House of Commons is in danger of loosing its legitimacy
November 14, 2008
A top ruling party leader has labelled the world’s oldest democratic institution, the British parliament as too white, opining that the House of Commons is in danger of loosing its legitimacy.
Harriet Harman, the Leader of the House of Commons, Minister for Women Equality in Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s cabinet said the British parliament is too white and male to have ‘sensible’ debates on a string of issues. If the House of Commons is seen as a `narrow and self-serving elite, the legislature would have `no legitimacy`. The leader was speaking at the occasion, the first of its kind for more than two decades where MPs got down to approve the creation of a cross-party Speaker’s Conference to look at ways to boost the number of women and ethnic minorities being elected.
She was quoted as saying:
“We cannot sensibly discuss the veil (in the Commons) when there is no Muslim woman MP; it was impossible to discuss domestic violence when there were 97 % men in the Commons.”
Chairman of Britain’s Equality and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Phillips, claimed that despite the US President-elect’s brilliance, the political system in Britain would prevent ethnic minority candidate getting to the top. Conservative MP for Windsor supported Philip’s views.
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