Part of the openDemocracy Network

Sortition and public policy




A major new series from Imprint Academic on the use of randomisation in education, politics and other public policy areas. Special discount prices for OurKingdom and openDemocracy readers.

Labour After Brown

From Milibland to Johnson land?: Jeremy Gilbert argues for Labour without neo-liberalism.

Magical thinking on Britishness: Anthony Barnett critiques Liam Byrne on fraternity.

Rule of law at risk: Geoffrey Bindman calls for a turn away from the marketisation of government.

A new Bill of Rights for Britain?: Guy Aitchison analyses Parliament's proposed new Bill of Rights.

Miliband - by our rights we will know you: Claire O'Brien puts forward a new progressive vision for Labour.

Recapturing liberal Britain: David Marquand challenges Labour's constitutional orthodoxy.

Miliband and the Liberal Democrats: James Graham on the case for realignment.

What is Labour's British story?: Writing from Scotland, Gerry Hassan widens the OurKingdom debate on Labour's future.

This is not Brown's crisis but Britain's: David Marquand says social democracy is bust and Britain may be too.

The Challenges for Miliband's Progressive Fusion: Fabian Society head Sunder Katwala responds to David Miliband.

NOT A DAY LONGER




What do we do now?: Anthony Barnett assesses the stakes for for liberals and radicals in David Davis's campaign against the erosion of rights and liberties


The Abundance of Caution: an authoritative essay by Anthony Barnett sets out the case against 42 Days

England Awakes?

England, Britain and multiculturalism: an OurKingdom exchange

A mild awakening?, England's turn? by David Goodhart

delicious | digg | reddit | newsvine | furl | google | yahoo | technorati | diigolet

Syndicate content

Michael White shocked?

22 - 02 - 2008
delicious | digg | reddit | newsvine | furl | google | yahoo | technorati | diigolet

Anthony Barnett (London, OK): The Guardian's veteran political correspondent Michael White cultivates a knowing, seen it all, it won't change, nor-should-it-if-it-comes-to-that, attitude that is only bearable because he works fairly hard. Finally, after thirty years, his faith in the system may have been rocked. In today's political briefing he reports that Parliament's Lisbon debate "rings hollow",

What is shocking to the dwindling band of MPs who believe that parliamentary procedures are there to protect minority views is that the detailed Commons committee stage of the bill - five of the promised 12 days taken so far - is all but meaningless. Why? Clever Geoff Hoon, Labour chief whip, has persuaded MPs to vote to overrule their own standing orders. Instead of line-by-line debate which explores changes to foreign policy procedures, EU cooperation on crime or energy, at least half of each day is devoted to a "themed" discussion, with debate on specific amendments tacked on later.

Does procedure matter? No one would be allowed to change the rules before a football match or criminal trial. Yet younger MPs on both sides barely grasp what powers they have given to Whitehall - let alone to Brussels.

Do I detect that MW himself is a little "shocked"? Is he coming round to the view not only that procedures matter in a democracy but that in Britain the rules are unsafe in the hands that control them? If so the edifice is finally cracking.

 

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Ivor Cornish (not verified) said:

Mon, 2008-02-25 14:28

Clever... is a boss clever for getting his workers to agree to do less work?

Geoff is a Hoon with a view, probably not dissimilar to my own, about many of his neutered colleagues, no doubt many of whom foster delusions of achieving the dizzy heights of power of our Geoff. Even their role as voting fodder has been traduced!!!!!!!

David Smith (not verified) said:

Wed, 2008-02-27 19:04

It is perhaps worth noting that J.S.Mill in his essay on Representative Government wrote that line by line amendments could only produce a dog's breakfast. He felt that MPs should reject a bad Bill in its entirety and throw it back to government to get it right.

He would also have approved of pre legislative scrutiny.

ATFlynn (Anthony Thomas Flynn) (not verified) said:

Tue, 2008-04-08 09:50

Westminster and Whitehall seem to be the only ones to ignore the fact that there is no real purpose to their existence.

Or could it be that they still regard their position as representatives of their constituents. And yet, as John McGregor, (now Lord McGregor, said to me in a letter, "Mr. Flynn, we do not have an agricultural policy. I just implement directives as they arrive from Brussels". That, today is the function of the Westminster Parliament.

At the moment, I am putting together what I hope will be the start of a new approach to Local Democracy. I want to resurrect the County Economy where the Local County sets and collects the Property and Business Rates. The Retail Shops that sell Local Goods and Produce, are given a percentage Rebate on Local Taxation for supporting the Local Economy, providing work for Taxpayers. And I see no reason why Norfolk cannot look at the possibility of a local supply of water and Electricity. And remember, Bacton is a local structure. I could go on and on. But times must, and I have a Parish Council meeting tonight. Regards, ATFlynn.

"Norfolks Mutineer"

Post new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.
  • Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd><b> <i> <br> <p> <div> <img>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • You may quote other posts using [quote] tags.
More information about formatting options

In Pictures


Email Alerts

Fill in the form below to sign up to our automatic daily alerts, or weekly editorial summary (you will be taken to another page to confirm which options you want).

Enter your Email


Preview | Powered by FeedBlitz

They say about OK

"the ever-stimulating OpenDemocracy"
Ekklesia

"See OurKingdom to keep up"
South Belfast Diary

"...an essential guide to understanding the dynamic constitutional situation..."
Peter Oborne

"...becoming a daily read for me."
Iain Dale

"To make sense of it all, check out OurKingdom..."
Matthew d'Ancona

"Worth a look...it is, however, recommended by Matthew d'Ancona."
The Wardman Wire

"Fast becoming the best political website around"
Tom Waterhouse, CEP

"...attracting energy from a range of contributors."
thenextwave

"...looks very promising..."
The England Project

"The excellent new OurKingdom blog from OpenDemocracy..."
The Green Ribbon

"On the internet, I keep in touch with openDemocracy, a website on global current affairs, and its useful offshoot, OurKingdom"
Andreas Whittam-Smith

"thanks to the fine folk at OurKingdom, (who manage to communicate a variety of perspectives in the way that only a decent group blog can)"
Nostalgia For the Future