People's Debate: Time to reform the constitution

That was the view of audience members at last night's Intelligence Squared debate at the Royal Geographical Society, supported by the Evening Standard.

Most agreed with a number of panellists that the future of parliamentary democracy in Britain lay in wholesale structural reform of the entire
system which had been sullied by "corrupt"
politicians.

Speakers at the People's Debate included historian Sir David Cannadine, Labour peer Helena Kennedy QC, and former Tory Foreign Secretary Sir Malcolm Rifkind.

The exchanges among the panellists were interspersed with observations from the audience, conducted by Standard columnist Simon Jenkins. In a show of hands, he acknowledged that
"the revolution had it" in voting for
constitutional reform.

Prof Sir David Cannadine, Historian
"The British constitution is very unusual — the British have never been very democratic a nation even though we like to think we have been. Lloyd George sold peerages across the counter like packets of tea, and for the last 20 years the National Trust had more members than all the major parties put together. It is the demise of local government and excitement and involvement in local politics of people that is very worrying."

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Former Conservative Foreign Secretary and currently Kensington and Chelsea MP
"I am conscious that MPs are not flavour of the month to put it mildly. What is awful about this
scandal is the embarrassing triviality. That problem is solvable and it is being solved. It was ghastly. Every single MP will face the electorate in 11 months. It won't come back again because every claim will be transparent
and on the internet. Parliament has to resume proper control over the government of the day."

Helena Kennedy QC, Labour peer
"Britain remains a very rich, civic society and people take part in all manner of political processes, volunteering, raising money — the
British public by and large are fairly active.
But they were concerned about the quality of politicians. They felt they were too self-serving, never had a real job, and that politicians had become craven to their parties rather than looking after constituencies.
The expenses scandal is symptomatic of a far deeper malaise."

Vernon Bogdanor, author and professor of Government at Oxford University
"The turnout as a whole in the last two elections was the lowest since universal suffrage and that is because in most cases there is no point in voting. People are voting and we do not belong to a political party — only one in 88 of us do. They are dying on their feet. There 81 million adults who gave to the tsunami appeal. The RSPB and not just the National Trust has more members than the political parties put together."

John Keane, professor of politics at the University of Westminster and consultant to the UN
"We live in an age of monitory democracy' — think tanks, bloggers and other forms of monitory society who wrong-foot our governments. If you think about the big public issues that have exercised people since 1945 — civil rights, nuclear weapons, women in politics — all of theses issues have been put on the table by people from outside. Churchill was right in saying democracy was the best weapon we have against stupidity."

Peter Oborne, author and political columnist for the Daily Mail
"There is something rotten in the state of Britain but our parliamentary democracy does not need root and branch reform. The real problem is we have turned our back on parliamentary democracy. Something has gone wrong with the self-serving, venal political class. They (politicians) have called for constitutional
reform but it is a diversion tactic. What we need to do is make sure the people who have stolen from the taxpayers are brought to account."

David Aaronovitch, author and Times newspaper columnist
"I would agree that the system is not right. MPs have not been abusing' the system of expenses, but overusing a system of allowances. This
reaction is... symptomatic of the simple fact that we hate them. We hate the government, hate
politicians, and hate them for soliciting our votes. And what is interesting is they hate us back. The demands placed on them by constituents are absurd. What we are talking about is a dysfunctional relationship that must be reformed."