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Johnstone's View 29th May 2009

With the media feeding frenzy over the MPs’ allowances scandal still running at “full steam ahead”, we could all be forgiven for questioning whether we will ever be able to trust a politician again.   For those of us who have learned to live in the glass bubble of public accountability, it is amazing to discover that, till only a few weeks ago, there were still politicians who believed that it was even possible to keep their expenses payments out of the public eye, let alone that it might be their right for them to do so.

In the Scottish Parliament we learned the hard way.   From the outset the Scottish scheme was much simpler, with much fewer ways in which money could be improperly 'syphoned off'.   Although the system was not one hundred per cent watertight, examples of abuse have been few and far between.   What we learned very quickly, however, was that the real interest of journalists and the public alike, was not in the ways the rules might be broken, but rather in the things which could be claimed under the scheme, quite legally, but inappropriately in the eyes of the beholder.   The public expected transparency, honesty and accountability for the way in which their money was being used.

Not for the first time, Members of the House of Commons have been slow to learn the lessons of the Scottish experience.   With even Scottish MPs using the defence that “nothing they claimed fell outside the rules”, how little they seem to have learned.   While we are quite rightly outraged at those who have broken the rules, we are equally enraged by those who have been working the system to maximise their personal advantage.   And remember, while this practice may be an accepted fact of life in some companies, and with some journalists, where taxpayers’ money is at stake, higher standards are expected.

Conservative leader David Cameron has moved quickly to impose discipline on his MP's, making it quite clear that he expects the highest of standards and that, failing that, political careers will be coming to a sudden end. He has gone further however, by also proposing a radical reform of the political system to restore public faith in British democracy in the wake of the MPs’ expenses scandal.  He declared he would trim back the powers of the prime minister and government and give MPs more influence over legislation. Cameron’s proposals to decentralise power would prompt the biggest change in the way Britain is governed in the modern era saying, “I believe the central objective of the new politics we need should be a massive, sweeping, radical redistribution of power. From the state to citizens; from the government to parliament; from Whitehall to communities. From the EU to Britain; from judges to the people; from bureaucracy to democracy. Through decentralisation, transparency and accountability we must take power away from the political elite and hand it to the man and woman in the street.”

Specific proposals include limiting the power of the prime minister by considering fixed-term parliaments, ending the right of Downing Street to control the timing of general elections. Mr Cameron has also promised to reduce the number of MPs in Westminster, initially by 10%, and ensure every vote has an equal value.

While standing up and facing the music over expenses is a vital part of the process we are going through at the moment, David Cameron is right to move the debate on to the reform of parliamentary process. Parliament needs to regain its credibility because after the next election, who ever forms the next government, they will have a horrifying job in prospect. While the expenses row and the swine flu epidemic have been cleverly used to help us all to take our eye of the ball, the economic disaster that is the British economy has been careering off the rails as fast as ever.

We need to clean up our politics, but we need to do it quickly because there is a much bigger job we need to be getting on with. We need to curb the power of the Prime Minister so that, never again will we find ourselves with a tired and hated government and a Prime Minister who believes that the survival of his own government is more important than the renewal of our political system.

Finally, we cannot afford to make the next general election a referendum on the Westminster expenses row. When it comes, it must be a referendum on the government’s economic performance, and Gordon Brown himself. If we are to make that happen, then we must deal with the current difficulties as soon as possible. David Cameron is showing that lead.