Nats annoy other MPs

Since the general election there has been a lot of negative coverage in the press of the new Scottish National Party MPs.

The 2015 general election saw fifty-six MPs returned for the SNP, and possibly as many as forty-nine of those had never previously served as MPs.  The SNP is now the third largest party by representation in the House of Commons, and as such enjoys certain privileges.  For example they are entitled to three opposition days each year - days on which they choose the topic for debate.

The allegations against them include that some of them have been breaking parliamentary rules by taking photographs in the House of Commons chamber, and that they have defied protocol by clapping.  Clapping is apparently something MPs have traditionally agreed not to do, although it is fair to point out that MPs of most if not all allegiances have a long history being very noisy when other people are addressing the chamber.  (I remember a teacher at school remarking to us once that he felt frightened to think that Britain's legislators were given to rowdy behaviour.)

Another allegation is that they have robbed veteran MP Dennis Skinner of what is widely perceived as his rightful seat in the chamber.  Skinner is one of just four MPs who were first elected to parliament in 1970, and has tended to sit on the front bench for many years now.  There are however no rules as to who sits where in the Commons chamber, other than that the government sits on one side and the opposition on the other.

Over the years, many members of the House of Commons have either been paedophiles, or else have covered up acts of paedophilia by other members of the establishment (or by Muslim grooming gangs).  To suggest that taking selfies in the Commons chamber is somehow more worthy of our disapproval is a gross insult to the victims of child abuse.

Update: since writing this post, I have become aware of the allegation that a woman called Esther Baker was routinely abused by a VIP paedophile gang in the 1980s and 1990s, and that officers from Staffordshire Police supervised the abuse.