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With the reputation of MPs diminishing by the day, John Smith offers his solutions to recapture the public's respect. The row over MPs' expenses, which still rumbles on is, depending on your point of view. Either it's a distraction from the sterling work they do, an illustration of the moral corruption at the core of national public life, or a pricking of the Westminster bubble of pomposity, in which too many of them exist. In reality, it is probably a mixture of all three. What it does do is divert attention from the more fundamental issues of what exactly the job of an MP is – and, come to that, a minister – how they are chosen, how many we need, and how they should be rewarded. It also throws into stark relief that the public increasingly see MPs as ‘them' rather than ‘us'. And some MPs reflect this in their contemptuous dismissal of citizens as ‘civilians', echoing some of the more stupid elements of show-business – and thus, unconsciously reinforcing the principle that, ‘Politics is showbusiness for ugly people'. A column such as this cannot afford the space for a detailed examination of these fundamental issues – but what it can do is offer some starting points: * the job of an MP is not, as some analogies often try to reflect, some sort of middle manager. It is, or should be, to hold the executive – and, I would suggest, the judiciary – to account. In this, some select committees are very successful, others less so. What appears certain is that the House of Commons as a whole fails, due largely to the poodle vote. The job should not be about supporting an over-centralised state but about returning power to the citizen – and we have that ability in local government which, for all its alleged faults, is closer to the people, and more accountable to them, than central government, MPs and associated Westminster hangers-on * the selection processes of all the major parties throws up all-too-many party hacks. And this process seems to be getting more acute as politics becomes a career, rather than public service, with MPs increasingly coming from a self-perpetuating political class with no first-hand understanding of how life outside the Westminster bubble is lived, progressing from political aide to candidate to MP to – if they are fortunate, able or creepy enough – minister. The selection processes also means that prime ministers find talent stretched so thinly that they have to fix selection committees or elevate to the Lords to find adequate ministers * with 646 representatives, the country is substantially ‘over-MP-ied' although any number is clearly arbitrary, and can be justified or attacked, depending upon one's viewpoint. But, to start the ball rolling, do we really need any more than 150? – particularly if MPs do their job of reducing the size of the centralised state and return much more power to local government * the pay of MPs has been the subject of much discussion and many reports – much of which wobble around treating them as a sort of Reggie Perrin-esque middle manager – with self-regulated top-ups. Both of these concepts are long overdue for radical revision. If MPs reflect the country – as they should, and as they claim they do – then we could perhaps start with MPs being paid the national average wage, with expenses being claimed and taxed on the same basis as the rest of us. This would do away with MPs' hackneyed ‘Nuremberg defence' of claiming to have acted within the rules – a prime example of flawed self-regulation – and, if they need to stay overnight in London, perhaps the House authorities could negotiate buying a tower block across the river in Lambeth for the exclusive use of MPs and ministers, with considerable savings to the public purse – thus paralleling the Swedish practice. The old cliché that higher pay will attract better quality appears to have worked for MPs in approximately the same way as it has for bankers. Underlying all of this is what should be a seismic shift in power from the centre to local government, with resultant greater accountability and greater local choice. It will also mark a real shift in the role of MPs away from, in too many cases, being aspirants for ministerial office to becoming real challengers of an over-mighty centralising executive. With a bit of care and attention, being an MP could once again become a job for grown-ups. John Smith is chairman of Public Appointments Ltd

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WHITEHALL

MPs live in a bubble

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