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Repeal the Great Reform Act!
May 13th, 2009 at 22:44
If you’re anything like me, chances are you’ve been full of righteous anger over the last week because of the whole MP’s expenses thing. Every day, the Telegraph has been giving us more and more reason to hate politicians, because it turns out that the clichéd complaint, previously only peddled by those not informed enough to follow politics as closely as obsessives, is literally true: They are all on the take and are only looking after themselves after all.
The ridiculous claims reached their pinnacle on Tuesday, when it was revealed that one Tory ponce was claiming for cleaning his moat. Obviously the sceptic might think that the word “moat” is probably describing a tiny pond or something, and is blowing it out of proportion, but no, look at the pictures – he literally does have a moat.
It’s perhaps not surprising that the public’s faith in politics and politicians is at an all time low, and there’s a lot of speculation that the next election will see the biggest kicking out of incumbents in ages (and not just because of the Prime Minister being shit at his job).
So obviously this is a concern for politicians, and they need to do something to turn it around, to try and reassure the public that they’re not all corrupt bastards – and I’ve an idea for what they can do. Previously I’ve advanced the theory that we’re reliving 1979 – the Tories are doing well, we’re in a recession, The Specials are touring again – but I’ve changed my mind, and I think that politicians need to go further back in time to find a solution: Back to the 19th century. If they want to save Parliamentary democracy, they need to repeal the Great Reform Act.
The Great Reform Act was the change in law that enfranchised millions of more people, for the first time gave most men the vote, and gave everyone proper representation for the first time. Politics is no longer seen as a noble profession – so what better way is there to change this perception than to return to a time when politics was constituted entirely of nobles?
Things wouldn’t be terribly different – the Tories would still be there and doing well, and given the polls it’s entirely plausible that the long-dead Whig party stand a better chance of being elected than the Labour party at the next election.
Repealing the Great Reform Act would put the expenses scandal to bed once and for all. MPs owning second homes (to have one in London and one in their constituency) is one of the major points of controversy – if we went back to having rotten boroughs, and changed it so that all of the constituencies were inside the M25, no MP (except for maybe Keith Vaz) would need to have a second home. Sure, this may lead to some of the same issues as used to happen before the Great Reform Act, such as major population centres like Manchester and Birmingham not being represented, but without representation… who are they going to complain to?
What’s more – if we go back to a situation where only land-owners have the vote, then it won’t be possible to complain about millionaire Tories having moats – as moats will not be the exception, but will pretty much become the norm.
Does anyone want to join me in a peasants revolt, in calling for a less transparent and democratic Parliament?
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