How do you solve a problem like Gerry?
Gerry Adams’s chicken run (a term admittedly used quite loosely) seems to have presented him with a bit of a problem. He is perfectly prepared to follow the niceties of the British Constitution to become a Member of the national Parliament, but not to cease to be so at a time of his choosing in order to become a member of another national Parliament. To me it seems a little intellectually dishonest to accept thousands of pounds in expenses by virtue of being an elected British legislator, but not the (one assumes) one pound to cease to be so. But I suppose it’s a fairly moot point.
The trouble is that since the passage of the Disqualifications Act 2000 (to which I shall return at some point in the coming weeks), being a TD is no longer a disqualification from being an MP, and the traditional alternatives seem unpalatable to Gerry’s sensibilities.
So what are the alternatives? Well it has been suggested that Gerry could simply show up at the Commons, and the seat would be vacated as if he were dead. The downside of this is that instead of taking £1 from the Queen, he would have to give her £500. Which might be a touch inconvenient.
Another option would be to choose one of the other disqualifying offices. The House of Commons Disqualification Act 1975 sets out the law in relation to being disqualified, regardless of being in office or not. Schedule one lists some of the offices an aspiring former member could apply for which would have the desired effect, including Charity Commissioner, Victims Commissioner, Equality Commissioner, Human Rights Commissioner, Judicial Appointments Commissioner and Parades Commissioner.
Alternatively Part Three of Schedule One included the Northern Ireland Agricultural Wages Board as a disqualifying office, the members of which being appointed by someone not unknown to the intrepid MP. If one of the three qualifying seats there is not available, perhaps appointment to the board of the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company or Northern Ireland Water is another option.
Just a thought.
How do you solve a problem like Gerry?
Well the world is his oyster:
Get elected TD – leader of SF in the Dail.
Sign on at the House of Commons- leader of SF in Westminster
Co-opt himself back into Stormont – As SF leader, nominate himself DFM.
All before the end of February.
“And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew ……………..”
Couldn’t Gerry find some harmless law to break – one that would then disqualify him from being an MP? I’ve very strong grounds to suspect that he hasn’t been doing his archery practice on a Sunday (er… that is still illegal, isn’t it?)
I”ts really not possible to pick and choose which bit of parliamentary procedure a representative agrees to recognise,”
As GerryAdams has proven for most of his political life you can do exactly that.
Pat,
Welcome back! You’ve been away too too long!!
possibly Pat, but when you look at West Belfast, maybe you need to ask what has he achieved by doing so?
A harmless law to break?
Well of course he can just sit or not sit tight.
(Even David Cameron in answer to Nigel Dodds did not say that expenses would be withdrawn by the way)
But minor laws to break Mr Evans? A very bad precedent surely but theres a growing list of socialist parliamentarians Eric Isley MP, David Chayter ex MP and now Tommy Sheridan MSP who could teach Mr Adams all about law breaking and parliamentary procedure.
Pat Mc Larnon
Has he?
He was elected and as far as I can remember that is the only thing he has ever done in terms of any kind of procedure, anywhere, mind you he did jump the queue to shake hands with George Bush, I suppose that might count with some as a break with procedure.
Michael:
The solution is to simply pass a law allowing for resignation (with the reason being irrelevant). Then the law says that in any instance of such resignation, within x number of days, the party to which the resigned member belonged at the time of her/his resignation must submit the name of a replacement, who shall serve until the next election. The party can decide for itself how it wants to select the person, i.e., the head of the party can be granted the power (by the party) to select the replacement or there can be a party vote or whatever. The law then provides that some individual in the House of Commons has the power to accept the submission and “appoint” the person to the office. More or less the same way that Gerry’s Stormont seat was filled. By the way, that’s the other insanity here, i.e., not only is it insane to not simply accept the resignation of one who no longer wishes to serve, but Stormont hasn’t exactly fallen apart because the one fellow named Sheehan was subbed in for Gerry.