Selling the Rights of the People

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After a long police investigation the Crown Prosecution Services has decided there is not enough evidence to prosecute anyone for selling seats in the British legislature, which is against the law.

The police investigation followed the appointment as legislators-for-life of four business people soon after they had made secret loans to the Labour Party.

It is not illegal in Britain for seats in the legislature to be given free of charge by the main political parities to their supporters. Few informed observers doubt that, in addition, seats in the legislature have effectively been sold over many years for prices up to £2m.

The feelings of much of the political establishment about the investigation rather than the accusations were expressed by Walter Menzies Campbell, leader of the Liberal Democrat party, who told the press that “This whole affair has diminished politics and politicians in the eyes of the public”. The Financial Times also referred to politics being diminished “in the eyes of the public”, blaming this on the way the allegation was investigated, not on the practices that brought it about. Practices in which business people such as Christopher Evans scribble “K” for knight and “P” for peer on a piece of paper while thinking, according to the FT, about “whether he might play a government role”. Mr. Evans told the newspaper it was “a case of how busy are you? What sort of role do you want to play going forward? These sorts of things are discussed”. No mention here of what role the people might want him to play.

The real scandal is not that when money changes hands and when those handing over the money receive a benefit, suspicions are aroused. Not even that “honours” are sometimes sold. It is that it is possible to become a legislator without the consent of the people and stay in the legislature for life representing no one. This has generally been unacknowledged during the investigation and its aftermath.

The way to avoid any suspicion of illegality in the future is simple: recognise the exclusive right of the people to choose their legislators.


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