We all know what parliament is, and we are all ashamed of it. Robert Louis Stevenson
The English think they are free. They are free only during the election of members of parliament. Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Basically, I have no place in organized politics. By coming to the British Parliament, I’ve allowed the people to sacrifice me at the top and let go the more effective job I should be doing at the bottom. Bernadette Devlin
The first years in Parliament I did nothing – nothing to any purpose. My own distinction was my darling object. William Wilberforce
I understand the damage the expenses crisis has done to Parliament, and the paramount importance of restoring trust in our politics. George Osborne
Parliament must not be told a direct untruth, but it’s quite possible to allow them to mislead themselves. Norman Tebbit
But let’s be clear. We’re talking about a country where there’s no opposition. As leader he can ignore Parliament and – sorry that’s Tony Blair isn’t it? Um, so he doesn’t even have to ask the country before he goes to war – sorry that’s still Tony Blair. Rory Bremner
There are many things a parliament cannot do. It cannot make itself executive, nor dispose of offices which belong to the crown. It cannot take any man’s property, even that of the meanest cottager, as in the case of enclosures, without his being heard. William Pitt
People in Parliament occupy themselves with private animosities and petty quarrels, and think little of the national interest. It is impossible to credit the serene indifference with which they consider events outside their own country. William III
I think ... that it is the best club in London. Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend, Mr Tremlow
Although Italy became a major source of inspiration throughout the rest of his life, images of Britain continued to dominate Turner’s canvasses. He became a chronicler of contemporary history in 1834 when he produced stunning images of the burning of the Houses of Parliament. Great Artists with Tim Marlow: J M W Turner
Until the control of the issue of currency and credit is restored to government and recognized as its most conspicuous and sacred responsibility, all talks of the sovereignty of Parliament and of democracy is idle and futile. William Lyon Mackenzie King
The British constitution is at the root of the problem. The fusion of parliament into both a law-making body and the source of government means there is little effective sanction or scrutiny of government. Will Hutton, The State to Come
As of today I am suspending the legislative, administrative and controlling functions of the parliament. Boris Yeltsin
How contrite their former heroes now seem. On 17 May, the Leader of the House of Commons, Harriet Harman, who is alleged to have spent £10,000 of taxpayers’ money on ‘media training’, called on MPs to ‘rebuild cross-party trust’. The unintended irony of her words recalls one of her first acts as social security secretary more than a decade ago – cutting the benefits of single mothers. This was spun and reported as if there was a ‘revolt’ among Labour backbenchers, which was false. None of Blair’s new female MPs, who had been elected ‘to end male-dominated, Conservative policies’, spoke up against this attack on the poorest of poor women. All voted for it.
The same was true of the lawless attack on Iraq in 2003, behind which the cross-party Establishment and the political media rallied. Andrew Marr stood in Downing Street and excitedly told BBC viewers that Blair had ‘said they would be able to take Baghdad without a bloodbath, and that in the end the Iraqis would be celebrating. And on both of those points he has been proved conclusively right.’ When Blair’s army finally retreated from Basra in May, it left behind, according to scholarly estimates, more than a million people dead, a majority of stricken, sick children, a contaminated water supply, a crippled energy grid and four million refugees.
As for the ‘celebrating’ Iraqis, the vast majority, say Whitehall’s own surveys, want the invader out. And when Blair finally departed the House of Commons, MPs gave him a standing ovation – they who had refused to hold a vote on his criminal invasion or even to set up an inquiry into its lies, which almost three-quarters of the British population wanted.
Such venality goes far beyond the greed of the uppity Hazel Blears.
‘Normalising the unthinkable’, Edward Herman’s phrase from his essay ‘The Banality of Evil’, about the division of labour in state crime, is applicable here. On 18 May, the Guardian devoted the top of one page to a report headlined, ‘Blair awarded $1m prize for international relations work’. This prize, announced in Israel soon after the Gaza massacre, was for his ‘cultural and social impact on the world’. You looked in vain for evidence of a spoof or some recognition of the truth. Instead, there was his ‘optimism about the chance of bringing peace’ and his work ‘designed to forge peace’.
This was the same Blair who committed the same crime – deliberately planning the invasion of a country, ‘the supreme international crime’ – for which the Nazi foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop was hanged at Nuremberg after proof of his guilt was located in German cabinet documents. Last February, Britain’s ‘Justice’ Secretary, Jack Straw, blocked publication of crucial cabinet minutes from March 2003 about the planning of the invasion of Iraq, even though the Information Commissioner, Richard Thomas, has ordered their release. For Blair, the unthinkable is both normalised and celebrated.
‘How our corrupt MPs are playing into the hands of extremists,’ said the cover of last week’s New Statesman. But is not their support for the epic crime in Iraq already extremism? And for the murderous imperial adventure in Afghanistan? And for the government’s collusion with torture?
It is as if our public language has finally become Orwellian. Using totalitarian laws approved by a majority of MPs, the police have set up secretive units to combat democratic dissent they call ‘extremism’. Their de facto partners are ‘security’ journalists, a recent breed of state or ‘lobby’ propagandist. On 9 April, the BBC’s Newsnight promoted the guilt of 12 ‘terrorists’ arrested in a contrived media drama orchestrated by the Prime Minister himself. All were later released without charge.
Something is changing in Britain that gives cause for optimism. The British people have probably never been more politically aware and prepared to clear out decrepit myths and other rubbish while stepping angrily over the babbling brook of bullshit. John Pilger, article May 2009, ‘Britain: The Depth of Corruption’
My name is Malalai Joya from the Farah province … I wish to criticize my compatriots in this room. Why would you allow criminals to be present at this Loya Jirga? War lords responsible for our country’s situation … They should be prosecuted. Enemies of Happiness, Malalai in parliament, 2006
Guards, throw her out! ibid. head of parliament
It is the first time women can vote in a general election … She has survived four assassination attempts. ibid. radio news
The [other] candidates are out buying votes. ibid. supporter
You must disarm my men so I can run my campaign in peace. ibid. election candidate
Former war lords and their supporters won the majority of the seats. 28 percent of the 249 seats went to female candidates. Among them is Malalai Joya. ibid.
There isn’t really any power here. You get here and it’s like the Wizard of Oz. Rory Stewart MP, interview Storyville: Accidental Anarchist: Life Without Government, BBC 2017
Mistrust that may just have its roots in a chapter one decade ago: MPs accused of being on the take when a national newspaper blew the lid on their expenses system, in a country still reeling from a financial crisis. Expenses: The Scandal that Changed Britain, BBC 2019
How much did those events rewrite the relationship between parliamentarians and the public? How much did it redirect the whole course of British politics? ibid.
The job of redaction took place in secret. ibid.
‘From porn films to bath plugs’ … ‘chandeliers, horse manure, swimming pools, housekeepers’ … ‘It’s a classic smear this’ [Mandelson]. ibid.
The moat belonged to Douglas Hogg; the expense was for cleaning it. ibid.
Another kind of second home: a duck house. ibid.
Five Labour MPs and Two Conservative Peers who were eventually jailed. ibid.
650 of the most despised people in Britain … I can’t think of a time when the people who rule our country have been so uniformly useless: they seem dreary uncharismatic jobsworthies, whose priority is looking after number one … This place has been an omni-shambles for years. Jeremy Paxman, Why Are Our Politicians So Crap? BBC 2019
Boris Johnson is a charlatan. ibid.
Jeremy Corbyn is useless, isn’t he? ibid.
Has it got worse than it used to be? ibid.
‘Far worse than in my political lifetime.’ ibid. Ken Clarke
‘I don’t think there ever has been anything this bad ever.’ ibid. Hattersley