The maddening state of our political system

When Dawn Butler MP was ejected from the House of Commons last month for calling the Prime Minister a liar, it exposed just how ridiculous our political system is.

It is clear that on a number of occasions, in debates in Parliament, the Prime Minister has not told the truth. It is also clear that the rules of the House bar MPs from calling other MPs liars. Our political system has a penalty for the latter offence, but seemingly, not for the first.

And we wonder why people say that there’s one rule for the powerful, and a different one for everyone else.

Ministers are supposed to be accountable to Parliament and the people - that’s the theory at least. The practice we can see is very different. It reflects the vulnerability of our democracy and explains the low opinion voters hold of politics and politicians.

We have to change this.

First though we have to ask how we got here. The current Government didn’t make the rules - they inherited a political system hundreds of years in the making.

It’s a political system that’s unconstrained by a written constitution. It’s a political system that tilts the playing field to the most powerful - away from the people and even Parliament. It places astonishing power in the hands of the Prime Minister alone.

More incredibly, if the Prime Minister was to, for example, break the Ministerial Code, the person who would have to decide the punishment for the breach would be the Prime Minister. You really couldn’t make it up.

Politicians through the ages in all political parties had an opportunity to change this, but in reality, when politicians win power, they are reluctant to give any of it up.

But it shouldn’t be up to them in a democracy.

So how do we change things? How do we bring our political system into the 21st century and, most importantly, ensure it's accountable to the people?

In terms of short-term fixes, we need to strengthen the Independent Adviser’s powers to investigate breaches of the Ministerial Code, and write into law the Ministerial Code and the Adviser’s role. The Speaker should work with MPs to update the antiquated rules of what can and cannot be said in Parliament.

But the long term solution should be the establishment of a Citizens’ Assembly, representative of the UK population, with the job of developing proposals that will revamp our political system. We’ve never needed this as much as we do today.

People are right to get frustrated about politicians failing to react to big issues in the world, or some behaving like the normal rules don’t apply to them.

The question is how do they get away with this? The answer to that question is that our political system gives too much power to those at the very top and allows them to ignore the people.

Unlock Democracy and a coalition of democracy organisations are calling on political leaders to set up a Citizens’ Assembly, free from party politics, to renew our democracy.

So far we’ve had positive responses from the leaders of the Liberal Democrats and Renew, an expression of willingness to discuss our proposals from a couple of other party leaders and a negative response from the Conservatives.

We’re urging other party leaders to add their names and the Conservatives to change their mind.

We can build a better, more democratic political system if we try - one where the people are in charge.