Jonathan McIver

Government and Politics

Has the UK become a irrelevant institution?
To some extent the UK parliament has become irrelevant. For example,
as the UK are members of the EU, this can dissolve a lot of legal
sovereignty, as laws made by the UK parliament may have to be
repealed by the European union, as the particular policy may breach
the human rights act. For example, in the ‘Factortame case’ the EU had
overridden the UK parliaments decision, and the merchants fishing act,
and allowed Spanish ships to fish in UK waters.
Also, devolution contributes to a reduction of sovereignty in the UK
parliament, as Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland can now make
policies of their own. For example Scotland now has legislative
devolution, administrative devolution and also financial devolution, this
allows the country to raise its tax rate by up to 3p. This affects the
UK’s relevancy, as it shows that all powers are no longer held by the
parliament, and Westminster is controlling less and less of the UK.
On the other hand, the House of Lords has become increasingly
relevant, due to the recent reform, to eject many hereditary peers with
elected ones. This has allowed for more scrutiny in parliament, due to
a more ‘intelligent’ house of lords, due to specialist lords being
appointed rather than under qualified lords being placed in there, this
will allow the house of lords to look at matters in greater depth,
improving levels of scrutiny, showing the relevance of the institution.
This will also mean that the House of Lords will be more willing to
challenge the government on specific matters.
However, there is also a view that there is not enough scrutiny in
parliament, showing that the institution is irrelevant. This view is
shared because the different ways of scrutinising the executive have
been changed in recent years. For example, the PM’s question time has
been changed to one 30 minute slot rather than two 15 minute slots.
This allows the PM to prepare their answers in more depth in advance,
allowing them to talk about the issue for longer, delaying the MP’s
questioning. It is also seen that as the House of Lords can only delay a
bill up to one year, the levels of scrutiny are not at the appropriate
level. This leads on to the widely acknowledged thought of the UK
falling to an ‘elective dictatorship’, as not enough scrutiny is available
to stop the executive doing what he or she wants.
There are still some supporters of the amount of scrutiny in parliament,
as many people believe that a 30 minute period is enough time for
enough scrutiny to be enforced. Also, people see debating in the House
of Commons as an effective way of scrutinising the executive. Showing
that some people still believe that the UK parliament is still a relevant
institution.
Party cohesion is a big reason why people share the view of parliament
losing relevance. The views of the different constitutions are not
properly portrayed by their respective MP’s in the House of Commons.
For example if a constituency wanted to bring back the death penalty
Jonathan McIver
Government and Politics
to their constituency, the particular MP may not put forward this idea in
the Commons, as their party may not agree with this, the MP’s use
their own judgement, and ‘toe the party line’.
The idea of General elections is to elect a particular party or person to
make decisions based on the electorates wishes, the PM is elected to
lead and run the country. This however, does not often happen as the
PM is usually unrepresentative of the electorate’s wishes. This shows
that Parliament is irrelevant, as the PM does not actually always listen
to the people of the country. For example, Tony Blair had much
opposition in the idea of a war with Iraq, however the PM still decided
to go along with this much opposed plan. Also, the idea of Banning Fox
hunting attracted much opposition, however this did not stop the
policy from being ratified.
In conclusion, I believe that the UK parliament has, to some extent
become irrelevant, as the levels of scrutiny within parliament have
become lower in recent years, and devolution has taken powers away
from the UK parliament. However in some ways I think that the UK still
has a relevant Parliament, due to the House of Lords reform, and the
idea of debates and PMQ’s scrutinising the executive.