MPs Need Longer Holidays

Good sense from Dan Hannan:

The House of Commons rises today, prompting traditional seasonal whinges. ‘MPs have already awarded themselves a number of bonus holidays this year so they risk looking out of touch by sloping off early at Christmas,’ says the TaxPayers’ Alliance.

Hang on a minute. Isn’t the TPA forever complaining that we have too many laws and too much government? Why, then, does it want parliamentarians to linger over their law-making? Surely the TPA, of all organisations, should resist the view that legislating is the only ‘real’ work an MP does.

Because the TaxPayers’ Alliance, for all that their heart may often be sound, is also an organisation that knows the price of everything but not always its value.

It is not certain we’d be better governed if parliament sat less frequently, but there is much to be said for denying the legislature the time to legislate on everything the executive would like it to.