The following is just one of the findings of a new paper by Andrew Eggers and Jens Hainmueller on political power and wealth:
MPs with at least one (self-)reported outside interest (directorships, consultancies, and work in journalism) attended fewer votes compared to MPs with no outside interests; attendance rates are around 4-6 percentage points lower and the differences are all significant at conventional levels.
From 5 May 2005 to 4 June 2008, Boris had a dismal voting attendance of just 45%. See where that places him on the following jittergram:
What does this suggest?
While positions taken in parliamentary votes are not very informative about the influence of MPs’ clients on policymaking, the attendance of MPs for voting sessions does suggest that outside interests tend to distract members from legislative work.
Boris ought to reconsider that publishing contract amongst any other gigs he might be doing if he intends to run London properly.
Source: Andrew Eggers and Jens Hainmueller, The Value of Political Power: Estimating Returns to Office in Post-War British Politics (Harvard University, August 2008).
Tags: interests · journalism · statistics3 Comments
3 responses so far ↓
[...] x-posted from Boris Watch [...]
one could argue that most HoC votes are pretty much already decided given the relative party sizes currently, so turning up rarely is hardly problematic, particularly if (as is not uncommon) his vote was traded off against someone else’s.
more to the point is HOW an MP casts her/his vote, not how often. quality rather than quantity.
There’s a discussion on exactly that point going on over at Hainmueller’s blog.