What will they do with their time?

It seems that our MPs could have an extra 12 days away from Parliament over the next year. The Government apparently has run out of legislation to put before them. This should add up to about 90 days, or 18 five-day weeks, or more than a third of the year. We recognise that this is not "holidays", although they will see more of their families. The will clearly do some more work in their constituencies, including electioneering.

We ought to be relived that the Government legislation production line is slowing down, as much of the legislation is rushed and badly badly thought out, and contains more and more burdensome regulation. So why don't they actually give more time to what they put through at present? A proper consideration and debate would avoid the need for guillotines, and the legislation would probably be more efficient. Why don't they give more time to private members bills or questioning,etc., which can be more beneficial to electors than much of the official verbiage? There are strict limits on frequency and length of these debates - just watch to see how often a discussion of the new EU consti/treaty will be allowed. There was little or no debate on it before Bottler Brown rushed off the the Conference.

In 2002 the Government announced that it would shorten the summer recess. This was dropped without fanfare in 2005. This year members returned in October, as used to be the case. It is yet another example of the democratic deficit, which is growing. The Executive (largely yes-men of the Prime Minister) rams through its wishes with minimum debate and supporters are whipped into order with dire threats.

I make no mention of the increasingly high allowances MPs grant themselves, the high salaries and the gold plated pensions. Now, with less attendance required, you might imagine that there would be some embarrassment. I would be very surprised to see it! They are so full of their own importance.