MPs to spend less time at Westminster

MPS are to get an extra week off at the end of this month - just weeks after coming back from their bumper three-month summer recess - because the government has run out of business.

Harriet Harman, the Commons leader, broke the good news to MPs yesterday, also outlining even more time away from Westminster for them over the coming year. MPs will spend one in three weeks out of Westminster - taking their time away from the Commons from 15 weeks to 18 weeks.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "If MPs spent longer in the House there'd be less badly drafted legislation."

This is a good thing. If MPs spend less time in the House of Commons it will mean that they are drafting less legislation and staying out of our lives more. That has to be a good thing. It’s not like they will actually be on holiday because they will be in their constituencies addressing the issues that concern their constituents. How is that a bad thing?