---
title: "Genius Idea: A Sarbanes-Oxley for politicians"
date: 2007-05-03T14:16:27Z
modified: 2007-05-03T14:16:27Z
permalink: "https://redmonk.com/jgovernor/genius-idea-a-sarbanes-oxley-for-politicians/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 1080
categories:
  - Uncategorized
timestamp: 2007-05-03T14:16:27Z
tags:
  - Uncategorized
---

Matt Mower [comes up with a doozer](http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00002552.html). The problem – politicans vote on bills without reading them. The solution – make them swear by what they sign. If its good for the goose then why not the gander?

> My current opinion is that MP’s should be required to make a legally binding declaration that they have, personally, read and understood the full text of any bill or amendment before voting on it. With effective censures available for any MP discovered to have voted on a bill they did not read. This would need to be backed with some kind of commons oversight facility to turn up offenders.
> 
> As a side-effect this might also slow down the passage of legislation through parliament. Given the quality of legislation persued by this (and to be fair every other government I have lived through) I can only see that as being a good thing.