PR Blogs

Public relations professionals are always telling clients that the best way to deal with an issue is to turn it into an opportunity.

The Palace of Westminster certainly has an issue at the moment, so let’s give the appropriate PR advice. Much of the problems surrounding the House of Commons and MPs expenses, as well as those separate issues in the House of Lords about members being prepared to change legislation for money, stem largely from what many politicians hold dear – the tradition and the setting of Parliament.

All the paraphernalia, customs, robes and traditions, including the unwritten rules and the inevitable lack of transparency they bring, are largely what makes politics unpalatable to much of the the British public. We need a non-confrontational, business-like, sensible Parliament, where politicians can do the business they get paid to do without being hidebound by what are frankly outdated surroundings and inappropriate customs.

So here’s the solution. The Palace of Westminster must become what it is anyway – a museum of the political system.  It’s a wonderful building and would make a wonderful place for the people of this country and others to learn about political history and all the tradition that goes with it.

Then we have a new chamber for MPs where debates can be held, not facing each other with the awful yah-boo behaviour, but reasoned, sensible debate in a modern setting like most other democracies do.
Anything that smacks of custom and practice which ties us to the old ways must go. Goodbye Black Rod; goodbye Queen’s speech (we know it’s not her ideas anyway so why pretend); goodbye sergeant-at-arms; goodbye the mace; goodbye not saying someone’s name only his or her  constituency; goodbye ‘honourable’ as it seems so many of them are not. All these should be consigned to the museum.

We need a fresh start in British politics and now is the time to make that bold step.

Any MPs who read this and think these are bad ideas needs to talk more to people and less to colleagues who have been working in the present museum for years. We demand a business-like parliament, doing serious work unencumbered by the trappings of history. We have a Parliament that likes to pretend it is still in the 17th century – and that includes the way many politicians do not respect the people of the UK.

The issue of MPs expenses is a symptom of a serious illness which needs radical surgery. Time to bring our politics into the 21st century, Out with the old and in with the new.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 17th, 2009 at 10:09 am and is filed under Work, news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.