The respect agenda

If the first rule of success is to follow a failure, then the 157th Speaker of the House of Commons, whoever he or she may be, is off to a good start. Michael Martin was everything a Speaker should not be: partial, too deferential to the executive and an opponent of transparency. His alleged comment that ‘I did not come into politics not to take what is owed to me’ sums up so much of what has gone wrong. His removal was a necessary first step in the process of once more making Parliament an effective institution, and one of which the British people can be proud.

But it would be wrong to imagine that it is the expenses scandal alone that has brought the Commons into disrepute. The deluge of stories about flipping, moats and feather-bedding has hardened — not created — the public’s contempt for Parliament. In fact, the public’s loss of respect for Parliament can be traced back to Parliament’s loss of respect for itself.

The Commons has handed away far too many of the powers lent to it by the voters. More than half of our laws now originate in Europe. It has allowed the executive to bypass it: Gordon Brown made his announcement about parliamentary reform on Tuesday not in the Commons chamber but in a televised Downing Street press conference timed to coincide with the nightly news. For a minister to mislead the House used to be an indelible stain on his record. Now mistakes can be corrected with a quick letter and are soon forgotten.

If the Commons allows itself to be treated with contempt by the executive, it is little surprise that the electorate treats it the same way. Fighting to recover the prerogatives of Parliament must be one of the first tasks that the new Speaker undertakes.