Somewhat farcical

Speaker Wilson has already rejected Rodney Hide’s request to refer Benson-Pope to the Privileges Committee in some circular reasoning.

On 7 June she rejected a referral saying there was no evidence of a question of privilege. She said however “I am, of course, prepared to look at any material which may be put before me in the future in regard to this matter.”

But now there is considerable new material with the Police report, she says “The matter of which you complain (an alleged misleading of the House on 12 May 2005) was raised at the time and was dealt with by me then”

So if you raise an issue at the earliest opportunity it gets ruled out for lack of evidence. If one decided not to raise the issue until say the Police report had been published, it would then be ruled out for not raising it at the earliest opportunity.

The equivalent is say that I walk down a street with a new Ipod and video-phone device. And Miss Ten mugs me and steals my Ipod off me. I go to the Police and they say she denies it, so they don’t charge her.

Then a few months later it emerges a CCTV camera captured the theft on film, and I take it along to the Police. They then say “Sorry we have already investigated this case, and we can’t re-investigate it”.

It’s somewhat of a farce, isn’t it?