Blair Murray is a teacher and Conservative party activist, with a particular interest in constitutional and parliamentary reform.
The current constitutional crisis has thrown our political system into a state of flux. Commentators vent at the dark days of the House of Commons and posit that we may be experiencing an irrevocable breakdown of trust and respect. The days of MPs motivated by duty, service and the common good appear to be over. Giants have been replaced by pygmies. What happened to our parliament, erstwhile that most august of institutions?
As recently as the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s there were many men and women of distinction on both sides of the Commons. On the Conservative side were Macmillan, Maudling, Macleod, Powell, Heath, Butler and Hogg amongst others; for Labour there were the likes of Wilson, Gaitskell, Castle, Healey, Foot, Benn and Callaghan. While these individuals were impressive characters in their own right, they also enjoyed a fierce streak of independence which ensured that their opinions actually mattered.
The rot began in the 1980s, when the professionalisation of politics accelerated. The traditional elite withered to be replaced by a new class of politician. Deference also died; parliament faded. Sir Geoffrey Howe’s resignation speech may have destroyed Mrs Thatcher’s premiership, but in truth it was the last gasp of an age when parliament was relevant. That Tony Blair did not even trouble himself to be present for Robin Cook’s resignation exposed the sad state into which our parliament had slipped.
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