Go now Mr Martin

While there are plenty of call for the speaker to go and some suggesting successors one question that has to be considered is timing.

Now, in a month or at the general election.

Our current speaker would prefer to hang on, resign honourably and stand down as MP at the same time or so it would seem. In that time he would without favour reform the expenses system at both entitlement and back office level and restore confidence in the office which he as so patently failed. A nice thought but put another way he as the man that could stop the mess at any time over the past 9 years and cleaned it up in private but didn't now wants our trust that he can do it in public.

I THINK NOT and I have 20 years of campaigning under my belt and am thoughougly sickened by the whole mess. He should go now rather than put into place a system that his replacement may themselves deem too lax and seek to reform.

So now or in a month or two.

Personally it has to be now but I suspect it may be best for the country for him to see things though to publication of the full expenses let his watch carry all the juicy revelations and not leave a new Speaker having thier opening days tainted by the past.

So publication day it is and I hope a real competion for the post let us the public see the election not hide it behind closed doors. Place an obligation on every party in Westminster to nominate at least one candidate in the next ten days with thier expenses published immediately and require them to publish their alst 4 years of expenses on nomination.

Lets see detailled manifestos of how they plan to reform, a full question time debate and public involvement... and let them face an independant review of manifesto vs actions in 24 months time with a commitment to resign if they are found to have reeged on those promises

We as a political elite have too many good candidates out there being frightened or sickened out of Westminster politics by the baying of the Fleet Street pack. So let us once and for all send a message out that our politics is fundermentally clean its just got a few rotten apples within it that need checking on the compost heap