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Philip Lee I may not share his politics
but I respect his integrity. A nan who stood up
today for what he thought was right - despite the consequences. |
More words and newspaper and blog and column inches have
been devoted to this in the two years since the Brexit vote – much of it by me!
– that further debate and rehearsal of
the arguments for and against Brexit seem pretty superfluous; minds are made
up, positions taken for good or ill.
However, in this week when Theresa May is facing a number or
serious votes about Brexit there is a worrying and associated issue has come to the fore this morning.
(Tuesday June 12th 2018). It is one that encapsulates the very delicate and potentially frightening point that democracy and the political process has reached in 2018 Britain and is something that goes to the very heart of
the debate about “Parliament taking back
control” – the rallying cry so beloved by those favouring Brexit. This
morning the tabloid press in the form of the Daily Express and the Sun carried
stark and worrying headlines aimed at Members of Parliament – and intended to
bully, intimidate and threaten those whom we elect to Westminster to make
decisions on our behalf. And following hard on the heels of the tabloid threats a relatively junior government minister, Philip
Lee, resigned his position as a justice minister in protest at what he says is “how Brexit is being delivered”. He says that he is “incredibly sad to announce his resignation as a minister.......so that
I can better speak up for my constituents and country....” . Lee is not a
trouble maker by nature – in his parliamentary career he has voted with the
government and for his party on virtually all issues. In his long
statement Lee emphasises a number of
Brexit related points but at the heart is his concern that he wants to do “the right thing” as he sees it:
“......Resigning as a
minister from the Government is a very difficult decision because it goes
against every grain in my soul. The very word resign conveys a sense of giving
up, but that is the last thing I will do. I take public service seriously and
responsibly. That is the spirit that has always guided me as a doctor and
continues to guide me as a politician.
For me, resigning is a
last resort – not something that I want to do but something I feel I must do
because, for me, such a serious principle is being breached that I would find
it hard to live with myself afterwards if I let it pass. I come to this
decision after a great deal of personal reflection and discussion with family,
friends and trusted colleagues.......If, in the future, I am to look my
children in the eye and honestly say that I did my best for them I cannot, in
all good conscience, support how our country’s exit from the EU looks set to be
delivered........”.
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Edmund Burke - one of the undoubted "fathers" of
democracy - a man who knew all about "doing the right thing".
Whatever one's politics the ideas of Burke are fundamental |
Whatever one’s views on Brexit or indeed on any issue that
is part of the democratic process Lee’s words
are at this crucial point in the UK's parliamentary history incredibly important; they go to the heart of that process and of
how parliamentary democracy works in the UK – and indeed elsewhere in the world. The Brexit decisions that Parliament is currently making are, without doubt, the most important for generations and will effect the nation's well being for generations to come; whatever one's views or whatever the eventual outcome of the Brexit debate it is critical that they are undertaken both correctly and democratically. In this context Philp Lee's words and thoughts hearken back to the famous and compelling words and ideas about the
relationship between parliament and the electorate formulated in the mid-seventeenth century by the great Anglo-Irish parliamentarian, statesman and
philosopher Edmund Burke.
Burke is regarded as one of the great “minds” underpinning all
political philosophy. He was, amongst other things, an MP and is usually
thought of as the philosophical founder of modern conservatism (both with a
small “c” and a capital “C”). Whatever one’s political or philosophical beliefs
Burke is a figure that can’t be avoided, his ideas have become very much part
of our thinking in this country and abroad too; they are at the core of how our
Parliament works.
Amongst his many pronouncements are:
·
The only
thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
·
Those who
don't know history are destined to repeat it.
·
Nobody
made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a
little.
·
We must
all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature.
·
When bad
men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied
sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
·
The
greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.
But perhaps his most famous and compelling in terms of parliamentary democracy is:
“Your representative
owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of
serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion”.
This is at the heart of what Philip Lee is saying; he says “...I
would find it hard to live with
myself afterwards if I let it pass. I come to this decision after a great deal
of personal reflection and discussion with family, friends and trusted
colleagues.......If, in the future, I am to look my children in the eye and
honestly say that I did my best for them I cannot, in all good conscience,
support how our country’s exit from the EU looks set to be delivered........”. As I read Lee’s resignation letter the 16th
century words of Martin Luther the German priest and founder of the Protestant
Reformation flashed across my mind: “I
cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither
right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God.” Quite – Philip Lee’s integrity is in good
company. It’s easy to do what the mob want and hard to stand up for one’s
principles.
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My own MP Ken Clarke. I've never voted for him but
deep down know that like Philip Lee & Edmund Burke
he will use his wisdom, expertise and conscience to act in
my best interests. He won't just follow the mob. I might not like what he does or says but I know it is done with integrity and for the overall good. |
Lee’s resignation comments
are Burke in a nutshell; that an elected representative is required, indeed
bound, to act in the best interests of others – no matter what. He is not a
slave to his constituents doing just what they demand but a representative of
them – working for them but, more importantly, using his judgement, his
expertise, his deeper knowledge of the issues to ensure his constituents best interests.
What Burke is saying and what is implicit in Lee’s statement
is that those who we elect as our representatives are not only there to
mindlessly do what we want or expect, or to just do what we say. We have chosen
or elected them as our representative over someone else because, we believe,
that they are best suited to represent us and as such we expect them to use
their wisdom, views or knowledge to their best effect on our behalf. Clearly,
no one in their right mind would choose or elect someone who they believed was
unable or incapable or unqualified of representing them; nor would they elect
someone who they thought was incapable of exercising their judgement and using their wisdom or information to best
effect. For example, if I hire a lawyer to represent me in court or I visit the
doctor because I am concerned about my health I not only expect him or her to
do what I say, but I expect them to use their wisdom and judgement to
advise me what is best to do – even when this might go against what I first
thought or perhaps really want.
In the case of Brexit, for example, if an MP was elected
from, say, a strongly Brexit area of the country (i.e. where everyone wanted to get out of the EU) but when
that MP looked at all the information about Brexit, listened to all the debates
etc. he judged that Brexit was a bad idea and not in the interests of those who
elected him then, Burke would argue, he must use that wisdom and knowledge to
best effect by using his judgement to advise his constituents and, if
necessary, vote appropriately. As Burke says in his quote, “he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion”. In other words, if he still votes for
Brexit, despite knowing that Brexit is a bad idea and not in the interests of
his constituents – whatever their views and because that is what they desire -
then he is betraying them and his own position. Put simply he is not being
honest with them and his integrity has to be questioned.
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Marin Luther - a man who suffered for his beliefs but in doing
so changed the world: "...To go against conscience is neither
right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other…"
|
Now one might disagree with this, it is certainly
contentious, but it is one of the pillars on which our representative democracy
is built. It is the argument that my own MP Ken Clarke used some months ago in
his passionate speech about Brexit in the Commons. As Conservatives Ken Clarke’s politics like Philip Lee’s are not
mine but I can have nothing but huge
respect for them as MPs because of what
I consider are their sound political philosophy. Too often today – and
especially in the case of Brexit – politicians (indeed whole parties) have
become tied, in thrall, to the views of the electorate and do not use their
qualifications or wisdom or privileged information to make the best decisions
on behalf of their constituents. The result is that we are seeing the rise of
populism across the world. I suspect Edmund Burke if he were alive today would
have absolutely no doubts in saying, for example, that the rise of Donald Trump
in America or Brexit in the UK has only been made possible because the elected
representatives have not exercised their wisdom, information and judgement properly to ensure the best
outcomes for their electors; they have simply done what they were told by the
electorate rather than thinking for themselves and acting on that thought and
wisdom.
The Brexit debate in the UK has divided the country as no
other in living memory. We have the situation now where many of our MPs of
despite the fact that they admit to knowing
that Brexit is a bad idea – indeed even our Prime Minister before the
Referendum was in favour of remaining in Europe - are going along with it to
save their jobs and cling to power. To its eternal shame the Labour Party is
offering no alternative reality to the Brexit argument – terrified that should
it suggest that Brexit would be reversed or would not happen under them that
they would be howled down by mob. This is the reality of where we are at – and
we sit and watch, the living embodiment of Burke’s comment: The only thing necessary for the triumph of
evil is for good men to do nothing.
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| Two of today's intimidating headlines. |
When politicians merely reflect public opinion then there is
a very great danger of totalitarian states developing. Mindlessly doing the
bidding of the electorate, pandering to its every whim, or following the lead
of an extremist media becomes self fulfilling. It is why we have representative
democracy rather than mob rule; we
expect that our MPs will make wise and good decisions on our behalf because, we
believe, they have that knowledge and wisdom that we ordinary folk may not have.
We do not expect them to not merely reflect the latest rallying cry or the
loudest voice in the mob.
When MPs and others who hold positions of power do not
exercise sound judgement and merely follow like sheep they are just the pawns
of public opinion and in that case some of Burke’s other comments become
equally valid:
·
Nobody
made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a
little.
·
When bad
men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an
unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.
· The
greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse.
Philip Lee may be right or wrong about Brexit. I’m pretty
sure that I would disagree with him on many political issues and on many of his
political views. But he is right on this. He is exercising his judgement,
wisdom and experience, striving to do the best for those he represents,
standing up for what he believes is right rather than doing nothing, and taking
a principled stand in the face of what I think Edmund Burke would see as the
Brexit extremist’s dangerous abuse of parliamentary democracy. In the end
democracy only works if people act with integrity – if they do the right thing
– and that is what Philip Lee has done today.
It might, as Burke says, be “only
a little” in the face of the clamour and extremist views coming out of Brexit
fuelled Westminster – but it is important and necessary that “good men” are seen not to “do nothing” to prevent “the triumph of evil”. When MPs such as Lee bow to the pressure
of the mob and the threatening headlines of the tabloid press then we are in
real danger as a society.
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