Does anyone remember the expenses scandal? The public outrage expressed over that little incident in Westminster was unprecedented. Question Time suddenly became essential viewing, if only to watch Margaret Beckett get verbally abused by the audience. Of course, no one will ever forget the expenses scandal; it changed the political landscape for ever. How can anyone forget the tax-payer funded duck house? So you might vividly remember the expenses scandal, and all the public apologies and red faces, but the question is, do you remember the reforms that the MPs were suddenly crying out for?
I certainly do. I remember David Cameron calling for fixed term parliaments (despite also calling for an election to be held, a year before an election was due). I remember Alan Johnson suddenly deciding he was for electoral reform. All of a sudden, there was talk of a written constitution, proportional representation, and an elected second chamber! Now at the time, I thought this was great. Nick Clegg called it a “once-in-a-generation opportunity to change politics for good”. The level of public debate on reform rose. The papers were publishing columns by MPs almost daily, calling for various reforms to parliament and the rejuvenation of our democracy. And then it stopped.
The European elections came about, then Brown was on his way out, and then he wasn’t. Slowly but surely the papers stopped publishing stories about reform on their front pages, and the next big story was Swine Flu. So that was that, British mainstream politics’ short but sweet foray into the wilderness of progressive politics. It’s nice to know Labour are looking into holding a referendum on electoral reform on election day, but if that’s anything other than a political manoeuvre to undermine the Tories at the beginning of their first term, then we’ve all obviously underestimated the Labour Party. Now we’ve got George Osborne claiming that the Tories are now the progressive force in politics, rightwing nutters in America claiming the NHS is a breeding ground for terrorists, and a Tory government-in-waiting that appears to be allergic to any real talk of reform.
Now once again, the Liberal Democrats are the only ones still placing reform at the forefront of their agenda. I guess Labour and the Conservatives got sick of nicking our ideas. Either that, or they realized that the public were done being angry, and were quite content with seeing the likes of Alan Duncan claiming MPs are “treated like shit”, as long as he sincerely apologised afterwards. Looks like business as usual.
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