Drama in the Commons

Brexit is apparently delayed - at least until April 12. And the headless chickens now have control of the farmyard ie MPs are now attempting to get their colleagues to support an alternative strategy from that of the government’s - which has twice in recent weeks been voted down by huge majorities. 

Even some of the hardline Brexiteers who have refused to support the government “deal” are beginning to understand that Brexit could be slipping away from them…..

There are no fewer than 16 different propositions on the official agenda for the House later today – only a few of which will by selected by the Speaker as likely to command wider support. One will be more of a procedural vote – to hold a second referendum. So I shall this afternoon be in thrall to parliamentary television. I watched the last few minutes of the interplay between witnesses and MPs on the Brexit Select Committee and it will be an hour or so before the exchanges start in the Chamber…..

One MP who will not be present is Chris Mullin - who retired in 2010 but whose wry memoirs are among the very few of that genre to attract readers. He occasionally contributes a diary entry to the London Review of Books and gave this insight last year into recent House of Commons’ operations - 

On this Wednesday afternoon, I was struck by the absence of recognisable faces. There were many staffers and officials, but scarcely any MPs. A sad truth dawned on me: for many of the present generation of MPs, the business of Parliament occupies only two days a week. Most out of town MPs travel down on a Monday morning and leave soon after Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday. Anyone who has seen the chamber on a Thursday, or indeed at any time other than Wednesday at midday, will know it is usually embarrassingly empty. The majority of debates and even important statements are thinly attended.
 Increasingly the business of Parliament has to be shoe-horned into the two days on which sufficient MPs can be guaranteed to be present.

It’s not that MPs are lazy; on the contrary, many work long hours. It’s just that holding the government to account appears no longer to be a priority for them. The trend has been noticeable for some years but seems to have accelerated. Part of the explanation is that Brexit has so overwhelmed the business of government and public discourse that there is little legislation of any significance and, as a result, nothing to vote on. Three-line whips on a Wednesday or a Thursday are now virtually unheard of. Sometimes weeks go by without a meaningful vote.
Many MPs have young families to whom they are anxious to return, and constituents and constituency parties expect a great deal more from their elected representative than they used to. Long gone are the days when an MP could get away with a quarterly visit to his constituency, where he would be greeted on arrival by the stationmaster in his top hat. Nowadays an MP is expected to live or, at least, have a base in their constituency and to be highly visible.The facilities available to MPs at the Commons have dramatically improved. The best a new MP could hope for forty years ago was a locker on the library corridor. Postage was strictly rationed and, until the 1960s, MPs were not allowed free phone calls outside London.

The secretarial allowance was introduced in 1969 and gradually morphed into the office costs allowance which, by the late 1980s, was enough to enable MPs to establish constituency offices. Over the years these and other allowances have steadily increased, with the result that the role of an MP has been transformed.
 The downside is that MPs are increasingly constituency-focused and some, especially those who represent poorer areas, have become glorified advice workers, embroiled in issues that in many cases are more properly the province of councillors and local authorities. Some MPs in marginal seats actively prefer to devote their time to acting as fairy godmothers to their constituents. I’m in favour of constituency-based MPs. That’s not the problem. I was one myself. I wonder, however, if the balance has tipped too far. Scrutiny of the executive is what Parliament is supposed to be about……….

John Bercow, Speaker of the Commons since 2009, has proved robust in promoting the rights of Parliament at the expense of the executive, grown overmighty in the last half-century. Up to March this year he had granted a staggering 439 urgent questions, each requiring an appearance, at short notice, by a minister at the dispatch box. This compares with the handful granted by his predecessors. No wonder he is cordially loathed by the government, or that he has earned the grudging respect of backbenchers. 

Another advance has been the rise of the select committees, which were established by the then Leader of the House, Norman St John Stevas, in the first year of Thatcher’s reign. Had she had any idea where the introduction of select committees would lead, she would have strangled them at birth.
They have the power to summon ministers and officials and to poke their noses into any aspect of policy that takes their fancy. This, combined with the televising of Parliament, has made them an important part of the political landscape.
 In recent years they have flexed their muscles in areas previously undreamed of. The only reason we have seen the bankers, or Rupert Murdoch or Philip Green having to account for their sins is that they have been summoned by select committees. These days there is even a committee to which the intelligence and security services are supposed to be accountable – an imperfect one (it reports to the prime minister rather than Parliament and its reports are censored) but light years ahead of where we were thirty years ago, when the public was not even permitted to know the names of the service heads, never mind what they got up to. Chairing a select committee is now remunerated, making it an alternative to a ministerial career. The chair of one of the main select committees has more influence than most junior or middling ministers. 

………………..many MPs can only be bothered to turn up for two days a week. A government that is allowed to function more or less unchallenged will become a law unto itself. And, after all, if MPs don’t take Parliament seriously, why should anyone else?

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/27/take-back-control-brexit-remain-mps-indicative-votes

Update

During this past 3 years it’s been remarkably difficult to find clear and well-written material which would help the concerned citizen understand what was going on….3 months ago I tried to explore the reasons for this shameful state of affairs.

The BBC link at the top of this post is an unusually clear guide to the 16 motions which were tabled by MPs. And the People’s Vote has just published an exceptionally clear Guide – Weighing Up alternative Brexits