Wilby on why reform is for anoraks

Those who quote Cromwell’s “In the name of God, go!” miss an important point: Cromwell replaced the Rump Parliament with an assembly of nominated placemen, setting himself on the road to dictatorship.

writes Peter Wilby in this week's New Statesman and adds that

both Houses of Parliament are already composed very largely of nominees, with democracy providing just a veneer of legitimacy. Membership of the House of Commons is heavily determined by the parties’ lists of “approved candidates”, with neither party members nor voters in general having much of a say unless they strain themselves to make trouble.

It is an interesting perspective and as he continues,the trouble with Parliament is that it was simply not designed to do the job for which it is now supposed to do

MPs originally ensured that governments didn’t raise taxes without good cause or adequate account of how the money was spent. Their function as intermediaries between constituents and central government – sorting out the myriad ways in which each now makes demands on the other – is almost entirely a development of the past 50 years. That explains why MPs think they are overworked and require two homes.

Back in the land of blighty

Well a week can be a long time in politics.

I tried to keep away from the news whilst on holiday,managing to aviod the internet but not be able to resist the newspapers,although a day late.

So are we on the cusp of a new political future?

The speaker is on his way out.There is talk of sweeeping away the archiac structures of parliament,we may even be replacing ourt first part the post electoral system and will there be an election in October?

Exciting times lie ahead for the next few months

Now we have lazy MP's

Amongst all the sleaze doing the rounds ( and the Mail has some more this morning)

The Times uncovers another aspect of parliamentary life.

It reveals that backbench MPs routinely skip the meetings of powerful Commons committees, undermining Parliament’s power to scrutinise the Government.

The paper has found that

At least 60 of the 220 members on the most influential Commons committees examining public services and government spending missed more than half their meetings last year, according to an analysis of figures released this week by Parliament.

If you are interested in your MP's performance take a look at the information HERE

More importantly though if proved correct this is an undermining of the Parliamentary process.The select committees are becoming the only place where ordinary MP's are able to scrutinise legislation and the sovereignty of Parliament moves increasing to cabinet government.

Worrying times

Is democracy becoming impotent?

Alice Miles' column in the Times this morning should be rustling a few feathers in Westminster.

Alice argues that

the country is facing a crisis of parliamentary and governmental impotence. In both the banking collapse and the row over the employment by British firms of migrant workers, the solutions and the causes lie outside Westminster. Westminster could arguably have prevented them, but it couldn't have caused them. And it does not seem able to stop them.

It reminded me of something I read on the train yesterday by George Mobiot in the Guardian.He firmly believes that democracy and therefore Parliament has become impotent

The small Welsh town where I live, many of whose inhabitants are among the very poor, was once a haven of progressive politics, built from nonconformist religious sects and a long tradition of social solidarity. People from these valleys were transported to Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) for demanding the vote.

The past inhabitants,he feels would turn in their graves if they saw the state of denmocracy today

had their forebears been told that, 125 years after the first agricultural workers got the vote, the poor would be bailing out the rich and (thanks to the first-past-the-post system) the votes of only a few thousand citizens would count, I doubt they would have bothered.

Gove in fine form

Good this be one of the best parliamentary speeches.

Michael Gove in the Commons earlier (HT-conservative home)

I thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and the Government Front-Bench team for their understanding in allowing me to leave the Chamber briefly earlier in order to see my daughter’s nativity play. Even though we all face tough economic circumstances, I know that all hon. Members will want to find time in their schedules for seasonal festivities.
I was particularly pleased to read about the great fun had by all at the Christmas party held by the Secretary of State at the Department for Children, Schools and Families. I understand that, as well as wine and canapés, the Secretary of State also laid on for members of the press a Scalextric demonstration, a Nintendo Wii and some Star Wars light sabres. Those were not products acquired during the seasonal sale that Woolworths has just launched to celebrate the life-saving effects of the recent VAT cut; nor were they the toys that the Prime Minister threw out of his pram on hearing what the German Finance Minister thought of his policies. They were, in fact, there to help members of the press celebrate the first anniversary of the children’s plan.

I also understand that the climax of the party was a light sabre duel between the Secretary of State and Mr. Michael White of The Guardian, modelled on the epic duel between Darth Vader and Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars—these are serious times and we need serious people. I also understand that the Secretary of State won, and I am sure that, as he triumphed, he uttered the words that the Home Secretary spoke to my hon. Friend the Member for Ashford (Damian Green) just the other week—“May the force be with you”. But whether or not we believe in the force, and the power of the dark side, I am sure that we can forgive light-heartedness at this time.

Of course, some hon. Members may have been in good spirits yesterday for reasons other than the formal anniversary of the children’s plan. They may have been listening to the Prime Minister taking pride in his global rescue plan. Well, we now know what the man in charge of Europe’s biggest economy thinks of that. The Prime Minister may believe, in his more modest moments, that he is Franklin D. Roosevelt, but the truth is that he is closer to a political Max Mosley: he thinks he is king of the world and he has clearly got money to burn, but all people remember is that he got a terrific spanking in German. [Interruption.] Thank you."