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Same old, same old
The claim of the decline of the independent-minded MP is a hardy perennial of commentators and self-flagellating parliamentarians.
Roy Hattersley, for example, once described recent Labour backbenchers as "the most supine Members of Parliament in British history" (The Times, 3 November 2005).
Yet anyone who clings to the myth of the independent member of yesteryear needs to remember that in the 1950s there were two sessions - two whole years - during which not one government MP rebelled. Today's whips would sell their souls (those that still have them, anyway) for that level of discipline.
High levels of party cohesion were first identified at the beginning of the 20th century. But since the 1970s, there has been a rise in dissent and a weakening of party ties. The current Parliament, from 2005 onwards, is on course to be the most rebellious of the postwar era.
The truth is that there are always too few quality politicians; they are perceived as never brave enough; they were always better 20 or 30 years ago.
Take, for example, this moan about MPs who "represented not their country but themselves, and always kept together in a close and undivided phalanx, impenetrable either by shame or honour, voting always the same way, and saying always the same things". It was written in 1698.
There isn't much new in today's complaints and we'd be better off recognising that, because otherwise all attempts to reform Parliament and to raise it in the public's esteem are doomed to failure.
15 October 2009
About the author
Philip Cowley is professor of politics at the University of Nottingham.