The ego has landed – but can he change politics?

The Anthony Painter Labour movement column

I like John Bercow. He strikes me as a strangely subversive figure; almost a model to which parliamentarians should aspire. It seemed to me over the last few years that he bravely walked away from an opportunity for high office on principle. He is independent and a specialist – most notably fighting for changes in government policy for children with speech, language and communication needs. He is also a strong voice against the Burmese Junta. This is just what being an independent representative is about.

OK sure, there is the over-sized ego in a pint-sized body (he made reference to it, so I’m allowed to!) I counted twenty-four ‘I’s in a recent article in The Independent. But always striving for self-improvement he beat that in his faintly ridiculous speech for speaker on Monday – twenty-seven this time. There is the slightly unctuous demeanour but so what? The charges levelled at him by his colleagues of being a turn-coat, disloyal and inexperienced, are grossly unfair.

Despite the negatives I had a strong admiration for him but then he let himself be used as a plaything in the tit-for-tat of party rivalry in the House of Commons. John Bercow is not the speaker today because he put the best case for reform. He is there because he was seen as a good way of irritating the Leader of the Opposition and his troops. This is politics as normal and it is contributing to a very big problem – the feeling of utter alienation that people are feeling from the practice, conduct, and accountability of Parliament. Politics is in crisis and MPs choose to play games.

All this may simply be process but the process is instructive. Parliament has never been so irrelevant in the eyes of the people it serves. For the first time they are responding with anger rather than apathy. And yet still, business as usual prevails.

If there was ever a moment for Parliament to rise to the occasion it was this one. The fact that the vote for Speaker basically split down party lines is to its discredit (and yes, Lib Dems you all voted for Alan Beith before you get all high and mighty.) I know that three Conservative MPs voted Bercow or is it four? Maybe it’s 20, but who cares? Given that the issue at hand was electing the best candidate to restore parliamentary democracy, how on earth was this allowed to happen? People look on at these strange tribes and are more and more perplexed. Parliamentarians play their games and breathe a sigh of relief. The nation shakes its head more in sorrow than anger. How did it come to this?

Through all this I feel that John Bercow still could be a good Speaker. All is not lost. Sir George Young would have been better and gave by far the best reformer speech on Monday. But John Bercow does seem to ‘get it’ at some level. As his manifesto for speaker states: “So the next Speaker faces an unprecedented challenge – to help clean up politics, to place Parliament at the centre of an effective democracy and to build a relationship of mutual respect with the electorate.”

The problem is, though, that his manifesto has little of substance that will achieve these aims. Sure a backbench dominated Business Committee of the House sounds wise enough, as does an enhanced role for Select Committees and their Chairmen, and more childcare facilities. But these are ultimately micro parliamentary reforms. That’s the problem. Many MPs – and John Bercow seems to be one – equate democratic and constitutional reforms with the reform of Parliament. The way Parliament has been able to conduct itself – with expenses the glaring example – is just one nugget of the challenge. The democratic chasm that has emerged in British politics is the major issue.

John Bercow simply played this lip-service. And yet in his actions over the last few years, consciously or inadvertently, he has understood the problem. The iron grip of parties over MPs, the executive over Parliament, the stultifying nature on inter-party rivalry (let’s leave intra-party rivalry out of the discussion for this week!), the failure of Parliament to properly balance constituency and party interests are all aspects of this malaise.

The problem is this: our democracy is upside down. Power is concentrated at the wrong end. It is top heavy, locked away, we’re shut out and the whole thing’s a mess.

It’s great that new MPs are going to get a better induction. But that’s not even going to begin to resolve this political crisis that we face. If John Bercow quickly puts the manner of his election behind him and uses his platform to make this broad case for political and constitutional reform – with a purpose – then he will make himself a monumental political figure. If he simply fiddles while Rome burns – as seems possible – then he will make himself look like a man that puts personal ambition above all else.

Is all this an obsession of the chattering classes? Don’t believe it. Last night, I was in a village in Nottinghamshire to give a talk on Barack Obama and change. It was mostly locals and our conversation turned to political reform. I suspect my politics are very different from a great many people in the room. But we were absolutely and passionately united on one thing. British democracy is not working and has to fundamentally change. When people across the political spectrum are united something major is happening. Take heed or pay the price.

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