|
Commons must become 'more topical'
MPs should be able to take part in shorter, more topical debates to help make the Commons the "cockpit of the nation", according to Jack Straw.
The leader of the Commons also raised the idea of allowing members to use equipment such as personal digital assistants in the chamber to let them keep up with their constituency correspondence.
In an interview with ePolitix.com Straw, who is also chairman of the Commons modernisation committee, said the formulaic way much non-legislative business is handled can make it a matter of chance whether topical issues like the Iran hostages crisis can quickly be discussed by MPs.
He said: "I think all of us have to recognise that before the televising of Parliament and before this revolution that's taking place in the last 10 years in 24/7 news, this place really was the cockpit of the nation.
"But that has changes, and if we don't debate here issues that are in people's minds at the time it's not that they don't get debates, but that the focus shifts to the television and radio studio, to the websites, to the newspapers."
He said newer MPs have pointed out that the increasing burden of constituency work makes it harder to spend long periods of time in the chamber waiting to be called.
"Twenty five years ago when I was sitting on the backbenches waiting to be called I could get on and do my correspondence and no one would notice, now an awful lot of correspondence is done electronically and at the moment the rules don't allow members to take in PDAs and things like that," he said.
"So we're looking at a range of big changes and relatively small ones to encourage greater participating in the chamber, greater involvement in the formal business of the house, making debates more topical, and trying to ensure too that what happens in the chamber is more relevant for people's own constituents."
Denying that Lords reform had taken the focus away from reform of the Commons, he said changes to the second chamber including shorter debates is informing thinking on how to make the Commons "come alive".
|
