Needed: MPs with integrity

When a price is paid several times over it is overpriced. Continuing the scheme with a different hat on will end in tears.

The UK has a system of government where there are constituencies which have an MP. The MP is usually a member of a political party but can be independent. 

There are no set criteria for MPs but they have all been educated to a reasonable standard, and for the most part are law abiding and articulate. The MP is responsible for representing everyone in the constituency for which he was elected and where he lives. He/she is expected to hold local “clinics” frequently to discuss local issues and give answers to the people.

The prime minister has frequent question times, and censure debates are used to get rid of governments gone wrong, not coups or crisis panels.

Thailand has several party leaders with more or less the same agenda. MPs nod through anything suggested. The prime minister avoids the House as much as possible. Censure debates are a farce. Any misstatement goes unchallenged by the PM’s side and unanswered.

What Thailand needs is openness in government and MPs with a conscience and integrity.

Richard Bowler