What are politicians paid for?

There is an interesting blog on Conservative Home today by Greg Hands.

He makes two points, essentially.

The first is that while much has been done to shore up the banking system over the past three weeks, there has been no debate in Parliament on the subject, except indirectly a three hour debate on fiscal rules in opposition time. This is in stark contrast with other countries where proposals have been debated in national chambers, especially in the USA.

It seems that in this country the Cabinet, principally the prime minister, can commit the country to huge sums and risk without our elected representatives being involved. I appreciate that some things may be confidential or liable to cause very divided reactions, but are Messrs Brown and Darling the fount of wisdom and talent, - they haven't been hitherto? I accept, too, that the Tories and LibDems offered their support in advance, but neither seems to have been involved in any way.

The second point he makes is that apart from a few periods such as PMQ the Commons has been generally empty. There have been only six votes on any topics at all, and none this week. On two days the sitting finished early due to a lack of contributions from the benches, not surprising when for much of the time there were only a handful of MPs there, - those on the govt. side and those of the opposition who had to be there. So in the two weeks after a recess of 75 days most MPs were absent. One of the things decided was that in 2009 there would be 145 days when there would be no sittings, perhaps two weeks longer than usual.

All this when the country is in crisis, and during a period when we had a positive diarrhea of new legislation. The missing MPs would doubtless claim that they were otherwise engaged, - in writing letters to constituents, to ministers and others, or having informal discussions in the tea rooms and bars.

When so much is enacted and decided, unless the whip is needed because the government or the opposition feel a risk or opportunity and drags them all in, decisions are effectively made by just a few members of the government. Did someone call it elective dictatorship? It used to be called parliament, because that was where they talked. What are we to call it now - homeworking?