This House

Last weekend I was delighted to be able to catch up with the National Theatre production of This House. James’ Graham’s portrait of Labour and Tory whips in action, way back in the seventies, is entertaining and nostalgic, but also very shrewd. Graham knows that a lot of the Parliamentary stuff is nonsense, outdated pageantry that he ridicules in dramatically witty ways. and both sides are tribal in their approach, their vision narrowed by competition, vote deadlines and hatred for the other side. But the beautiful thing about it is the channel of warmth running through its heart, the sense that somewhere these people share a respect for “This house”, value a way of doing things which is more important than their own particular short-term aims.

Which brings us to Jacob Rees-Mogg. Or not. everybody’s supposed to work from home, yes? Minimum personal contact, travel etc. That was the idea, and for the last month or so Parliament’s had a hybrid voting system which allowed different ways for MPs to register their votes, and took account of their different situations - distance from London, medical condition, commitment to being in isolation with shielding family. As a necessary compromise this seemed to be working well, but not for Jacob Rees-Mogg. He likes the cut-and-thrust of a crowded chamber, the baying chorus of loyal Tories who can cheer Johnson’s every word, and cover up the fact that he hasn’t done his homework, doesn’t have a clue.

So Rees-Mogg declares that we have to have actual physical voting with members present - which may mean huge journeys, moving into second homes, deserting vulnerable family members - all kinds of complication.

This, he argues, is in the interests of democracy. The speaker is against it, and so is the chair of the procedure committee (who happens to be a Tory), backed by the chairs of sixteen select committees. Is he persuaded ?Not achance, which provides the ludicrous circus of a queue more than a kilometre long as MPs wait to cast their vote. surely we can do better than this?