Cradle of democracy

We may have invented Parliamentary democracy in its modern form and our Parliament may have achieved a great deal in, say, the two hundred years up to 1950. But since then, things have not looked so good, with nostalgia, tradition, poor quality MP's generally and old Etonians in particular combining to block progress towards something better suited to the 21st century.

Three examples of the House of Commons making itself look silly come to mind this morning. The complete failure to unblock the Brexit imbroglio, the Brexit impasse, with something close to the May compromise. The failure to make much progress on getting themselves modern premises. And the recent adoption of voting procedures which look ridiculous rather than silly.

And then there is my own pet project: getting on with adopting the latest (2018) proposals for updating Parliamentary constituency boundaries in line with population changes. We may not be into gerrymandering in the way of the US, but we still need to keep on the move.

And we shouldn't blame it all on our MP's. We elect them.

Reference 1: https://boundarycommissionforengland.independent.gov.uk/.