Memorandum submitted by Colin Challen
MP
Thank you for your e-mail. As you say, the Committee
is working under a very tight timetable, and this is symptomatic
of the knee-jerk fashion in which the House (and Government) are
responding to the expenses scandal and related issues. A mad rush
to "sort everything out" is under way and will lead
to many bad decisions being made. Perhaps this is not entirely
unrelated to the fact that we (Labour) have to be seen to be doing
something in the remaining months before our presumed defeat in
the general election, and to tie the Tories hands thereafter.
Whatever, I feel there is an atmosphere in parliament now which
recalls the words "chickens" and "headless".
Having said which, there is much to do to improve
the way Parliament works—and that process is and should
be seen to be a continuing process. At the heart of it I would
suggest that the role of the member is paramount. Members, if
they are to earn the respect of the public must endeavour to do
a job in parliament which commands respect, and this means amongst
other things not diminishing the MPs' role to that of a councillor,
social worker or parish pump greaser. I recognise the shift of
power that has taken place from the legislative assembly to the
executive, and yet this does not seem to feature in your remit.
How strange. We may discuss whether or not to elect the Chairman
of Ways and Means, but not how to execute control over the executive.
We may have more debates initiated by Members (and that would
be a good thing) but still, are we merely going to facilitate
a greater torrent of verbiage to no obvious effect?
And what's this about how the public can "initiate
proceedings in the House"? How about a weekly referendum
or The Sun (which apparently wants to dictate defence policy)
telling us what we need to do? Have we completely lost sight of
the fact that MPs are elected not only as representatives but
also mediators?
Sad to say the trend towards the diminution
of parliament did not start with the expenses row, but with the
accumulation of unaccountable executive power, which New Labour
has accelerated with its vast array of quangos, arms' length arrangements
and semi-privatisations. The expenses row resonates so much with
the public in my opinion precisely because the public now sees
us as a useless collection of tools happily defining our real
responsibilities out of existence. The latest batch of reforms
now on the cards will further diminish the respect which MPs deserve
or are capable of earning. It's almost as if we are ashamed of
being MPs because of the craven behaviour of many of our colleagues
and now consider reform a suitable antidote to this collective
guilt. It won't work.
September 2009
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