Letter from Westminster
March 2, 2006 12:00 AM
By Stephen Williams MP in Clifton Chronicle
By Stephen Williams MP in Clifton Chronicle
This week Parliament was in recess for a "half term" break. The House of Commons with its quaint traditions and infuriating rules gives me some insight into what it must be like to attend a private school. I've now almost given up asking "why do we do it like this?" because the answer comes back, "because it has always been like this!" When I get back to Westminster my life will again be regulated by a timetable, monitored by "whips" and "doormen" and punctuated by division bells.
During the recess I met up with my mother in Cardiff Bay. I have paid frequent visits over the last decade to witness the renaissance of this area. The latest new building is the spectacular National Assembly of Wales. The outer walls are entirely glass and the roof is a rippled wooden sheet. Once inside, after the initial security check, you are welcomed to the building by a smiling host. The staff are smartly dressed for the twenty first century, not as Edwardian country house servants.
Apart from this modernity and transparency the main contrast for me was in the design of the debating chamber. The National Assembly chamber is round and the Assembly Members each have a seat. Architecture can make a difference to debate. I first noticed this when I was both an Avon County Councillor and a Member of Bristol City Council. Avon had a modern chamber with seats and we sat in a sort of squashed horseshoe arrangement. Bristol has a grand rectangular chamber with leather benches running down two sides. Such an arrangement really only suits two party politics with a government and single opposition party facing each other… and shouting at each other.
A circular or semi-circular chamber encourages more consensual speech and recognises that a modern democracy is more pluralist than two parties. So the first reform I would introduce to the House of Commons is to send in the carpenters! Before anyone howls with protest I would point out that the chamber has been significantly altered in the short time that I've been an MP by the construction of a dreadful glass security wall that screens the public gallery from MPs. It's been constructed in such a way that the public can no longer see the Liberal Democrat MPs, which says a lot about the mentality of the people who run the place.
But apart from architecture, our Parliament needs radical reform. The voting system needs to be fairer. More people need to get involved. I notice that another Parliament in the British Isles, the Isle of Man Tynwald, has decided to reduce the voting age to sixteen, a move that I tried in the Commons last year. The House of Lords needs to be changed into an elected Senate. Parliament needs to hand over power to local communities like Bristol. We don't need an elected mayor. We just need to know that when we vote we are electing councillors with the real power to transform Bristol. And when we elect MPs we should send them to a modern democratic legislature, in tune with the Britain of today.
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