Give Mick A Glasgow Kiss From Me!

Mike Granatt, spokesman for Gorbals Mick (aka Michael Martin, the Speaker of the House of Commons) has resigned because he misled the Mail on Sunday when refuting claims that Mrs Mick had spent £4,000 since 2004 on taxi fares to do her weekly grocery shopping at Waitrose or wherever she gets her petit fois - the details aren't that important. But his reason for resigning is very significant.

"I have stepped down from my post for ethical reasons, because I misled a journalist unwittingly," he said. "I learned on Friday that I had been led to mislead journalists over material facts in a story concerning the Speaker's household and the use of taxis."

Ethical reasons? A reason to resign? Since when has "ethical reasons" caused anybody associated with the Labour Party been a reason to resign? He was not pushed, he did not jump - he just left gracefully with his own integrity intact.

But Mr Granatt is not, in fact, a Labour Party apparatchik - he is a career civil servant with a very sound reputation earned over several decades. I smell a rat!

Apart from the fact that Michael Martin is one of the most ineffective Speakers in history (witness his obvious bias towards Brown's regular habit of asking the Leader of the Opposition questions instead of answering Prime Ministers Questions) he is woefully equipped to take even the most simple decision on how the business of our Parliament is conducted. Calls for him to step down are long overdue.