The revolution starts here. We need elected prime ministers

I don’t feel any rage against freeloading MPs, but only because I’ve already burned out my body’s supply of the hormone responsible for anger. In fact I’ve been high on fury ever since this story broke, and now I’ve crashed and burned. So I couldn’t summon up a small whimper even if I saw footage of Ed Balls smugly lighting a cigar with a burning £50 note.

I suspect many feel the same, because after the the rage and the laughter (and the last two episodes of HIGNFY have been classics) much good has come from the expenses scandal, and I’m not just saying that because this is the Telegraph.

Aside from the moats and duck houses, the scandal has got people thinking seriously about Parliament and what it’s for. And the sad fact is that the House of Commons has become a rubber stamp committee: the real decisions are made in secret by the Prime Minister and his cronies, dictated to the cabinet and then announced at schools or on YouTube, but most often leaked to the press. No wonder there is genuine anger out there.

Some letter-writers to this paper, and many elsewhere, have expressed unease at what they see as our descent into mob rule over this issue. I would object to this argument on one ground: much of our country long ago descended into mob rule, and is often a violent and frightening place, a result of poor policing, poor schooling and insane tax policies. The social rot cannot be stopped without a reform of Parliament.

I’m not totally optimistic – internet message boards are not exactly the Putney Debates in overall quality, and our political leaders are no Founding Fathers (can you imagine any British politician with Thomas Jefferson’s brevity of English or clarity of thought?); but almost anything would be better than the state we’re in.

Britain isn’t working because Britain isn’t democratic. Once every five years a tiny proportion of voters in a handful of seats get to decide which of the two party leaders get to rule this country almost unopposed. No wonder the people who rise to the top are so unsuited to running this country; no wonder we have so many bad laws forced on us; no wonder our rights as Englishmen, some of them dating back to the reign of Henry II, are trampled on with the only serious opposition coming from bloggers and a few good men in SW1.

And so far, no one in politics aside from Hannan and Carswell has made any striking suggestions. Ed Miliband said the way forward was to drop the archaic language of Parliament, a typical New Labour response, contemptuous of British history, useless and idiotic – if Miliband’s car was broken down would he paint it a different colour and ignore the engine, or suggest it’s “not helpful” for someone to point out the brakes don’t work?

There’s nothing wrong with Parliament’s ancient tradition; indeed they should make MPs aware of the majesty of the place. The problem is that Parliament has no power.

The way forward is a complete separation of powers between the executive and legislative. Parliament is weakened and MPs corrupted because too many members are party hacks trying to worm their way up the greasy poll by showing mindless obedience of the whips.

Running the country and law-making are two entirely separate skills. The one requires managerial skills and generalship; the other a passion for justice tempered with a keen understanding of the law and constitution, and of human nature. 

We need a directly elected prime minister, someone who does not sit in the House of Commons, indeed someone who should not even be allowed through the door. We need ministers with experience chosen by the directly elected head of government. The current cabinet are mostly time-serving jobsworths who’ve got there on account of working their way up the system. Most have no particular experience of running things nor knowledge of their chosen area, and by the time they’ve learned a thing or two about health or education they’re moved to another department. Imagine having Lt-Col Tim Collins in charge of defence, Ray “Robocop” Mallon at the Home Office or even Governor Tommy Thompson of Wisconsin, the man who revolutionised welfare in the United States, running social security? 

In turn we need a Parliament fully independent of the Government, free to scrutinise bad and illiberal laws, a Parliament of independents and mavericks and fine tooth comb-wielding pedants. A Parliament of two contrasting houses – a Lords elected every seven years and a Commons elected every three; a large Commons with some extra MPs chosen by PR; a small Lords of 100 elected on second ballots in each constituency to encourage independents to stand (in a second ballot an independent would be more likely to beat a party member). And everything that’s not of a national interest should be devolved to country assemblies – fox-hunting, smoking in pubs, the price of drink, welfare, and the police.

Otherwise we’ll find out how deep the wells of public anger really are.