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Friday 10 February 2012

Hold them to account

Iain Martin fears that Members care too little about the erosion of Parliament’s authority

‘A lot of MPs think it’s a terribly complex area and difficult to get into it. But it’s not,’ he says. ‘You just get stuck in.’

In part, Field traces the weakened Commons to the increased demands placed on MPs by their constituents. There is so much correspondence to deal with now that the public appears to view MPs as local social workers rather than those with the power to question the executive.

Other MPs blame the media for not taking their deliberations seriously enough. But if they had rushed back from their holidays for a two-day debate on the financial calamity and the consequences for government policy, I suspect they would have been pleasantly surprised at how much positive coverage it could have attracted.

Then there is the impact of Europe, and the fact that 80 per cent of what the Commons does now is to wave through decisions made in Brussels. Many MPs are reluctant to admit this, for fear voters ask why they do not do something to correct the imbalance or take a pay cut to reflect a reduction in their power. Devolution to Scotland and Wales has also drained authority and decision-making from Westminster.

Simultaneously, the power of the executive — and its agencies and quangos — has been growing largely unchecked by either chamber or a parliamentary select committee structure which is still in the grip of the ruling party’s majority and its right to pack individual committees. To shift this, enough MPs will have to decide to work across party lines to rebuild the power of Parliament.

There are peers who are deeply concerned about these developments and have made repeated calls for parliamentary debates on the financial emergency. One called the lack of a debate in the Lords ‘an absolute disgrace’. Ironically, his son has become the media embodiment of the modern crisis, broadcasting to the nation at all hours and solemnly passing on the latest news to expectant markets, bemused voters and confused MPs. Robert is doing a journalist’s job, but his father Lord Peston is right to ask why parliamentarians are not being given the chance to do theirs.

Of course, there are good MPs who work hard, although it appears they are insufficient in number. They lament the pincer movement on the authority of the Commons which has eroded its standing to such an extent that in the middle of the greatest financial and economic crisis since the war, it has no folk memory of its traditional role and how it should behave. As a result, the House of Commons is not doing its job properly.

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