Where are the anti-EU, pro-death penalty, Cannabis legalising MPs?
Posted on August 8, 2010On the back of a piece in the Independent by Sean O’Grady, Conservative Home’s Jonathan Isaby asks ”Should we care that the social background of the Government is unrepresentative of the country at large?”
My answer would, of course, be no – I don’t think you should be judged more or less suitable to govern the country due to your gender, skin colour or sexuality.
What I do think should worry us is the fact that Westminster is so devastatingly unrepresentative of the country at large politically.
We live in a nation that now has majority opposition to EU membership, oft-cited majority support for the death penalty for the most unpleasant offences, overwhelming enthusiasm for tougher sentencing, strong majority support for the legalisation of cannabis and extremely high levels of concern about the rate of immigration.
Where are those views represented in Westminster? Most of them are treated as fringe opinions that only a few MPs openly support.
It is irrelevant whether the political class have the right appearance, sexual interests or accents to represent the nation - but it is of the utmost importance that they represent the views of the people.
Amid all the hullabaloo about quotas and so-called “positive” discrimination being essential to produce a socially representative Parliament, one almost never hears those who make that case express any concern about the failure in political representation.
The fact is that those who argue most strongly for enforced social representativeness in Parliament are themselves almost totally unrepresentative of the nation politically. Would Sean O’Grady, I wonder, support quotas to ensure that the majority of MPs, like the majority of the public, were anti-EU or in favour of the execution of those who rape and kill children? I suspect not.
Tags: Better Off Out, Cannabis, Conservative Home, Conservatives, Death Penalty, EU, Liberal Democrats, New Labour, Parliament, The Independent, Westminster
Categories: Opinion, Westminster
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mark Wallace and Jamie Vaide, WitchEnd. WitchEnd said: RT @wallaceme: Crash Bang Wallace: Where are the anti-EU, pro-death penalty, cannabis legalising MPs? http://bit.ly/djaWsk [...]
08.08.2010 10:26
Indeed. Until we have a mechanism for getting candidates onto the ballot which is outside Central Office/LabourCentral control, we will never have a more democratic situation. This is one reason why I favour ANY form of proportional representation which is totally based on local direct elections and oppose any form based on party lists (starting with the EU elections of course).
08.08.2010 10:46
In a ‘representative democracy’ MPs are supposed to be representative of their electorate… So their backgrounds will be crucial…
However, as MPs are primarily controlled by the whips who are in turn controlled by the party leaders there is the question of whether we have a democracy (representative or not…).
08.08.2010 11:12
That is a very narrow interpretation of representation. MPs represent their electorate in the same way that a barrister represents a client, that does not mean that they have to look like their electorate. Indeed unless all their electorate were identical it is impossible for any individual MP to represent their electorate in the way that you imply.
08.08.2010 18:51
Bring on the referenda. All those constitutional reformers who think the public will demand the Islington-Hampstead axis reforms are kidding themselves.
I’ll be campaigning for the execution of child killers.
08.08.2010 21:48
I guess I should sign up. Definitely anti-EU, pro-hanging, and I believe it’s time for a serious debate about legalising drugs.
09.08.2010 07:48
Mark, You know where you can find people like that now don’t you?
09.08.2010 13:36
Dude, you know the answer . Folks who stand for election are absolutely disinterested in serving the public,; they are only concerned with commanding the public. They are of the view that they know best and everyone else needs to swallow the medicine they prescribe. I spit on the lot of them.
10.08.2010 08:54
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Carl Haggerty, Paul I. Paul I said: Great post by Mark Wallace on the disconnect between politicians and the people; http://j.mp/aFNhs7 [...]
10.08.2010 15:55
cool
22.08.2010 11:19
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10.09.2010 13:33
[...] to start acting on behalf of its people. Just as Mark Wallace was right in his much-quoted “Where are the anti-EU, pro-death penalty, Cannabis legalising MPs?” blog last [...]
22.05.2011 10:01