Parliamentary Affairs Lecture: In defence of politicians - in spite of themselves

Thursday 25 February, Portcullis House, Westminster
Speaker: Peter Riddell (Hansard Society Chair)
Introduction by Professor Steven Fielding (Joint editor of Parliamentary Affairs)
Chaired by Dr Ruth Fox (Director of Parliament & Government Programme, Hansard Society)

In 2009 the reputation of politicians and politics itself reached rock bottom. Peter Riddell, Chair of the Hansard Society, gave his speech at the inaugural Parliamentary Affairs Annual lecture, examining the role of politicians in a modern representative democracy.

Peter started his speech by pointing out that throughout history politicians have never been popular, giving several examples, including the lyrics in our own National Anthem ‘Confound their politics, Frustrate their knavish tricks'. He went on to say that the title was inspired by Bernard Crick's book In Defence of Politics and also Tony Wright MP.

Peter pointed out that politicians as a class are integral to representative politics and that, by and large, most politicians are not in public life just for themselves. Although he also pointed out that this is now a minority view outside of Westminster. Peter then gave a description of what he called ‘the challenges' for politicians in engaging the public in politics and gaining their trust:

Populism - the MP's expenses scandal has fuelled the populist view that MPs are ‘in it for themselves'. Peter said that this view has not been helped by Sir Thomas Legg's inquiry.

Excessive partisanship - referring to party political and other political websites, Peter pointed out that the ‘sneering contempt' for opposing points of view threatens representative politics, which ‘cannot function without a degree of mutual respect'.

Parliament in decline - the weakness of Parliament as a reason for the two above points is wrong, in the past backbenchers have had much less power than now and many politicians are more active in Westminster and their constituencies than ever before.

‘Big Bang' constitutional reform - Peter in this term was referring to the movement (typified by the ‘deeply flawed' Power report) who demand a written constitution, PR and more direct democracy. He pointed out that their arguments are full of contradictions.

Taking out the politics - Peter said he was sceptical about ‘taking the politics' out of issues, for example the Bank of England monetary policy committee which worked well until the ‘credit crunch' but its limitations were exposed during the banking crisis.

The ‘World of Westminster' - Peter suggested that too many MPs are in denial and that the culture of Westminster is still too inward looking, he said this is even more true of Lords who don't have constituents to answer to.

The Media - given Peter's background in the media he felt he could not ignore their role. He suggested that too much coverage was populist and no other viewpoint appears and that the present cynicism in the media regarding politicians is ‘corrosive and often hypocritical'.

Political Scientists - political academics who write journals ‘seem to feel that they would by contact with politicians', Peter said that Parliamentary Affairs is one exception from this, but academics are partly to blame for neglecting the role of politicians in their work .

Peter then gave suggestions for addressing the problems above, stressing that there is no ‘quick formula' to restore trust:

• Resolving the current crisis
• Demonstrating effectiveness
• Public participation
• Opening up Westminster

In his conclusion Peter said that criticising politicians in general as a class is counterproductive as it deters good people from standing as MPs and that we should ‘celebrate politics as a crucial activity in a healthy democracy'.

There were many excellent and serious questions asked by the audience. A couple of people, including a person studying at secondary school, asked questions such as ‘will this put young people of standing for election ‘because they don't want to be hated' and one suggestion that their should be in every school a teacher trained in understanding political processes. Another person suggested that young people don't vote because they don't understand the system and ho wit is relevant to the; all of these points stress the importance of good quality citizenship education. A written constitution was raised, as was the issue of having a directly elected Prime Minister, similar to the system in France. Peter didn't always agree with the view point of the people asking the questions, but answered them all excellently, displaying his knowledge and passion for politics.

Download the transcript of the speech

See the photos