It still strikes me as wrong and ill-judged that an MP can be found guilty and sentenced to jail and still potentially retain their seat. It should be automatic that there is a by-election and they are removed from politics in my opinion, regardless of party. #r4today www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... - ThreadSky

danielsohege.bsky.social • 9 days ago

It still strikes me as wrong and ill-judged that an MP can be found guilty and sentenced to jail and still potentially retain their seat. It should be automatic that there is a by-election and they are removed from politics in my opinion, regardless of party. #r4today

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3d8x3v2re8o

Comments

andrewstreet.bsky.social•9 days ago

I guess the key is separation of powers. Otherwise a controlled/ biased judiciary can effectively remove a government by the back door. Recall means it's the people's choice
Ignore SoP at your peril. ( see USAfor details)

louise275.bsky.social•9 days ago

Seems a bit of anomaly when prisoners are nornally disenfranchised (with certain exceptions) when in custody and people with criminal convictions can't become MPs (again, a few exceptions)....?

airfriedrosie.bsky.social•9 days ago

I can't believe the number of people trying to whatabout this considering be was jailed for beating someone up

dr-negrin.bsky.social•9 days ago

It's a tricky one. He's been democratically elected by his constituents, so there's an argument that it needs to be them who make that decision.

50swoman.bsky.social•9 days ago

💯

sblandfo.bsky.social•9 days ago

Given that custodial sentences can now be imposed for peaceful non-violent protest, a law which meant that any MP who received one would automatically lose her or his seat, might have unfortunate consequences…

ghost-of.bsky.social•8 days ago

I don't agree with what he did , but getting the jail for it is ridiculous.

I agree that he should lose his seat and trigger a by-election

denofscholes.bsky.social•9 days ago

Although they are salaried they have no formal employer, so to speak, so ‘normal’ laws pertains to C&D won't work. But yeah, Parliament must act to change/make a law for instant dismissal when convicted. Even go as far as suspend them from the HoC until proven innocent/guilty.

sg99.bsky.social•9 days ago

Hear hear.

nicky-brickdust.bsky.social•9 days ago

What if they were found guilty and jailed for slow march climate protesting?

sanakism.bsky.social•9 days ago

What if the government had the spine to make slow-march climate protesting not-illegal instead?

nicky-brickdust.bsky.social•9 days ago

Well, that'd be great.

danielsohege.bsky.social•9 days ago

Yes. I fundamentally believe in the right to peaceful protest, and believe the current anti-protest laws should be scrapped. You cannot possibly say it is acceptable for an MP to break one law but not another though, so for wider protections against abuses, yes they should be removed from office.

nicky-brickdust.bsky.social•9 days ago

OK. And, (given what's happening in some of the world's largest democracies right now), can you foresee any situation in which such a principle could be weaponised by an insurgent authoritarian government? How are those "wider protections" now?

danielsohege.bsky.social•9 days ago

Of course I can. I am talking about the law as it stands at this point. I am not dealing in hypotheticals. Under our current laws I do not believe that an MP gets to pick and choose which laws apply, and cannot represent their constituents properly if they do so and receive a custodial sentence.

nicky-brickdust.bsky.social•9 days ago

List all MPs convicted and jailed since the Recall of MPs act. Now list who remained in Parliament.

The system works.

But let's go back a bit further and look at all MPs jailed since 1945. Almost all Northern Irish. I invite you to consider the impact of your principle had it been in place then.

danielsohege.bsky.social•9 days ago

I invite you to consider how distrust of politicians, and a perception of them being corrupt, has grown, ironically meaning likes of Trump, Farage et al are able to weaponise people's dissatisfaction. Funnily enough, I reckon trying to rebuild trust in politics to combat far right is a good thing.

peopletrees.bsky.social•9 days ago

We have so many bad laws on the books, and so many bad politicians on the rise who will weaponise them against opponents. You're choosing the worst time in history to try to establish this principle and I hope you and others don't succeed.

danielsohege.bsky.social•9 days ago

Because God forbid we fight to have policymakers who make better laws than defend those who break the ones we have. Again, I think anti-protest laws are abominable, but you don't restore faith in politics, and therefore get better politicians by playing pick and mix with which laws they can break

solapse.uk•9 days ago

Any criminal conviction, probably most civil cases too. They must be beyond suspicion. There are plenty of non criminals we can have represent us.

danielsohege.bsky.social•9 days ago

I appreciate that people are saying "what about this law or that". One of the most basic reasons people like Trump, Farage et al are able to weaponise people's feelings of disaffection is because trust in politics is rock bottom. I kind of believe that it is important to rebuild that.

danielsohege.bsky.social•9 days ago

Part of that, by no means the only part, is making it clear that MPs cannot pick and choose which laws they abide by, and face genuine, professional, repercussions for doing so I would say, in line with our current legal system.

danielsohege.bsky.social•9 days ago

Some things are not a single issue, much as we live in a world where everyone believes their single issue is all that matters. To rebuild trust in politics, and get better MPs, people need to know they can actually have faith that politicians are held to a higher standard. Purely my view of course.

crankyaine.bsky.social•9 days ago

It's a toxic mess. Almost the entire political class are self serving, greedy, and/or amoral.

radiohead319.bsky.social•9 days ago

For me it's difficult to understand why such violent behaviour is punished with only 10 weeks in prison, while peaceful protestors get 5 years. Seems totally perverse to me.

mmmmtrams.bsky.social•9 days ago

There is. But at present it doesn’t apply for short sentences

timsimonh.bsky.social•9 days ago

What's the cut off?

mmmmtrams.bsky.social•9 days ago

Well unless it’s changed I thought it was three months but I might be wrong. The alternative is a recall petition (which can be started at any time) or voluntary resignation , both of which would force a bye-election

hindchristopher.bsky.social•9 days ago

it's one year, it was introduced after Bobby Sands was elected

mmmmtrams.bsky.social•9 days ago

Thanks for correcting me 😊

badhorse.com•8 days ago

Although the morals of this case seem clear cut it is dangerous to exclude people from politics because of criminality lest some government decides to criminalise people because of politics.

damerainbowwarrior.bsky.social•9 days ago

I agree. Automatic dismissal from Parliament.

scornflakegrrrl.bsky.social•9 days ago

It’s weird. He wouldn’t pass the good character test required for citizenship, but can sit in actual fucking parliament

daniswissmiss.bsky.social•9 days ago

Agree.

sirkidstarversucks.bsky.social•9 days ago

"high quality candidates"

jaylonesome.bsky.social•9 days ago

I'd disagree. Mechanisms exist for by-elections. If my MP was jailed for peaceful protesting I wouldn't want them to lose a seat. In the north of Ireland, the ability of political prisoners to stand for election was a powerful revolutionary tool

sanakism.bsky.social•9 days ago

I understand what you're getting at, but it seems to me the problem there is political imprisonments, not the idea MPs shouldn't be criminals. Have a facility to recognise a period of incarceration was wrong & officially expunge it, but don't allow MPs who do obviously-bad stuff to keep their seats?

jaylonesome.bsky.social•8 days ago

MPs do bad things all the time. They're less likely to go to jail if they're wealthy and powerful. Corelating jail with badness isn't a very powerful metric in England. And while to dehumanise people in jail is a very English thing, it's not a good thing.

sanakism.bsky.social•8 days ago

MPs are indeed less likely to go to prison than normal people; so if they do end up in prison legitimately, it's more of an indicator than usual that the thing they did was probably pretty bad.

sanakism.bsky.social•8 days ago

I wouldn't say prison time is in and of itself a good metric of good or bad, but there's certainly a list of offenses that, should an MP be convicted of them, I would prefer they weren't able to retain their seat and continue to make laws at least in the short term.

sanakism.bsky.social•8 days ago

There are mechanisms for by-elections but they were set up by Cameron's Tory government and were deliberately made difficult criteria to meet.

scornflakegrrrl.bsky.social•9 days ago

He wasn’t jailed for peaceful protesting though, was he

timsimonh.bsky.social•9 days ago

No but the OP stated that being sentanced to jail should be an automatic disqualification from being an MP. If that was the case it would have to apply to all, so would effect protesters as well.

jaylonesome.bsky.social•9 days ago

No. Why do you ask?

roadwarrior29.bsky.social•8 days ago

Sacked, kicked out, by election, simple.

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