Martin Salter's Westminster Diary, March 11, 2010

Martin Salter MP • Published 11 Mar 2010 08:00 0 Comments

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A little bit of history was made in Parliament this week, when both the Government and Opposition front benches were defeated by a large margin when backbench MPs of all parties determined to wrest control of Commons business from the Whips.

The House voted on the recommendations of the Wright Committee on Parliamentary reform, of which I was a member.

On the day my job was to organise MPs to turn up and vote through a full package of reforms, enabling them to directly elect both the chairs and membership (by party) of Commons Select Committees; and establish a Backbench Business Committee to give the Commons control over all non-Government business.

In the face of poorly-organised opposition by all-party traditionalists, all the key reforms went through and a start has been made in handing power back to the chamber of the House of Commons which can only help to begin to restore trust in our political system.

* It's just as well I'm not standing again given the complete diary mess-up that happened to me last Monday. I was supposed to be speaking in assembly at one school, but instead went to another, where I was greeted warmly and promptly shown into a school hall where someone else was, in fact, the guest speaker. The penny didn't drop until all the students filed out for their lessons.

* And a little bit of history was made in Reading as well when, last Monday, the Prime Minister visited the area. His speech about crime and policing went down very well.

The fast vanishing Conservative poll lead has put a spring in the PM's step and the walk from the Town Hall back to Reading Station was punctuated by smiling well-wishers pressing through the security cordon to pump his hand. Clearly Reading residents haven't been put off by the "Bullygate" non-scandal!

* It's not often we football supporters leave the ground with heads held high after seeing our team concede four goals but that was certainly the case on Sunday. For 45 minutes Reading outclassed and outplayed Aston Villa, one of the best sides in Britain and even at 2-3 down we had two efforts cleared off the line. New Reading manager Brian McDermott is doing a great job at both turning around a struggling team and giving us our pride back.

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