How Democratic is Parliament

[p016] HOW DEMOCRATIC IS PARLIAMENT ? Parliament, for example, conscripts youth at 18 years for military purposes, and yet it does not permit them to vote. They are old enough to fight, die, and thereby decide the destiny of England. But they do not have the right to cast a ballot until they reach 21. During the life of Parliament, which can last five years and in exceptional cases a decade, the electorate has no way of controlling its representatives by recall. Thus a Labour M.P., voted into office on a given programme and definite promises, can flout that programme and still retain his mandate. This is not very democratic. Moreover, too many seats in the House of Commons, including Labour Seats, go to those who have advantages of birth, money, and education, while workers in the shops lack parlia- mentary delegates from their own ranks close to their interests and feelings. The tenure of Parliament is far too long in these times of rapidly changing conditions. Parliament should be re-elected by statute more often than every five years. It will be recalled that the People’s Charter over one hundred years ago called for annual elections. The war-time Parliament lasted ten years without going onee to the people during that time. Its unrepresentative character was demonstrated by the fact that the voters got rid of Churchill’s “Long Parliament” the moment they were given the chance in 1945. We have also recently seen that Parliament is unable to exercise control over its own executives in the government. M.P.s themselves are kept ignorant in matters of life-and- death importance. Labour expects the Tories to connive behind the people’s backs. But what is to be thought of . those heads of a Labour government, who entered into secret agreements with Washington on China and Korea which could involve us in war, without informing the House, det alone the nation ? Finally, even if Parliament can be considered the ideal democratic representative of the United Kingdom, it is 14

[p017] certainly not the freely chosen representative of the colonial peoples. They are held against their wills within the Empire. By what standards of democracy does the British , Parliament, elected exclusively by voters within Great Britain, arrogate to itself the privilege of legislation for tens of millions of people in Asia, Africa and elsewhere ? Before the British Parliament can approach genuine political democracy, it would first have to forfeit every one of the arbitrary powers it imperially exercises over the colonies.