Back to the Future

The expenses scandal is shaping up as a watershed for Parliament. Not only is that insult to the office stepping down as Speaker, but as many as 325 members are set to lose their seats by the next election.

What these developments overlook is that even though 325 MPs will get the boot, the rest will stay and the so-called life "peers" will almost all keep their seats. In fact, a couple of disgraced MPs and the Speaker will be elevated as well. This is like ripping out a few rotten boards in a hull and ignoring the dry rot that is still in the rest of the timbers. Part of the problem we have is that since the death of the Establishment, Britain has been governed by a self-serving political class that is worse than corrupt; it regards itself as separate from the people, who it treats as subjects. Tory, Labour, Lib Dem, or whatever; they are all tainted by this and the only way to truly deal with it is to get rid of the lot root and branch and replace them with the likes of the past who, for all their wide faults, where at least halfway decent and even had the odd gentleman in the mix.

Furthermore, absolutely the last thing that we need is Mr Gordon Brown's reform. In fact, we need exactly the opposite. It's the "reforms" of the '70s onwards that have created this mess and it is the New Labour "reform" of the House of Lords that has turned that venerable institution into the stinking farce that it is today. We don't need oversight and quangoes and committees and all that nonsense to put things right. We need to reform the House of Lords by bringing back the Hereditary peers (their justification is far less ridiculous than the alternatives), abolishing the Life "Lords" and removing the current miserable batch from the House, and put the gift of peerages where they belong; in the hands of Her Majesty to dispense with solely as she pleases to replace extinguished titles and reward men famous in blood and deeds who have distinguished themselves above and beyond the call of duty in service of the realm–not to time-serving politicians, aging pop stars, and flunkies to the party in power. As for the House of Commons, here is David Young's description of the venerable institution in happier days:

More than 100 years ago, Parliament was a part-time affair, sitting from February to mid- August. The vast majority of Members had outside interests, there were no women and they were unpaid. That seemingly amateurish arrangement sufficed for running the largest empire the world has known.

And the House didn't sit until after 4 PM. Baroness Thatcher has proven the worth of women in the Commons, though women-only shortlists, like non-whites only or any -only shortlists, should be made illegal and punishable by a stout public flogging. Also, the days of rubber stamping EU diktats, PMs legislating from the divan, and bureaucrats enacting legiaslation should end by making it clear that Parliament and only Parliament makes the law and that Members are in no way exempt from those laws. Otherwise, what we need above all else is to abolish the professional politician and return to a Commons that Gladstone or Disraeli would have recognised; an institution whose members are drawn from wide experience and (often conflicting) interests and who serve at their own expense even if it means getting a proper job.

That and open the windows in the place to give it a good airing until the stench dies down.

Update: The question is, if we throw out all the dross, who do we vote in? God knows we don't want a Cromwell solution that leads to dictatorship. Ideally, the Tories and Lib Dems should field decent alternatives to their disgraced MPs, but Archdruid Rowan Williams has his own concerns and warns people against using this turmoil as an excuse for voting for the British National Party.

Note that he only singles out the BNP. Apparently Respect, Sinn Fein, the various Communist Parties of Britain, Socialist Workers Party, and (incredibly!) New Labour are all just fine.

However, there is a safe alternative.