Peter Robinson's right to stop MPs doing the double

Isn't it amazing what a little bit of people power can do — even here in old fuddy duddy Northern Ireland?

After years of, well, nothing, it has suddenly struck Peter Robinson that something simply must be done about ‘double jobbing' — or if you fancy the posh term ‘dual mandates'.

The DUP leader has announced that the party's MPs will have to choose between Stormont and Westminster by the next election. The East Belfast MP indicated that he would be choosing to remain in Belfast.

All so far, so good. At last a bit of common sense, we need our best politicians here etc, etc.

Except, er, not quite. There will be one exception to the edict. Whether it's because this anonymous MP simply doesn’t agree with Robinson, or because there is some brilliant — and genuine — reason for the exception is not clear, because that is ‘announcement’ for another day.

WHAT!!!

How patronising can you get? If the mystery DUPer is, as is widely reported, Nigel Dodds then that ‘announcement for another day' had better be before June 4. After all, I think a lot of voters in Northern Ireland might think it their right to know if they are casting their vote for the possibility of three wages from the public purse to be going into the Dodds household. At the moment, Nigel Dodds is an MP, an MLA and a finance minister in the executive. His wife, Diane, is not a member of the Assembly but is standing for next month's Euro election. And yes I know the PC argument — somewhat improbable in DUP mouths — that it is sexist for the Ulster public not to consider Diane and Nigel Dodds as two separate people, each with an equal right to pursue a political career. Yet it would still be three jobs to one household. Let's put it like this. People are very, very angry about the way things are with our politics. We want at least plain dealing, not ‘announcements for another day'.

Of course, the other parties — unused as they are after 40 years of standing still — are now painfully inching their way towards giving the people what they want. SF, stung by the London flats row, say that they are ‘working towards' (wonderfully open-ended that, isn't it?) sorting out the dual mandates for their five MPs. Mark Durkan (the SDLP leader, in case you had forgotten) said he will clarify at some ill-defined point in the future whether he will serve at Westminster or Stormont. Pressure is on Alasdair McDonnell to do likewise (Eddie McGrady is expected to stand down at the next General Election).

While this is all very well and a demonstration of people power at its finest, really all these are ad hoc responses to what many see as abuses of the political system. It is right that parties, as a first step, start putting their own houses in order, but what we need is legislation now, today, putting an end to ‘dual mandates' (ok, let's give 'em a bit of dignity).

If there's no legislation absolutely barring it, how long will it be before our representatives are slipping back into the old ‘two job' ways. Public anger can't last forever. Still, a good few weeks for the voters. Now, what about all these relatives on the public payroll?

Belfast Telegraph