Michael expected to resign

Rumours are growing in and around Westminster that the Speaker will be announcing his retirement later today.

Scottish Television is now reporting this tip too. And Sky News has 'sources'.

Paul Waugh (Evening Standard) reports:

I'm told Michael Martin will announce any minute that he will step down. Currently checking details.

I understand he will make an announcement at 2.30pm

Gordon Brown will be holding his monthly press conference at 5:00pm today. Ther is a whiff of a national emergency about all this me thinks.

Carswell to table 'no confidence motion' in Speaker next week

A Conservative Parliamentarian, Douglas Carswell MP has said that the petition for a vote of no confidence motion against Speaker Michael Martin was collecting more signatures than expected and that the motion would be formally tabled next Monday or Tuesday.

The BBC report he said that he had collected names from across all three political parties for the petition and he expected more names to be added once MPs had a chance to return to their constituencies and gauge the level of public discontent.

He said that the House of Commons was in a sorry mess, because the good, old boy system is broken.

"Under Speaker Martin the Commons is not doing its job.

"What we need now is a new Speaker with a mandate for radical change to make Parliament work for the people."

He said that the Speaker was not personally dishonourable but that he was "bad at his job and failed to champion back benchers and hasn't held the legislature to account."

Santa Claus puts Gordon Brown on the 'Naughty List'

Santa Claus has this year placed Gordon Brown on the naughty list, and thus the Prime Minister will not be receiving any presents.
Conservative Future activists obtained a leaked document showing that the Prime Minister has been moved to the naughty list in reaction to the large debt he is placing on future generations.

The leaked document, from Lapland's Department of Poetic Justice, shows that other prominent politicians have also been added to the naughty list:

Alistair Darling – for his part in saddling the future generation with huge debt and tax increases.

Michael Martin - for not teaching the Sergeant at Arms that the Police need a warrant before searching a premises/Parliamentary office.

Jacqui Smith - for her bullying students to get an ID card in order to obtain student loans.

Commenting Lincolnshire Conservative Future Area Chairman, Giles McNeill, said:

"OK, so this story is a bit of fun, but it has a serious message at its centre: the politicians who are on this list have performed a grave disservice to young people of both Lincolnshire and this country.

"The people on this list have eroded democracy, scored cheap political points, recklessly borrowed for electoral gain and, just for good measure, are leaving the next generation with a huge bill to pick up - all in a vain attempt to remedy the follies of the last eleven years."