Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke MP addresses inaugural annual lecture

Mr Clarke opened the meeting by describing his role as Chair of the Conservative Party Democracy Task Force which was trying to tackle the widespread public lack of interest in (almost contempt for) politics. He stressed that he believed that politicians shouldn't want to be loved - healthy scepticism is valuable, but the low turnout in elections is worrying, in particular in regard to young people. There isn't any evidence of genuine detachment from political issues, on the contrary, people are very passionate about the issues but they no longer associate them with politics and Parliament.

He said that politics has not come to terms with the age of the mass media. Political debate is now constant - 24 hours a day, seven days a week. ‘Frenzy' is the right word to describe the current situation. Every problem is a ‘crisis'; every error is a ‘scandal' so that practitioners and public see this media frenzy as what it's all about.

In addition, the celebrity culture predominates so that some individual politicians are seen as celebrities while political parties have become extremely weak.
 

While party allegiance is weak, single issue pressure groups are strong and have an unchallenged status. As politics has become more complex, the lure of single issue pressure groups with one straightforward answer to problems has become more attractive. These days the public take little part in politics; what makes the running in politics is headlines and focus groups.

Mr Clarke stressed that he believed that politics should not just be about reacting to events. Members of political parties should think that they can make a difference. He believed that the public do want a better process for politics and if we make politics work better, that is in the interest of the public.

Parliament needs to institutionalise rules so that we don't drift further into presidential politics (part of the celebrity politics he referred to earlier). He stressed his belief in cabinet government, collective decision-making and a non-political civil service. He noted that every person in opposition is a very strong supporter of parliamentary reform; but once they were in government, reform didn't seem so urgent.

His solution was to have in writing a powerful code of practice with a select committee to enforce it. Proper parliamentary accountability is vital. He stressed that Parliament is not powerless - in fact there is more rebellion now than there used to be. But you have to know how to rebel, how to pick your issues, to be effective.

He would propose two immediate changes. Firstly, the House of Commons must have more control of its own timetable and what it debates. We need a new business committee - not dominated by officers of the government - and suitable amounts of time in the House of Commons should be at the command of Parliament, not Government.

Secondly, select committees are the basis of Parliament and the key to making Parliament more powerful. Select committee chairs should be elected by secret ballot by all MPs and given more powers.

On the House of Lords, Mr Clarke said that its great weakness is that it is not regarded as having legitimacy. If its members were elected - he suggested 12 year terms with a third retiring every four years and a different electoral system - the Lords would have more legitimacy. But it was vital to put in statute the supremacy of the Commons as Government must get through the manifesto it was voted in on. The Salisbury rules would have to be updated.

Is any of this going to happen? Mr Clarke thought the atmosphere was good and the mood to get serious parliamentary reform going is strong across all the political parties. The key is to keep the heat on and strike while that heat is still on.

To listen to the event in full please click on the links below:

Ken Clarke lecture 1

Ken Clarke lecture 2