Martin Kettle’s article (Britain is a country that looks to its parliament. And the truth is, parliament is failing us, 21 December) reminded me of a conversation that I had many years ago with a German MP, who was astonished by the existence of casework in Westminster. For her, officials fixed individual problems, parliamentarians shaped the system. And British MPs’ caseloads since then have grown exponentially, as a decade of austerity means there are few working systems left.
That’s a big problem, but so are the issues with quality and behaviour that Kettle identifies. Why do we have so many unsuitable people – and such an unrepresentative bunch? The answer is because voters are stuck with an undemocratic, dysfunctional model of government, produced by centuries of historical accident, with political philosophies and ideas that have failed to develop and grow to even understand the modern world.
