Bring back yah-boo politics – and the sooner the better
A boisterous and full House of Commons is needed to bring our democracy properly back to life, writes John Rentoul
There is nothing else like it. The roar of a full chamber of the House of Commons is the noise that democracy makes. Some of the turning points of our history were audible not as words but as sound. I was in the press gallery when Tony Blair told John Major: “I lead my party; he follows his.” The cheers were the end of that Conservative government.
In the twilight of the Blair years, he was asked a question by a Conservative backbencher about a referendum on Europe. Noting the throaty growl of approval on the Tory side of the house, Blair commented that, if he were David Cameron, he would be worried about that. Cameron hadn’t even become prime minister then, yet already his end had been foretold by the noise. I can’t wait to get back to a boisterous and full Commons. Don’t give me all those complaints about farmyard-schoolyard noises, I want Punch and Judy politics back. Yes, it can be childish and it can be undignified, but it is also serious and it is always testing. It is a test of character and it is a test of policy.
Of course, both those things can be tested in a half-empty chamber, with masked MPs sitting two metres apart, and even by video, although the main test there is the ability to use the unmute button. But it is not the same: sterile mini-speeches are not the same as raucous heckling.
I will be on the side of the Conservative anti-lockdowners when they argue, presumably starting tomorrow, that the Commons ought to be returning to in-person representative democracy, subjecting the government to the discipline of a full and rowdy chamber.
It is not going to happen for months, unfortunately. The House of Commons must “show an example” to the nation, which means it must be the slowest ship in the “back to the office” convoy. The prime minister tried to hurry people back to their offices last year, even suggesting to civil servants on a Zoom call that it was bad for their careers to be working from home. But then he was burnt by the second and third lockdowns and decided to let people and their employers work out for themselves what was best.
That means that Lindsay Hoyle, the speaker, will probably take the lead, and he has so far been at the cautious, social-distancing, remote-working end of the spectrum. Sir Graham Brady, the trade union representative of the Tory awkward squad, may demand an end to coronavirus restrictions, but I don’t think either government or opposition are in any hurry.
That is a shame. We ought to be back to full-volume yah-boo politics on 21 June at the latest, but I fear it will take longer. Yours, John Rentoul Chief political commentator