In case it has escaped Michael Martin's attention, it is his duty to ensure fair play during the Commons so backbench MPs can hold Ministers to account.

Yet he patently failed in this duty earlier this week when MPs attempted to quiz Bob Ainsworth, the equally unimpressive Armed Forces Minister, on an issue of the gravest importance – the deployment of British troops in Afghanistan and whether they are now embroiled, as many fear, in an unwinnable war.

Specifically, they wanted to know the area of territory in Afghanistan under the control of (a) the Afghan Government, (b) the Taliban and (c) warlords in each of the last three years.

The question was straightforward. Yet, as Mr Ainsworth squirmed, Labour's Paul Flynn had the courage to describe the Minister's answer as "evasive".

Typically, the Speaker forced him to withdraw a remark which, to me, summed up succinctly the Minister's obfuscation.

Yet, Flynn is sufficiently independent-minded not to give up without a fight.

On a point of order, he urged the Speaker, as "the defender of the rights of backbenchers", to look at the issue of ministerial answers.

He said he and a colleague had sought "factual advice on a matter of the gravest importance and the answers from the front bench did not answer those questions".

Mr Flynn added: "I don't know what description one could apply to those answers except that they were evasive. Are we, in future, to believe that evasive is now non-Parliamentary language?"

Yet it was the Speaker's cavalier response that was almost contemptuous towards the Armed Forces.

"For me to examine Ministers' answers, be they written or oral, would be to add too much to the job description of the Speaker," he said. "As a trade unionist, honourable Members would not want me to get any more work than I am doing at the moment."

I disagree. The issue is not one of "more work", to quote the Speaker. It is the competence that he brings to his existing duties. And, if he cannot see why MPs deserve straight answers when their constituents are putting their lives on the line in hell-holes like Afghanistan's Helmand province, there is only one option – and that is for backbenchers to pension off this liability of a Speaker before he diminishes Parliament's reputation
still further.



TREASURY Questions in the Commons provided further evidence of why experience matters in politics – especially when it comes to speaking up for Yorkshire.

Veteran Leeds MP George Mudie had no qualms about pointing out how Lloyds TSB has refused to pass on the recent interest rate cut to consumers, and has increased the rate for its tracker mortgages, despite being bailed out with £5.5bn of public money.

Contrast this with Wakefield MP Mary Creagh who chose, after pointing out that there was a three week delay for Citizens' Advice Bureau services in her constituency, to attack the Tory policy position on the regulation of mortgage finance – and provide an easy way out for the Government.

I know which backbencher I'd prefer to be asking the tough and pertinent questions. Do you agree?



IS climate change for real – or is it just another excuse for Ministers not to answer awkward questions?

I asked this after Tory backbencher Anne Main was promised a response to a matter in "the autumn".

After chasing up the relevant department the other day, she was told by officials "that autumn is defined as December".

Brigg and Goole MP Ian Cawsey was promised an answer on the future of the Post Office Card Account before the summer recess. He's still waiting.

What next? Christmas becoming political-speak for Easter?

Don't bet against it – especially if Michael Martin is not given the heave-ho as Speaker.



THE outspoken Shipley MP, Philip Davies, seems relatively unperturbed about the outcome of the next election – assuming that he holds on to his seat.

As a critic of Gordon Brown and David Cameron in equal measure, he will be guaranteed a place in opposition irrespective of the outcome. It's little wonder that Cameron, on summoning his backbencher recently to discuss Bradford & Bingley's plight, was non-plussed when Davies asked whether he was going to be appointed Shadow Chancellor in place of George Osborne.

I understand the reply went along the lines of "Don't hold your breathe".



I SEE Yvette Cooper, the Treasury Chief Secretary and Pontefract MP, was bullish on the issue of fuel prices this week. Motorists, she said, should shop around and take advantage of the lower prices being offered by some of the supermarkets.

"I do think actually that people should go to Asda and Morrisons. Go to the ones that are bringing their prices down," she implored.

Fine – but what about those people living in Yorkshire's rural communities that do not have out-of-town stores? Is this another example of Labour's ignorance of the countryside?



THE worst piece of broadcasting during the US election came from BBC's Five Live host Richard Bacon – the only presenter ever to be sacked from Blue Peter.

He was the BBC's man in Chicago when Barack Obama made his election speech. Yet Bacon then went on air to say he hadn't paid much attention because he was too busy having his photograph taken during the President-elect's history-making speech.

Can I respectfully ask that Bacon repays the licence fee payer for the flights and other expenses that he incurred during this ego-trip, and that he is never entrusted with such responsibility again?