What we ought to do better in an Independent Scotland - Number One.

Patrick Mercer has apparently resigned the Tory whip, see here:

http://liberalconspiracy.org/2013/05/31/is-this-what-forced-tory-mp-patrick-mercer-to-resign/

It is not clear yet whether he just loved Fiji, don't we all, or whether he was paid to ask these questions. The fact he resigned is a tad indicative that it wasn't just about love.

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If we are to learn anything from this, it should be that no MSP should be allowed to take a brass farthing without being thrown out of the Parliament. There should be no quarter given, no matter the goodness of the cause.

A transfer of money from any advocate should mean that the MSP is barred sine die, to use a good old football expression.

It is up to us to make this future land a place where the brown paper envelopes are a thing of the past.

I would hope that the mere threat of being chucked out of civic society would be enough to stop this sort of thing. If not, we should criminalise them. Because the idea that they serve us is more important that the idea that they are above our contempt. It is our contempt that they seem free to disregard when the political classes come to town. We need them accountable to us, and not vice versa.

We need a written constitution almost as much as we need our freedom.