England Needs Reform, Not Revolution

Martin Ivens, The Times May 24, 2009

If MPs believed that the removal of the first Speaker in 300 years would end their woes then the latest round of revelations about their expenses has sorely disabused them. Michael Martin was the Bourbon King of the ancien régime. His downfall, honourable members fear, has only ushered in the Reign of Terror. But, as in any revolution, who stands to gain?

The tumbrils sound nightly for the first editions of The Daily Telegraph’s guillotine. Esther Rantzen appears before the cameras like Madame Defarge, the bloodthirsty knitter from Charles Dickens’s novel set in the French revolution, A Tale of Two Cities. “Off with her head,” she cries at Margaret Moran, the Labour MP for Luton South, who made us peasants pay to treat dry rot in her Southampton pad.

Celebrity candidates and independents are the darling of the hour. But a note of caution. The most famous, the former BBC journalist Martin Bell, who won against the Tory Neil Hamilton in 1997 in Tatton on an anticorruption ticket, is a poor advertisement. The “man in the white suit” has a dirty little secret. The architect of his campaign was Tony Blair’s spin-doctor-in-chief, Alastair Campbell. As an MP, Bell was ineffectual in taking new Labour to task for corruption. On Question Time last Thursday he waffled on and on, as ever.

Local parties should clear out tainted incumbents rather than wait for the loony tunes to unseat them. Too many MPs appear to have lost their heads (only metaphorically, of course) before they have lost their seats. Here is the Tory MP Nadine Dorries talking: “The atmosphere in Westminster is unbearable. People are constantly checking to see if others are okay. Everyone fears a suicide. If someone isn’t seen, offices are called and checked.”

Perhaps Queen Nadine, like Marie Antoinette, thought 10,000 swords must have leapt from their scabbards to avenge even a look that threatened her with insult. David Cameron told her to can it. As the distinguished MP Edmund Burke once observed: “The age of chivalry is gone. That of sophisters, economists and calculators has succeeded.” And thank goodness for that.

Cameron continues to ride the tiger of popular anger with agility. But there are dangers. The Tories, not Labour, are responsible for the most exotic outrages. Claims for moats, manor houses and manure have been succeeded by duck islands and automatic gates.

As the old gang on his backbenches takes to the airwaves, Cameron must feel like the Duke of Wellington: “I don’t know what effect these men will have upon the enemy, but, by God, they terrify me.” Anthony Steen will long be remembered for accusing the electorate of jealousy: “I have got a very, very large house. Some people say it looks like Balmoral.” Sir Peter Viggers has told us that the ducks didn’t even like the island house he had so thoughtfully provided for them: he has shipped it off to France. If he had only provided a canopy as shade for his feathered friends . . .

There is muttering in Tory ranks that the leadership is trying to get rid of so-called “bed-blockers”, MPs nearing the end of their career, to advance Notting Hillbillies. The announcement that Andrew MacKay, Cameron’s former aide, will quit parliament, is designed to counter accusations of favouritism.

In private, says an intimate, Cameron is careful to be polite to his erring MPs outright. His lieutenant Ed Llewellyn is skilful at explaining that reforms of funding and star chamber judgments on individual MPs are just necessary business, not personal.

The Conservatives have maintained their lead over Labour in the polls but have dipped below 40%, their lowest level since October 2007. They can console themselves that Cameron’s call for an early general election to wipe the slate clean, however self-serving, is hugely popular with the voters. The Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, as I noted last week, is at last beginning to hit his stride. His former rival for the leadership, Chris Huhne, claimed for a Corby trouser press while his predecessor Menzies Campbell made us pay for his trendy interior designer. But most Lib Dems’ claims go beneath the radar.

Gordon Brown’s efforts to save his party from discredit are the mirror image of Cameron’s. There is a big difference, however: the buck stops with the prime minister. Labour has been averaging less than 24% since the revelations began – their lowest level of support since Michael Foot led them to defeat 25 years ago. More than a few Cabinet members have bent the rules, too.

At first it looked as if Brown would single out the Blairite Hazel Blears, the communities secretary, for retribution – her behaviour over flipping her prime residence was in his words “totally unacceptable”. Blears had mocked Brown’s calamitous appearance on the internet with a cheeky newspaper article declaring “YouTube if you want to”. But was her behaviour any more unacceptable than that of male colleagues? It is odd to keep Blears in place with such a death sentence hanging over her. But if Brown sacks her he will look personally vindictive. And if he doesn’t do the deed he will look weak. That is the price of indecision.

Nor has Downing Street calmed destabilising reshuffle fever. Friends of Peter Mandelson say he would like the foreign secretary’s job because his grandfather, Herbert Morrison, briefly held the post under the Attlee government. Not more noblesse oblige, for God’s sake. Others say Brown wants to move him from the business department because his plans to privatise the Royal Mail will cause a rebellion on the backbenches.

Some mischief-makers argue that all this talk is only a blind for the coming appointment of Brown’s political heir, Ed Balls, as chancellor. The sitting tenant at No 11, Alistair Darling, would therefore have to move to the Foreign Office. But the FO’s incumbent, David Miliband, has gone out of his way to say that he doesn’t want to move. Any change the PM makes is likely to be seen through the prism of Brownite-Blairite civil war. That’s his fault.

As for talk of an early election in October, however desirable, it will go unheeded. The grand Treasury plan is to wait for a fast bounce from recession in the autumn and reap electoral reward.

Brown, however, has reined in the wilder advocates of radical parliamentary reform. How can any fagend government have the moral authority to change the voting system without the mandate of an election? Harriet Harman and Jack Straw are tasked with coming up with a nuts and bolts plan for Commons reform. If their scheme tries to bind the hands of the next government, it will be howled down.

The usual high and low minded suspects are calling for a proportional representation system that leads to hung parliaments and coalition government. The virtue of the first past the post system is that at least we can sling the rascals out, individually as well as collectively.

Amid the mud-slinging it must not be forgotten that there are still good men and women in the Commons. A Tory new boy, Douglas Carswell, put down the motion that led to Martin’s departure. Kate Hoey was the Labour free spirit who originally stood up to the Speaker. Virtue, alas, is the only reward for independent minds in politics, though I hope the voters remember her come election time. Everyone suspected that the Labour MP Frank Field was a good man and now we have the evidence of his expenses to prove it. He deserves the Speaker’s job.

Certainly, the worst offenders in the Commons must go, but whatever their faults backbenchers play a valuable role in shielding us from popular passions, too. They are not always the cringing servants of the executive either. It was ordinary MPs, remember, who brought down Britain’s most powerful postwar prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, and indicated time was up for Tony Blair.

As ever in the long history of Parliament, as long as they back reform, MPs can avoid a real revolution.

Lets see them all in court for fraud if it was us we would have been arrested charged and ordered to pay back every penny plus costs, Get rid of them all, These people are paid well and should use their own money if they want second homes and new televisions, We jo public cant claim expenses.

shelly, manchester, lancashire

Spineless Brown, has now stooped to inviting ideas from Blair, in addition to Mandelson. How does the man who deceived us over the EU, think the man who mislead us over Iraq, helped by a twice dismissed minister, will ever be trusted again? They are building their own guillotine, great!

Ken.H, Harrow, UK

Three year fixed terms would be adequate. If the government is good it would be returned, if not, any damage inflicted on the country could be minimized. Succeeding governments could continue legislation good for the country and dump the bad.

Tony Atkins, Cairns, Australia

Well, this article is a breath of fresh air. We are all imperfect, right? So let us not perhaps be too quick to get the nooses ready!

Mark, London, UK

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