Good Riddance To Bad Rubbish

Beleaguered Brown has won breathing space from the wrath of parliament and voters with some serious tribal political plotting, as he wields the knife on his disgraced commons speaker pal Martin.

In an historic day for parliament as the discredited speaker was forced out of office, the long-suffering public were left wondering when and where it will all end. 

New Labour cronies may bleat around the bush claiming their man had been made a scapegoat. The Orange Party will not be among them. The nations should rejoice. It's good riddance to bad rubbish. Martin epitomised everything that was wrong with the failed and discredited New Labour brand. A chance now to clean out the rotting stench of corruption at the heart of Westminster. 

The last speaker to come a cropper was a cross-eyed crook who left MPs in a quandary trying to catch the speaker's eye.

In 1695, he was caught red-handed accepting a bribe in a cash for laws scandal and had to be prised out of office while clinging by his fingertips to one of the highest offices in the land. 

What goes around, comes around. 

Neatly side-stepping the 'will of parliament' and a humiliating no confidence vote, Martin's 34 second resignation gives Brown and his Downing Street boys the one thing they hoped and prayed for - time. 

In a last ditch bid to saves his pal's skin, his long-time crony finally announced he is quitting before dragging Brown down with him. 

Martin leaves in a month's time, leaving a by-election in his Glasgow North East constituency in his wake and a nasty taste in the mouth. 

In what could well turn into a re-run of last July's rout at the hands of the SNP, voters have another chance to show they are fed up with Brown and his cronies who have no place in the hearts and minds of the people of the country.

Then with the Labour Party in disarray in Scotland, riddled with sleaze allegations, the people of Glasgow East sent a clear message to Westminster and Brown got the Glaswegian kiss.

The commons ringmaster and gatekeeper of the MPs expenses fiddle has been clinging limpet-like to his speaker's chair as moves to bring him to parliamentary justice and oust him gained support with petitions calling for a snap general election flying around like confetti. 

The longer bunkered Brown let the dead speaker walking walk away with it, the worse it would get for the tight cabal of cronies. 

Martin was part of the problem. He could not and would not survive whatever political games are played to keep him in post until the general election so his can pick up his peerage and fat pay-off pay cheque. 

But if the speaker made an immediate sharp exit that would trigger a by-election now and certain defeat at the hands of the SNP, followed by the rout of an early general election.  

A by-election after a summer stand down is just what the spin doctors ordered. 

Only Martin's cronies in the New Labour ruling party, using the spinning smokescreen of a scapegoat, are rallying round to support one of their kind who's brought shame and a plague on both their houses as all roads lead back to Brown. 

Once again it is the petty party political tribal loyalties at the heart of a discredited Brown government which have led to the ignominious end of a man who has presided over nearly a decade of corruption. 

Brown pulls the strings behind his long-time buddy. He calls the shots. He decides how to solve a problem like the speaker. He wielded the knife. 

Now Brown will have to accept the consequences of dithering around and putting his petty party politics and political posturing above the interests of the country. 

Martin stuck up for his mate Brown and visa versa but something had to give as the sordid mess of MPs' expenses threatened to bring down the Party and parliamentary democracy. 

The ball was in Brown's court. He could put aside his tribal loyalty to Martin and let him go or go down with him. 

For the first time since the English Revolution, rebellion is in the air. Unprecedented scenes of anger, disgust and disgrace left the cherished democracy of parliament in tatters. 

With disbelief, the shamed speaker refused point blank to give in to calls for a no-confidence vote. Calls to quit fell on his deaf and greedy ears. 

Time and again troughing Martin had made a mockery of the non-partisan post while feathering his own nest, showing his true New Labour colours, sticking up for and sucking up to his cronies in a discredited government up to its neck in the shame of MPs' scandalous expenses.  

Today threatened to be another mother of all rows in the mother of all parliaments and utter chaos in Brown's Big Brother house. 

Now his demise gives time for all parties to put their own rotten houses in order before calls for an immediate general election to clear the air of the rotten stench turn into a deafening roar. 

'Gorbals Mick' was a liability for the government, the commons and the country. Even sticking in the job until the summer will not assuage public and parliament anger.

The discredited bunch of New Labour chancers, spivs and downright crooks have only themselves to blame.  As the Orange Party has pointed out, 'Gorbals Mick' was already in the thick of it well before the latest revelations, his earlier greedy troughing track-record tracked here by Private Eye's Christopher Silvester.

The blinkered and the blind followers of a discredited New Labour brand are trying to cling on to an increasingly bitter end before annihilation. 

Reform of parliament was impossible while this arrogant and greedy man remained in office. Getting rid of the commons speaker will not solve all the problems of the commons. It is a start - but only a start. Window dressing until the election.

The MPs' expenses scandal cannot be  allowed to rot and fester in a sea of pathetic party political posturing and Brown's arrogant tribal loyalties. 

The Orange Party just hopes Martin doesn't get rewarded with a cushy peerage for services to New Labour politics.