It seems like every day now that we hear that a Conservative ‘Knight of the Shires’ MP has been required to retire by David Cameron following the revelation of an inappropriate expenses claim.
This has the obvious merit of being a public demonstration of David Cameron’s resolve to deal firmly with Conservative MPs whose conduct has so angered voters.
The happy side-effect from his point-of-view is that this is leading to a clear-out of many ‘bed-blockers’ – those MPs who have been in Parliament so many years that their positions are unassailable but who are of little use to a future Cameron-led government.
And given that we are now close to a general election and the current state of morale in the various local parties, we can expect party high command to have a pretty strong hand in any selection procedures for successors.
So out with a bunch of Knights of the Shires and in with a gaggle of modernisers who owe their seats to the leadership. That’s a pretty good result for those expecting to have to manage the next Parliament.
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