Charles Walker MP has been MP for Broxbourne since 2005.
The recent expenses scandal was the bursting of a septic boil that had been festering for more than a century. For it is over this period of time that Parliament has meekly ceded its legislative powers to the Executive, rendering it an increasingly toothless debating chamber - easily derided and bypassed on the big issues of the day.
Nobody wants to be regarded as an irrelevance, least of all the egos like mine drawn to politics, so Members of Parliament like myself have retained the trappings of power, busying ourselves with constituency work while pretending that the nation hangs on our every breath. The hopelessness of our position was perfectly demonstrated by a recent exchange in PMQs:
Michael Meacher (Oldham, West and Royton) (Lab): The Reform of the House of Commons Committee proposed that the House should have the opportunity to debate and vote on its recommendations within two months, and that period has elapsed.
The Prime Minister: The Government will make time available for a debate and the House will have an opportunity to decide on the Committee's recommendations.
A reasonable request swatted away. How very generous of the PM to try and find Parliamentary time! It used to be the case that the House decided what was worthy of its attention and if the Prime Minister didn’t like it - tough on him. Now it is he who calls the shots. How feeble we have become - reduced to begging for a hearing in our own Chamber.
This leaching away of Parliamentary powers to the Executive has accelerated over the past thirty years to such an extent that when Prime Ministers stop to groom themselves in the mirror, they see a President staring back at them. Vanity dictates that they like what they see. Why else would we be having television debates between the leaders of the main Parties? Such excitements are the staple of a Presidential, not a Parliamentary system.
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