National disgrace

If ever anyone needed an example of what’s wrong with federal politics they need only follow the events in the House of Commons that have, in recent months, seen a Member of Parliament go from being a Conservative to an Independent to a Liberal.

Why we continue to embrace a system that permits someone elected as a member of one party to cross the floor and sit as a member of another party boggles the mind.

People often vote for a party and what that party stands for. Often who represents that party is if not insignificant to the process surely secondary. But too often those elected filled with self-importance seem to think they voted primarily for them. While some may have done so it is generally the party and what it stands for or against that brings the voters to the polls.

And that being the case a constituency ought not have to witness the person they elected jumping around the House of Commons until he or she finds a seat that welcomes them.

Surely the honourable thing to do in these circumstances is for the MP to resign and allow their constituency to have another trip to the polls to select who they want representing them.

That would seem to be basic democracy. Something you’d expect the spate of opportunistic MPs dashing across the floor of the House of Commons would be championing not destroying.