Westminster dues

When Michael Martin leaves the British House of Commons on June 21,he will go down in history as not just its first speaker to be effectively forced out of office since 1695. Martin has been a man of many firsts: the first Roman Catholic speaker since the Reformation,who preferred wearing his own shoes instead of buckled court shoes,and black flannel trousers in place of knee breeches and silk stockings. But leaving with him will be the manner in which the Commons conducted business till date. His resignation,amidst the publication of MPs expenses by The Daily Telegraph,will be the beginning of the end of the era of closed politics that involved politicians organising tightly to protect themselves from the mass media. Information technology,that blew the cover off extravagant and fraudulent MPs,might now unveil the era of open politics,with legislative decisions and dealings more transparent.

Behind the disclosures,which turned public anger into contempt for MPs exceeding what bankers faced till the other day,is the British parliaments lost court battle against the Freedom of Information campaign. Now MPs stand humbled,with the parliament losing its centuries-old right to run its own affairs. Gordon Brown,who salvaged something by finally signalling Martin to go and announcing extensive reforms,says that Westminster cannot operate like some gentlemens club anymore. MPs will begin with a 1,250 monthly cap on rent and mortgage payments,which should curb the widespread abuse of the second-home allowance that reimburses MPs dividing their time between parliament and constituencies outside London,to say nothing of billing the Commons Fees Office for furniture,loo seats,TVs,DVDs,coffee-makers or moat clearings.

As an externally-managed,transparent system of expenses and allowances is put in place,the new speaker will have a new House to run,under far greater scrutiny,far less tolerance. His solace will be the fact that British democracy has been strengthened by every crisis. If MPs rein themselves in,in their own interest,they would do everybody good. After all,the Magna Carta began as a calculated trade-off between the king and his nobility.