It is safe to say that public confidence in politicians is at an all-time low. The infamous Chris Huhne wrote in The Guardian newspaper earlier this week that the Murdroch press was to blame for the public’s low opinion of MPs – and as much as I sympathise with this point of view, I think that it would be trite to suggest that this was the only problem.
The expenses scandal and the cosy relationship revealed by the phone hacking scandal have only really been the straws that broke the camel’s back. The biggest problem for me, is the increased sense that Parliament does not speak for the people and that normal working people are no longer represented at the top level in British politics.
Of course, I agree with Huhne when he suggests that we should have maximum media ownership laws – that seems obvious to me. If we let someone – like Murdroch – control a large proportion of the British media, he will become too powerful, and that is obviously not what we need in a democratic country. Although I feel the policies Huhne laid down were perfectly reasonable we cannot pretend that they are a silver bullet: other things must also change.
I often feel, in a funny way, that history is repeating itself. We started the 20th century with Parliament filled with privileged, out-of-touch men, and now we are starting the 21st with a mix of privileged men and women. Long gone are the times when the Commons was an accurate representation of society. I accept it will have never been perfect, but at least in Attlee’s government the Cabinet did have ministers from working class backgrounds. One in fourteen MPs in the current House of Commons have a degree in PPE from Oxford. The statistic really sums up for me how career politics has really taken off. We need to return to a time when normal people represented the area they live in. I believe if you want to address public confidence in politicians you have to start with the way in which politicians are chosen.
It is so easy for someone like me to sit here and point out all these obvious problems, but clearly what we need are solutions. What I propose are serious reforms in the way MPs are selected and the criteria that they have to fulfil to be selected.
Firstly, I think that an MP must have lived in that constituency for a minimum of five years before they are able to stand or represent it in the House of Commons. This just seems so blindingly obvious to me – why do we let the three major parties groom up-and-coming professional politicians and parachute them into safe seats? All the main political parties have leaders that have become MPs in this way. It is deeply unfair that local people who may have been politically involved in their local area for decades are not selected because of this ridiculous system. If you want to be an MP then you should have to work hard to win over local people, not just rely on them voting for you because of the colour of your rosette.
The next thing that obviously needs to change is the selection of MPs; surely if you wish to stand in an area then the potential candidates should be selected by a ballot of the local party members? Not by some committee that has nothing to do with the wants and needs of local people. If you work hard and contribute to your party locally then it should be very easy to win this ballot and become the candidate in your constituency. I would potentially go even further – maybe this process should take place before every election, so if the local people are not happy with their MP but are happy with the party, they can select a new candidate.
I thoroughly believe that if these changes were made tomorrow then our political climate would change dramatically, the interests of working people would again be represented in the Commons and MPs would actually be accountable to the public in a more absolute sense and not just in a political way.