Recall is the thin end of the wedge

Today sees the conclusion of the committee stage of the Recall of MPs Bill.

Contrary to the siren calls from the powerful media barons clamouring to import this American gimmick, recall doesn’t strengthen democracy it weakens it. 

It would make more sense to tighten the terms of the Representation of the People Act that currently provides for the removal of MPs sentenced to more than 12 months imprisonment. 

Criticisms of those who voted down Zac Goldsmith’s amendment last Monday were unjustified.  He wanted to enable recall to be used at the drop of a hat, which would have been wide open to abuse by vested interests. 

Just imagine the power it would have given to Rupert Murdoch’s newspapers or the likes of Paul Dacre’s Daily Mail to attack progressive MPs. 

If Goldsmith’s amendment had been on the statute book when Chris Mullin embarked on his campaign to prove the Birmingham Six were innocent, the outcome might have been very different.

The gutter press would have no doubt mounted a ferocious campaign to force him out, diverting him from his efforts to secure justice.   

It was Malcolm X who said: “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing”.

That is a salutary reminder of the corrosive influence that the media can wield.

The infamous 2003 recall petition in California saw incumbent Democrat Governor, Gray Davis, replaced by the Republican rival Arnold Schwarzenegger.

It succeeded because a right-wing multimillionaire Republican, Darrell Issa, spent $2 million promoting the recall petition to remove a political opponent.

Worse still, two Democrat state lawmakers, who backed tighter gun laws in the aftermath of mass shootings in Colorado and Connecticut, were voted out of office last year in a recall election promoted by the powerful National Rifle Association.

It’s not a huge leap to imagine how Britain’s gun lobby could use Goldsmith’s version of recall against MPs who support gun control here.

But Parliament is still left with a decision on whether to pass the Recall of MPs Bill. 

Even without the Goldsmith amendment, I believe that recall represents the thin end of a very dangerous wedge.

It could further weaken parliament’s ability to take on unaccountable corporate interests who put their own narrow interests ahead of the national interest. 

Parliament has already ceded too much power to self-serving oligarchs and corporate fat cats who are responsible for the exponential rise in zero hour contracts, poverty pay, and corporate tax avoidance on an industrial scale.  

If we are to have any hope of ensuring corporate power is deployed for the benefit of the British people, a stronger Parliament is a prerequisite, not an enfeebled one.

People are crying out for progressive solutions to the problems facing our country not a self-flagellating sop that will do precisely nothing to tackle the challenges facing Britain today.