The cult of celeb PM's

There is a very good piece in the Observer today by the Mail's Peter Oborne in the absence of the holidaying Andrew Rawnsley.

He argues that we now have the cult of celeb Prime Minister and that has led to the issues that have arisen over the last week vis a vis smeargate.

The modern notion of a celebrity prime minister, permanently surrounded by an army of flunkeys and operating out of a great command centre inside Downing Street, is novel.

he argues

1.Celebrity prime ministers are actively hostile to historic freedoms and civil liberties.

2.Celebrity prime ministers see due process merely as an encumbrance and resent the civil service disciplines of impartiality, scruple and properly noted cabinet meetings.

In this new environment, the crucial aide is the press officer, whose job is to burnish the image of his leader, while using smears and other secret tactics to punish and marginalise political opponents.

Lords reform moving slowly forwards

This morning's FT carries a report on the progress of the reform of the Upper House.

This seems to have fallen off the political agenda since earlier last year when Jack Straw

outlined details of a White Paper which proposes a House where some peers are elected and some still appointed, as they all are now.
The Lords could be renamed - with "the reformed chamber" an interim title.

The proposals at that stage allowed for 540 members of which half would be elected,the other half appointed

Elected the lords marked 96th anniversary of the Parliament Act 1911 with a statement that

Wouldn't it be outrageous if it took Parliament more than 100 years to fulfill its commitment to replace the House of Lords with something democratic?

And wanted to commit a deadline for the reforms to be in May 2011.

The FT today reports

Jack Straw, justice minister, is leading intensive cross-party talks on the future of the second chamber. The talks are now reaching consensus and a committee hopes to publish proposals before the summer recess.

If they are correct,the 540 members has now fallen to 400,to be called senators.

It is agreed that the "senate" will be either 80 or 100 per cent elected.Batches of three or four senators would each represent 80 to 100 "multi-member" constituencies. Existing life peers would be gradually replaced as the senators are elected in stages every four or five years.

So hang on until 2011