The respect agenda

If the first rule of success is to follow a failure, then the 157th Speaker of the House of Commons, whoever he or she may be, is off to a good start. Michael Martin was everything a Speaker should not be: partial, too deferential to the executive and an opponent of transparency. His alleged comment that ‘I did not come into politics not to take what is owed to me’ sums up so much of what has gone wrong. His removal was a necessary first step in the process of once more making Parliament an effective institution, and one of which the British people can be proud.

But it would be wrong to imagine that it is the expenses scandal alone that has brought the Commons into disrepute. The deluge of stories about flipping, moats and feather-bedding has hardened — not created — the public’s contempt for Parliament. In fact, the public’s loss of respect for Parliament can be traced back to Parliament’s loss of respect for itself.