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PAUL WILENIUS: It's a bright new morning
for a once new Labour MP. The political day starts early even though
it only ended a few hours ago. Just time for breakfast in his London flat,
before heading straight back to the Commons. His family are at home in
his West Midlands constituency, so MP Peter Bradley eats alone. It's a
daily routine he finds frustrating.
PETER BRADLEY: It's just not a sensible
way to run a modern legislature. From about half past six when I finished
my last meeting to twenty to midnight when we finished at the Commons I
reckon I did about thirty minutes productive labour. Frankly, when you
are as exhausted as you can get, doing these kind of hours and particularly
when you add in the frustration of wasting time, then of course you're
not going to be able to give of your best and that just increases the aggravation
and the frustration.
WILENIUS: Modernisation of our
traditional institutions to create a new Britain has been constantly promised
by Tony Blair. But when it comes to the House of Commons, his government
has been slow to reform. Now many of his own MPs are calling for far reaching
changes to the way it works to show that Labour has not lost its radical
edge.
TONY BLAIR: Modernisation is not an end
in itself, it is for a purpose.
WILENIUS: After Tony Blair's 1997
Conference speech many hoped his reforming zeal would extend to the House
of Commons. The Labour Government set up a Modernisation Committee to drive
through change. So far plans for more family friendly hours and electronic
voting have been put on ice. Even though a second debating chamber has
been set up and the bizarre ritual of MPs in tops hats has been ended,
this doesn't add up to radical reform.
BRADLEY: It's a hostile place.
It's introverted. All the values here are written in secret codes which
are available only to Members of Parliament and only if they've got the
time and patience to decipher them. I mean it is bizarrely antiquated and
it's almost expressly written in a language that people outside don't understand.
WILENIUS: At the Commons the one
thing Peter Bradley does understand is how much of his time seems wasted.
BRADLEY: I've got no idea what's
going on. We've had one vote at 6 o'clock this evening, no indication of
when the next vote is going to be and so really I'm trapped. This is the
second night running this week that I'm here just kicking my heels. I'm
going to find a friendly Whip to see if he knows any better than I do what's
going on.
WILENIUS: All MPs are at the mercy
of the whips, the party business managers. But now many restless Labour
backbenchers want the Modernisation Committee end this waiting around.
One of the key members of the Committee is the parliamentary leader of
all Labour MPs, Clive Soley. They're looking to him to tackle the needlessly
long hours.
CLIVE SOLEY: We really do have to address
this issue of a radical reform of the House of Commons and I think the
thing that most upsets people outside about the House of Commons is the
sight of it, sitting, as I say, at three o' clock in the morning voting
and speaking and they say nobody else would be passing legislation at this
time of the morning, when they're tired and supposed to be getting up at
eight or nine o' clock to go back into committees the next day. You think
this is crazy - why are they doing it?
WILENIUS: Mid-evening and MPs think
it's crazy too. They're shackled to Westminster while others are packing
up to go home. For Peter Bradley radical reform can't come soon enough.
BRADLEY: The whips expect the next
vote around about ten. They expect it around ten but they don't know that
it's going to be at ten, so I still can't go very far from the Palace of
Westminster and if I do, I'm going to have to risk sprinting back at the
drop of the hat. I'm going to have a bite to eat and then I'm going to
risk it, I'm going to go back to my office, try and get a bit more work
under my belt.
SOLEY: What we need to say is the
voting takes place normally at set times so that business of the House
comes to an end I would suggest about ten o' clock. I say ten o'clock simply
because if you're a Northern MP or from Devon or somewhere you know you'd
rather work hard during Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and then go
back to your constituency on Friday and work in your constituency.
ANN CLYWD: I'd like to see us working a
nine to seven day. I came here from the European Parliament where we rarely
worked beyond seven o' clock at night, which I think is sensible, it's
a reasonable time for people to finish, particularly as most of us come
here for first thing in the morning and if we're here until midnight, or
sometimes until one o'clock or two o'clock, on some occasions until six
o'clock then obviously people are very tired and when they've got committees
early in the morning the next day, they can't stay in bed to make up for
it. So I think it's not a sensible use of people's time.
WILENIUS: At Westminster, the feeling
is that Clive Soley's suggestion is hardly "radical reform" .The idea these
changes would bring the Commons bang up to date is seen as laughable.
CORBETT: If a Modernisation Committee
proposes ten o'clock, first of all I wouldn't believe them because there'd
be an exception in it, and secondly it is to totally misunderstand what
this is about. We run this Parliament as if - and this is the origins of
it - most of its members towards the end of July had to get back to their
fields and estates to gather in the harvest, then to celebrate it, then
to do the Autumn sowing and when all that was done they would come back
here in October and start the business of the nation again. Nothing has
changed in two centuries to that extent and it's absolute hogwash.
WILENIUS: Time is a vital commodity
for MPs .They don't want to waste it. But to control Commons hours is to
exercise power. The government wants the power to get their business through
and the Opposition parties want to be able to exploit or even waste time,
forcing late debates to keep Government Ministers and MPs up all night.
SIR GEORGE YOUNG: I'm not in the business of keeping
the House up all night unnecessarily and it's interesting that some of
the people who kept me out of my bed, when we were in government, are now
the very people saying you must have reasonable hours. I think the argument
is that the opposition has to make sure that the bills get properly debated.
WILENIUS: But one former insider
- ex Tory MP and Party Whip Michael Brown, says it's all about the Opposition
putting political boot in.
MICHAEL BROWN: The aim of the game so far
as the opposition is concerned is to make sure that there is such a log
jam at the end of the annual session of Parliament that the government
are forced to drop some of their Bills, no government wants to do that
so the opposition by means of keeping the House up all night, getting Ministers
tired, getting Labour backbenchers very angry so they have to take two
days instead of one day or sit all night, it's a way of ensuring that there
is a complete sense of mayhem at the end of the session and the government
is then forced to jettison some of its legislation.
WILENIUS: Half past nine and Peter
Bradley's back in his office catching up. He's waiting around for another
vote, a slave to the green screens in every room in the Commons. But if
a radical change to these long hours would be controversial, there's another
area of Commons modernisation which is even more contentious.
In the 1980's, a system
of Select Committees was set up to look at and criticise the government.
But now many feel they're toothless. They don't have enough power to really
take Ministers to task.
BRADLEY: "Oops minister's up
- that means voting imminent"
WILENIUS: Modernisers also want
to see radical reform of this system. Successive governments have exerted
some control over the Select Committees and their reports, picking who
chairs them, and who sits on them. Forcing out those people seen as troublemakers.
BROWN: As the Government Whip,
the aim is to make sure that you've got your stooges on the committee and
what will happen is that the Chairman of the Committee of Selection will
advertise on the Whip for a vacancy and you will go up to one or two friendly
pals of yours, indicate that they're doing very well, if they want to help
out with the government intimate although not specify that perhaps promotion
might depend on this, perhaps they might like to go on the Transport Select
Committee
Now this is all highly
irregular and it's all done without fingerprints or anybody getting caught
but the reason is because you are part of the government and you want to
control, the last thing you want is a bad headline.
DIANNE ABBOTT: Government Whips have always
tried to interfere with Select Committees but under my government unfortunately
it's got completely out of hand. I've on the Treasury Committee for eight
years, I was a very assiduous attender. I was, I think, quite a good interviewer
at Committee and as one of the most experienced members of the Treasury
Select Committee I could have expected to have been re-appointed and even
possibly be in with a shout of being Chair and the Whips took me off and
they made it clear to me it was because of course Gordon Brown said on
no account was I to go back on the Treasury Committee.
WILENIUS: Ministers are reluctant
to give up any powers. Last month, Leader of the House Margaret Beckett
incensed Select Committee chairmen when the government kicked out proposals
to change the appointments system.
CORBETT: It devolves power to the
regions of the United Kingdom and it will not devolve power to the backbenchers
of the House of Commons and I simply do not understand it. They've got
everything to gain from this not to lose, because any organisation which
has got effective scrutiny, I mean half of the people who send us here,
is going to be a better government as a result of that, not a worse one.
WILENIUS: There's likely to be
wide public support for moves to give more powers to these key committees
and many Labour MPs were hoping the Government would loosen its grip on
appointments to allow greater scrutiny of its work. But it now looks as
if it is too much for Ministers to swallow and it will be brushed aside.
SOLEY: The chance of getting change
in the appointments to Select Committees in the near future I think is
very slim, but I certainly wouldn't like to lose the idea. It's a very
complex issue and it is frankly a balance between the rights of parliamentarians,
but also the recognition that Parliament can't work without parties and
parties need to have a say on things like this. I hope we'll revisit
it, but frankly I don't think there will be a change in the near future.
ABBOTT: The Select Committee system
is being fatally weakened by government interference and if this Modernisation
Committee won't act it will be a complete travesty and they'll be letting
down Parliament and also ordinary people who deserve proper scrutiny of
government.
WILENIUS: The Millennium Wheel
has become a symbol of modernisation, towering over the Houses of Parliament.
In politics too what goes around comes around. Margaret Beckett's now under
scrutiny by Select Committee chairmen. She faces possible defeat if she
doesn't listen.
CORBETT: Unless we can talk her
round we'll have to plan the next step which well may be a debate on the
floor of the House of Commons and we want to involve as many backbench
members in that debate as possible. We're deeply serious, we will have
what we have proposed or something near it and we shall if this is the
way they want to play it, we will do our best to put together an all party
majority on the floor of the House in favour of what we have suggested.
WILENIUS: Three Labour MPs have
already decided to quit at the next election, after only one term. They
are bitterly disappointed at the slow pace of modernisation of the Commons.
But if the government doesn't come up with more radical reforms soon,
then more Labour MPs may decide to leave or go off message.
The bell tolls again for
Peter Bradley. Only minutes to get to the voting lobbies from his office.
Some Labour MPs are now considering running away for good, but senior Labour
figures are urging them to stay and fight.
CORBETT: It is imperative that
all those who want change and it is a majority across all parties, join
with us in helping all of us there, backbenchers to achieve that change.
I think it is achievable and I want them to stay and help in that battle
instead of just packing their bags and saying I'm going off I'm going to
do something else.
WILENIUS: The day's finally at
an end for Peter Bradley. There's also little time left for the government
to deliver a new type of politics for Britain's Parliament. If it can't,
dispirited Labour MPs may accuse Tony Blair himself of representing the
"forces of conservatism".
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