The Pantomime of Parliament (reupload)

I love the Houses of Parliament in London – the actual building itself that is. It’s a truly beautiful bit of architecture.

As for the people within … the Members of Parliament, I regard them in less a positive way.

For me, they are simply actors performing for an audience. To my mind, Parliament is just a place of drama – much like a theatre. The production being performed is a modern interpretation of the Ancient, Greek play “Democracy”. Britain purports to be Democracy, but in truth, it’s just a sorry simulacrum.

To evidence this, we see a big brouhaha in the press and the corridors of power when a handful of MPs deign to ignore the Party Whip and vote against their own party and the prevailing government when a bill is presented and balloted. This action is portrayed as something calamitous, but, in actual fact, the MPs are only exercising their Democratic right to vote howsoever they wish. Some MPs - those of weaker constitutions - of course abstain. They are not brave enough to overtly stand in opposition to a proposed bill and so they take the less difficult course of action. Following the party line is in my opinion, a sure sign of weakness. Most MPs are pathetic creatures with weak constitutions and little by way of any integrity.

Suffice to say, the whole idea of a Party Whip is, to my mind, obnoxious. And it’s bullying, pure and simple. It certainly can not be considered as Democracy in action. If I had my way, the Party Whip should be brought out into the green outside of the Houses of Parliament and publicly flogged. This, of course, is just me being fanciful and indulging my imagination as I don’t advocate violence, but it should show where I stand on the matter.

Returning to the idea of it being a performance … viewed in the way I have described, the purpose of the play is to entertain. I regard the play as something of a Pantomime. The Houses of Parliament should perhaps be renamed Houses of Pantomime. You only have to listen in to a Prime Minister’s Question Time session to understand what I mean.

The Members of Parliament then, are all actors and each have their allotted role to play. The principal actors are the PM and the cabinet. Facing them is the “Opposition” – the leader of the Opposition and the Shadow Cabinet. Then there is the Speaker of the House. They are the main protagonists. The Back Benchers are the extras and they are there to play their supporting roles.

What we have currently in essence amounts to a two-party system. We need only consider the almost farcical state of affairs when those MPs who were in opposition prior to an election, have to swap sides in the chambers of parliament following an election victory and their party forms a government. It’s really not that dissimilar to a change in acts in the course of a play. Democracy be damned when you have a two-party system.

I said some moments ago that the purpose of the play is to entertain. However, to my way of thinking, the real purpose of the