I live on the Scottish mainland so you don't need me telling you what to do about your MP. Yes it's true that Alistair Carmichael has made a fool of himself. But he's your fool and you don't need Scotland butting into your affairs.
And Scotland shouldn't get involved because the memo was leaked a few days after the dissolution of Parliament. As I'm sure you know, all MPs cease being MPs after Parliament dissolves: they simply revert to being members of the public again and have no MP privileges.
So one of your island citizens made a fool of himself and therefore it should be up to you to deal with him.
At least, that's the argument I've seen being put forward. However, it's wrong.
Even though Alistair Carmichael was not an MP, he was still the Secretary of State for Scotland. You can check the official website of the Parliament of the United Kingdom to verify this. If you read the page at http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/general/dissolution/, then you'll see that it states:
Parliament and Government are two separate institutions.Thus, Alistair Carmichael was not your MP when he leaked that memo but he was the Secretary of State for Scotland. This suggests to me that you should butt out of Scotland's affairs and allow us to decide the fate of Alistair Carmichael.
The Government does not resign when Parliament is dissolved. Government ministers remain in charge of their departments until after the result of the election is known and a new administration is formed.
Let me remind you of how our Secretary of State embarrassed Scotland. First, he stupidly leaked a dodgy memo; second, he lied he'd leaked it; and third, he revealed in his apology that he is incompetent by stating he never even read the memo before leaking it.
This is not a good advert for Scotland.
Even though Alistair Carmichael is once again an MP for Orkney & Shetland, he is not paid his salary by you. Instead, he is paid from general taxation. That means all taxpayers in Scotland contribute to the money that pays for him to be an MP. He can also influence and help pass laws that affect Scotland by participating in the business of the House of Commons.
In fact, it is a wider issue than that because all of the UK's taxpayers contribute to his salary & expenses and all of the UK can be affected by how he votes. Wider still, Alistair Carmichael's actions implied that Sylvie Bermann, the French ambassador to the UK, and Pierre-Alain Coffinier, the French consul general in Edinburgh, were liars. Both denied the central claim of the memo - a claim that Alistair Carmichael now admits is "not correct."
Worse, it gets even wider. Prior to the 2010 general election and resulting Tory-Lib Dem coalition, Alistair Carmichael had joined the All-Party Faroe Islands Group. In the Register of Members' Financial Interests, he states he travelled to the Faroe Islands on a number of occasions "to meet with Faroese parliamentarians and government bodies."
Given your proximity to these isalnds, I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that even though the Faroe Islands are under Danish control they are not covered by the treaties of the European Union. That is, the Faroe Isands are not part of the EU. It is likely Alistair Carmichael will once again rejoin this group now he is no longer in government. That is, he'll be representing the UK to the government of a non-EU state as he has done in the past. Do any of us want an apologetic liar representing the UK in this way?
Therefore, this is not just a local issue for the residents of Orkney & Shetland to deal with. Alistair Carmichael has caused an international diplomatic issue as well as defaming the reputation of Scotland's First Minister in a bid to influence the outcome of the general election. He has shamed the UK within and without Europe and therefore must resign as a Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.
I hope you, the constituents of Orkney & Shetland, will unite in one voice and call for him to go. You can then elect another member of the Liberal Democrat party to represent your interests. However, given the Liberal Democrat leadership in Scotland is only concerned with Alistair Carmichael's role in this shameful event to the extent of "the impact it has had on his reputation" then I suggest you select someone from a party that will put your interests above their own.
Yours sincerely,
Gregory Beekman
A blog writer from the Scottish mainland
scottitics.blogspot.co.uk
The fact is he used the Frenchgate smear for his own electoral advantage in an election campaign.
ReplyDeleteFunnily enough, Alistair Carmichael was quite unequivocal in his condemnation of Phil Woolas when he did the same in the 2010 election - and called for Mr. Woolas to step down for a new by-election.
"The election result was void and that there will have to be a by-election. Mr Woolas had distributed leaflets during the campaign stating that his Liberal Democrat opponent sought to woo the support of Islamic fundamentalists who supported the use of violence. [...] Everyone knows that politics is a robust trade, especially in an election campaign. No-one would expect candidates to spend their time highlighting their opponents’ virtues but to suggest any smear is justifiable must be wrong.
Most worryingly it betrays an attitude that I had hoped would have been eradicated by the expenses scandals of the last parliament – namely that different rules should apply to MPs than apply to the rest of the population. If Tesco tried to smear the Co-op in the same way it would soon be in trouble. Why should politics be different? [...] The right to freedom of speech is a fundamental one but it does bring a responsibility with it to tell the truth. The right to smear an opponent is not one we should be defending."
So other people who smear in General Elections should stand down and force a by-election - but Mr. Carmichael is somehow exempt? To paraphrase Mr Carmichael himself: 'Why should this politician be different?'
Yeah, I don't see how he can possibly hang on. His line of argument seems to be that he screwed up when he was Secretary of State for Scotland but he's never screwed up as a constituency MP. Thus, he should resign as Sec. but he'd already lost that position, so there's nowt more to say.
ReplyDeletePerhaps he's got a multiple personality disorder, like a Jekyll & Hyde. "It wisnae me that smeared Sturgeon - it was him! The other one!"