The best medicine

By Tom Harris MP / @TomHarrisMP

I was not present in Westminster on Wednesday when the Kelly report was published. Fortunately. There aren’t many “big” parliamentary occasions that I’d be happy to miss but this was one of them.

And when I saw TV coverage of the Commons being told by Speaker Bercow that Sir Ian Kennedy, who is to chair the new Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, is to receive an annual salary of at least £100,000, I fretted that my colleagues’ jeering response might not strike the right note with the watching electorate.

Which just goes to show how misleading TV coverage of the chamber can be. This afternoon I spoke with a colleague who had been present. He was utterly bemused and frustrated by media reports of the response, described by at least one journalist as “a derisive groan”. It was nothing of the sort, said my friend. Rather, the Speaker’s announcement was met with genuine hilarity and amusement, as if months of pent-up anger, fear and stress found voice in an odd kid of catharsis.

There was no jeering, no contempt, just a straightforward acknowledgement of the entertaining irony of Sir Ian being paid significantly more than an MP’s basic salary. But MPs’ reaction just had to be derisive in order to fit in with the media’s current narrative. A genuinely good-natured and humorous countenance doesn’t make good copy.

But I’m glad I wasn’t there to share in the joke.