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To me the most significant thing to come out of the “Damien Green Affair” must be the realisation that our Parliament that functioned so well on little more than a “Gentleman’s Agreement” has finally under New Labour, broken down and illustrated just how close we are and regardless of political party in power, to totalitarian rule.

As things now stand a “British Hitler” could rise to power and there is nothing to prevent them from doing anything they like including enslaving the whole population, selecting “undesirable elements” to be sent to Concentration Camps to be exterminated and so on. Is this an over dramatic and wild statement or sadly too true ? Let’s look at it together…

The Speaker of the House

Whilst Speaker Martin is an obvious disgrace who lets down a fine line of recent former holders of the Office, he is a good example of just how badly things have gone since 1997 when Labour swept to power. Indeed I would go further and say that we the citizens of these Islands are fortunate in having both him and the rest of the Parliamentary Labour Party to detest, it would be more difficult if they were likeable people, far better to have them as the Ogres they are.

But back to the Speaker: Martin should not have had the job because he was a Labour MP and so was his predecessor, the wonderful Betty Boothroyd , by convention the Office alternates between the two main parties. The reason for this was to demonstrate that the “Speaker” once elected leaves party politics aside and concentrates wholly on defending the integrity and standing of the House of Commons. Speaker Martin was never capable and has failed on all counts during his time in Office as recent events demonstrate yet again.

However, in 2000 because Labour had a massive majority, were totally arrogant and had no understanding of the traditions and reasons behind those, they elected Martin – because they could. On the question of him being ‘partisan’ and favouring the Labour Party frequently in his rulings, a quite amusing comment was made by a journalist concerning him resigning his Office: “Gordon Brown wouldn’t like having a by-election in Scotland at this time if he did.” By convention, a sitting Speaker is not opposed by the other parties at a General Election so fearing a loss, Brown clearly sees Martin as his “personal creature” in whom he has total confidence to do as told.

The Real Problem

If we go back to Charles Ist seeking to arrest 5 members of the House, we see the then Speaker defending the integrity and independence of the Commons against the “Executive” which was external. Following the Civil War, the Executive and all Executive Powers are held within the Chamber of the House of Commons. In simple terms, the “King” is no longer an external threat; he/she is now the enemy within.

It is a typical “British Constitutional Fudge” which on the surface, just should not work and yet, it did in a reasonable fashion up until 1997 when a sudden influx of Visigoths in the shape of ‘professional politicians’ in New Labour entered the House. If Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had ‘respect’ for the Parliament they were now to rule, likely all would have proceeded in a tolerable way but unfortunately these two egotists only saw it as a stage for them personally so the new intake of MPs were not “trained” properly and disaster beckoned for all.

Holding the Executive to Account and Scrutiny

All MPs are elected to represent their constituents first, their conscience/principles second, their party last of all. Unfortunately in the world of the professional politician, their personal career advancement up the greasy pole seems to trump all else the consequence of which is that whichever party has the overall majority in the House can expect its backbench members to line up behind it like lambs regardless of any principle involved.

The current Government has a majority of around 60 which means that the Opposition Parties can say what they like, oppose every measure, propose any policy but they are powerless, the “Executive” is not being held to account and with only a handful of exceptions, Brown can rely on his backbench drones to do as they are told.

In fact all any Government has to do is bribe and appease their own supporters and they can do as they please, they will not be held to account by the House of Commons the media can do a better job but they too can be bought off by “access” as an example, the case of the BBC and Nick Robinson Brown’s preferred conduit to TV. Whether Ancient Greece or Rome, the problem with this particular scenario is the “Only Alternative”, violence and Civil War – which is as ever, is best avoided.

Unfortunately what has made matters far worse is that corrupting weed called the EU where 80% of our Law now originates and is rubber stamped by our Government so that increasingly The Palace of Westminster is looking like nothing better than an over staffed Town Hall full of people with lots of puff and self importance but totally divorced from us the people they are supposed to represent.

The Separation of Powers

When they wrote the American Constitution they did not start with a blank sheet, all their influences and precedents came from the British Isles however they did have one overriding principle which was to avoid tyranny whether a King or a President, no person was to have untrammelled powers over the citizens. From this came the very distinct “Separation of Powers” that marks the American Constitution built as it is on understanding that “Powers corrupts, total power corrupts totally.”

We in the UK today need to ponder and learn from this and our American cousins and although not hastily, reform our Constitution now that we have had a clear demonstration over these past 11 years that show that in this current world, “A Gentleman’s Agreement” clearly doesn’t work any longer because there are no longer “Gentlemen”. It is time for something new because it is now clear that in order to have what we previously assumed “we had” in a Parliament of the people, we have been relegated to a sideshow compared to a “Parliament of the Parties”.