Stop ennobling party hacks

Stitch-up

The late Roy Hughes may provide posthumous evidence on the the inquiry into honours.

He was the Newport MP with a record period of 33 years service.  His career was dominated by his uncompromising defence of the working classes to the extent that he objected to his union supporting teachers and lawyers as MPs. His biggest public controversy was when he appeared to defend the Munich killing of Israeli athletes on the ground of the worse suffering of Palestinians.

There was surprise when he accepted a peerage after being re-selected to fight his Newport East seat. He was later  frank in describing the details of the offer. Gordon Prentice MP raised the issue of party hacks who are kicked upstairs. He suggested that the HOLAC, the appointing body, should vet the political lists of peers submitted by political parties. Without quoting names, he mentioned the large number of MPs who resign shortly before General Elections to reappear  later as Lords. Expert Meg Russell agreed and suggested that parties should submit longer lists so that an element of choice can be made by Holac.

Gordon asked whether the best legislators are being appointed or is the House of Lords used as dumping ground for party problems. Without naming Roy, I suggested that evidence was available in his frank admissions of how he was ennobled. He said that when he first hinted that he might be prepared to stand down from his Newport East seat, 'They came at me like elephants'.  Tony Blair was searching for a seat for Tory MP defector Alan Howarth.

I can confirm Roy's account because I was told by Welsh Shadow Secretary Ron Davies that Roy was going. His next sentence rocked me back on my heels as a total non-sequitur. 'You are well disposed towards Alan Howarth, aren't you?'  I was and I had welcomed his joining the Labour Party because of his compassionate views on Social Security. The juxtaposition of Ron Davies' two sentences was persuasive evidence that Roy was being elevated in order to find a seat for the Tory defector.

The shortlist for the Newport East seat was manipulated to ensure that Alan Howarth was competing with three of the weaker candidates. The present splendid Assembly Member for Newport West Rosemary Butler and the MP for Cardiff West were both taken off the short list because they were strong threats to Alan's selection. The stitch-up worked Alan became the MP for Newport East and Roy became Lord Islwyn.

There are hundreds of example of all the main parties using the Lords to solve their own problems rather than appointing the best qualified legislators. In any reform there might be some limits on the choice of political parties. Few Lords are prepared to reveal the murky details of how they were chosen. Roy's frankness may well advance a worthwhile reform.

Comments

[john-w]

Thats a bold revelation... good to see that the spirit of independent thinking is still alive in Newport!

Reading other blog entries here on the recent Chartist Anniversary celebrations - and the petition and Early Day Motion for Democracy Day - suggests that a current-day "Charter" might be framed as a reminder of the long-evolving process of democratic reform. Something along the lines of a "Chartist Register".

A Chartist Register could set out a list of principles and measures for reform. Supplemented perhaps by individual testimonies such as the above case of Messers Hughes, Blair, Davies and Howarth. That would be an appropriate way of celebrating the Chartist's programme for reform, worthy of the tradition of Frost's pamphleteering and the Six Points of the People's Charter.

[Paul Flynn]

I called for a new six point Democracy Charter for the 21st century in 2003. What do you think?

ONE Our eccentric and irrational electoral system means that elections are decided by a small number of footloose votes of the weakly motivated and the least well informed. Voting in the second ballot of Assembly Election is a gamble which often perversely elects the party the voter dislikes the most.
Make all votes of equal value

TWO Cash rules supreme. Lobbyists still infests politics promoting the causes of their rich privileged clients at the expense of the needy and deserving. We knew IDS was finished when the Tory Party funders deserted him.
Use national Funding to liberate parties from dependence on outside interests

THREE A handful of newspaper proprietors use their massive power to proselytised, often irresponsibly without the discipline of balance imposed on broadcasters.
Extend to all media the broadcasters’ statutory duty of balance.

FOUR The election of a monkey in Hartlepool and more votes for Pop Idol than local elections proves that politicians are out of touch.
Franchise for 16 year olds

FIVE Only two countries in the world allow their hereditary chieftains to make laws- Britain and Lesotho. The hereditary principle must be finally buried.
Make power the exclusive gift of the electorate never to be or inherited. or bought

SIX The narrow local focus of politics accelerates the global neglect and looting of our environment. All decisions should be on a world -wide scale.
Broaden political horizons to encompass one humanity, one environment and one world

[john-w]

"I called for a new six point Democracy Charter for the 21st century in 2003. What do you think?"

Yes! exactly.

It would be good to publicise such a C21 Charter - perhaps as the Democracy Day petition and campaign unfold...