Political reform mustn’t be left to politicians

The House of Commons is not, technically, the ‘mother of all parliaments’. This phrase was coined in 1865 by the radical MP John Bright, who was referring to England. She was, he said, the ancient country of parliaments: men had held these august gatherings for 600 uninterrupted years, even before the Conquest. So of course, he argued, the vote should be extended to the urban working class: anything that took greater account of English opinion would necessarily enrich our political system.

In this spirit, The Spectator has been asking readers over the past six weeks to make proposals for constitutional reform. It is, we have argued, too important an issue to leave to Gordon Brown or to any committee the Prime Minister might be tempted to convene. In 2009, we have technology at our fingertips which would have delighted Bright a century and a half ago: the ability to consult hundreds of individuals submitting ideas and then to subject their proposals to a mass survey of public opinion conducted by PoliticsHome.