such as Eric Joyce MP’s conviction for assault and subsequent ban from Parliament’s in-house hostelries, and allegations of sexual groping made against Scots MP Ross Thompson (which he denies), both in Westminster’s notorious Stranger’s Bar, might also become a thing of the past?
And before we Scots, as we can be prone to do, get too sanctimonious over the matter, MSPs also routinely have access to discounted alcohol at Holyrood, their place of work, surely less than ideal in regard to the health, safety, conduct, productivity and effectiveness of our elected representatives, not to mention the rank hypocrisy of legislating for the very level of minimum pricing they would baulk against in the Queensberry House Lounge inside Holyrood.
If, as they are perfectly entitled to do, our MPs, Lords and MSPs feel inclined to wind down and relax with colleagues and friends over a drink after work, as many millions regularly do around the country each and every day, that’s fine, but off the Parliamentary estates, outside of working hours and at similar prices paid by the rest of us.
Mike Wilson, Longniddry.
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