Phil Hendren has often written about Early Day motions and how pointless they are. Indeed he has recently written that the cost (mainly printing I assume) of each EDM is around £300 a pop.
So here is something that needs some brave MPs to champion. Come on guys and gals you must be out there. Lets start a campaign to abolish Early Day Motions. They serve no purpose bar perhaps generating a little local publicity – but if you can’t generate publicity without some costly parliamentary motion you really aren’t doing your job are you!
So come on… who will get behind the call to get rid of Early Day Motions. At the time of writing there are 1757 EDMs (not counting amendments). If they do really cost circa £300 a go, that equates to a cost of £527,100.
Democracy will not be worse without these motions.
Lobbyists will have to try and influence properly and not try to persuade their clients that as an EDM has been tabled they are doing their jobs!
MPs can get local publicity without these costly meaningless motions!
So what are you waiting for.
The time is right to just do away with Early Day Motions!
I spend a huge amount of time telling my constituents that EDMs are a kind of con, they are not debated, people think that if you sign one it means something. Politics is harder and more serious than just adding your name to a slogan or policy position, it requires properly researching and raising issues with ministers, winning allies deciding priorities, and EDMs make it all look very simple in a way which is genuinely misleading.
Comment by Fiona Mactaggart — July 1, 2009 @ 2:39 pm |