Thursday, September 10, 2009

A note to our American cousins

I see Ezra and Matt comparing idiot Joe Wilson's outburst to the British tradition of heckling our elected leaders.

In fact, accusing an MP of lying is the one thing not protected by Parliamentary privilege, and if not immediately apologized for can have an MP removed from the House of Commons (in Canada and the UK at least -- dunno about other commonwealth countries.) Of course, the President isn't an MP, but addressing a joint session more closely resembles a Speech from the Throne, and I cannot imagine a scenario where any party would put up with an MP interrupting the Queen or a Governor-General, much less calling them a liar. We'd be in a by-election before you could say "tut tut, cheerio".

2 comments:

NA Patriot said...

bravo.

ADHR said...

I demand compensation for stealing my Governor-General/Queen comparison which I never told you about until now. Dammit!

I think you should be able to say what you like in the House, to the President, etc. without the law telling you "no". That doesn't mean that there should be no consequences. That Joe Wilson is still in the Republican Party doesn't say good things about them. I'm cheered, though, by news that his probable Democratic challenger raised ~$100,000 in the 24-hour period after Wilson's outburst.