The big UK news story of the day should have been the long running COVID inquiry which heard evidence that Boris Johnson wrote down a question about why the economy should be threatened for old people who were going to die anyway.
Of course some politicians had other ideas. Suella Braverman continued with her long running Culture War which is designed to insert her as the hard to far right leader of the Tories after an Election. In today’s episode Braverman labelled the entirely peaceful marches calling for a ceasefire in Gaza in recent weeks ‘hate marches’. She is a leading expert on hate its true but the 500,000 who marched in London last Saturday might wonder what planet she is actually on.
Meanwhile Keir Starmer’s Great Moving Right Show lurched even further rightwards as Labour MP Andy McDonald was suspended because he had opined that it might be an idea if Palestinians and Israelis could live peacefully together. This was a bit much for Starmer who clearly sees himself like Blair as a great war leader.
The wider issue is how politicians like Starmer and Braverman can be held to democratic account. Clearly their own political parties aren’t doing it, so the role falls to the electorate. At the moment that can be once every 5 years.
It raises the question of whether the time has come to act on the one unfulfilled demand of the 1838 People’s Charter, a call for annual parliaments. For those who think Chartism was a failure, five of the six demands on issues like a secret ballot and payment of MPs have long since been law.
Before it started to become clear that Labour could win elections and the hundredth anniversary of the first one in 1924 is due shortly, the length of Parliaments was much discussed on the left. Annual Parliaments were thought to be perhaps impractical but elections every two or three years were significant radical demands.
There is or should be nothing like an election to focus the minds of politicians who think they can say or do just what they like.
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