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The horse's mouths
January 27, 2002
By Denis Solomon
IN MY column on Wednesday I likened the attempts to find constitutional solutions for political problems to prescriptive as opposed to analytic grammar. Former Independent Senator Professor John Spence, the Undine Giuseppi of Parliament, continues his attempts to refute my claim that the ministers appointed by Patrick Manning should not be paid.
I said this a couple of weeks ago, and later agreed with the Solicitor General that no one who hadn't taken the parliamentary oath of allegiance could be appointed a Minister. I condemned the Attorney General for bullshitting the public by saying that the ministerial oath incorporated the parliamentary one.
Professor Spence telephoned me to say that what made someone a Member of Parliament wasn't the oath, but the instruments of appointment issued by the President, and the person in question could therefore be made a minister.
I pointed out to Professor Spence that the Attorney General had not seen fit to make that point. Professor Spence also mentioned that the Standing Orders of Parliament stipulate that when in doubt our Parliament should take its cue from Westminster.
Right, I said, I'll ask the British High Commission whether Gerry Adams and the other Sinn Feiners elected to Parliament, who refuse to take the oath of allegiance, are paid their salaries as MPs.
I hoped to end last Sunday's column by stating that they were not paid. But the column had to be handed in on Friday night. On Friday morning I consulted the British High Commission. The following e-mail exchange resulted:
From: Denis Solomon
To: ppabhc@opus.co.tt
Sent: Friday January 18 2002 11.46 AM
Subject: Query re Parliament
Further to our telephone conversation, could you please send me as soon as possible the answer to the following question:
When the Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams, and other members of his party, were elected to Parliament but refused to take the oath of allegiance, were they paid their salaries as MPs?
From: ppa
To: Denis Solomon
Sent: Monday January 21, 2002 7:11 AM
Subject: Re: Query re Parliament
Dennis (sic)
Our Northern Ireland Office has confirmed that ‘No…they were not paid'.
In my Wednesday column I pointed out that if Professor Spence was right, it meant we had ministers without the right to function in Parliament, which was absurd. But if it were not absurd, the oath of allegiance had no meaning. The proof of the pudding would be what happened if Parliament were functioning and the MP did not take the oath; and the answer was to be found in the case of Gerry Adams, who was not only banned from Parliament (I knew this from before) but also not paid.
The indefatigable Professor Spence, reading this, consulted not the British High Commission but Parliament itself, and on Thursday triumphantly sent me the following message:
Dear Dennis (sic)
The following resolution was agreed to in the House of Commons, UK on 18 December 2001: "That, with effect from January 2002, those Members who have chosen not to take their seats and thus do not qualify to participate in the proceedings of Parliament may use the facilities within the precincts of the House and the services of departments of the House, and may claim support for their costs as set out in the Resolution of 5th July, 2001, relating to Members' Allowances, Insurance, etc. and the allowances relating to travel within the United Kingdom for Members, their families and staff". With respect to salaries they also receive full MP's salaries. Please see the information below which was supplied by the House of Commons Information Service.
With best regards
John
If this is not proof of the supremacy of pragmatics over prescriptivism, I don't know what is. In previous Parliaments the Sinn Feiners were not paid. After September 11, 2001, the IRA, of which Sinn Fein is the political wing, fearful of the world backlash against terrorism (especially after some of their number had been caught training guerrillas in Colombia) began to decommission their weapons. The British government responded by dismantling its military presence in Northern Ireland, and restoring power to the Northern Ireland executive. The parliamentary resolution cited by Professor Spence was adopted in December 2001, and was obviously part of the deal: note that it takes effect only from 8th January 2002.
The point is that it took a resolution of Parliament for the Sinn Feiners to be paid. In our case that is not possible, precisely because Parliament cannot meet. So if we follow Westminster, as Professor Spence says we should, there should be no January salary for Manning and Co.
I am simply concerned to show how one distortion of democratic principle invariably entails others. I have no doubt that our so-called Ministers will be paid, legally or illegally. But if it is to be legal, Manning had better make sure to get Mr Panday's support for the necessary resolution when they finally start talking.
Incidentally, I have an infallible way of choosing a Speaker. Let each faction, without consulting the other, prepare a list of people acceptable to it, and agree in advance to appoint the first person whose name appears on both lists.
Copyright © Denis Solomon