What's the point of petitioning Parliament? - Parliament Matters podcast

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What's the point of petitioning Parliament? - Parliament Matters podcast, Episode 56

22 Nov 2024

It’s Parliament Week, and Ruth and Mark are joined by researchers Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Richard Huzzey to celebrate an unsung hero of Westminster: the petitioning system. Once on the verge of irrelevance, this mechanism has seen record levels of public engagement, sparking debates and inquiries on an avalanche of citizen-driven issues. Together, they explore how petitioning adds value for both petitioners and MPs, and what has driven this surprising revival of a centuries-old tradition in the digital age.

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As the news of the death of Tony Blair’s Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott, reaches us, Ruth and Mark reflect on his unique place in British politics. Prescott was more than a brawler; he was a symbol of working-class pride in a political landscape increasingly dominated by career politicians from privileged backgrounds. With the decline of working-class representation in the House of Commons, they ask: could Angela Rayner, the current Deputy Prime Minister, step into Prescott’s shoes? Can she wield the same influence within Sir Keir Starmer’s government and hold Labour’s coalition together as Prescott once did?

With the select committee system kicking into gear - launching inquiries and grilling cabinet ministers - Ruth and Mark explore whether this quieter venue could outperform the raucous Commons Chamber in scrutinising the Government. In a Parliament where Labour’s dominance looms large, how might committees leverage their tools to ensure Ministers are held to account, especially when their reports are ignored, or responses fall short?

From nostalgia for a working-class titan to the mechanics of modern parliamentary accountability, Ruth and Mark delve into the past, present, and future of how Westminster engages with the people it serves.

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Our guests

Professor Richard Huzzey

A historian based at the University of Durham, Richard's research focuses on modern British history, including the British Empire, popular politics and social movements, slavery and abolition, and petitioning in the UK. He currently leads the 'Petitions and People Power in Twentieth-Century Britain' research project, publishing the headline findings in the 'What's the point of petitions?' report in collaboration with the Hansard Society.

Professor Cristina Leston-Bandeira

A political scientist based at the University of Leeds, Cristina's research focuses on Parliament, public and digital engagement, and petitions and she chairs the International Parliament Engagement Network. She is currently involved in the 'A Global Comparative Ethnography of Parliaments, Politicians and People: representations, relationships and ruptures', and the 'Petitioning and People Power in Twentieth-Century Britain', research projects. She co-authored a report - 'What's the point of petitions?' - setting out the headline findings of the latter project in collaboration with the Hansard Society.

Resources

Hansard Society

Anna Bocking-Welch, Richard Huzzey, Cristina Leston-Bandeira and Henry Miller (2024), What’s the point of petitions? What the last century reveals about petitioning and people power in modern Britain
Online event: The Assisted Dying Bill: How will Parliament decide? Exploring the parliamentary process - 6pm, Tuesday 26 November

Transcript

Please note, this transcript is automatically generated. There are consequently minor errors and the text is not formatted according to our style guide. If you wish to reference or cite the transcript copy below, please first check against the audio version above.

[00:00:00] You are listening to Parliament Matters, a Hansard Society production, supported by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust. Learn more at hansardsociety.org.uk/pm.

Ruth Fox: Welcome to Parliament Matters, the podcast about the institution at the heart of our democracy, Parliament itself. I'm Ruth Fox,

Mark D'Arcy: and I'm Mark Darcy.

Ruth Fox: Coming up, will John Prescott go down as the Commons' last working class hero?

Mark D'Arcy: They're back. Will the select committees host the real action in this Parliament?

Ruth Fox: And Westminster's hidden success story. How the dying art of petitioning Parliament has been revived.

Mark D'Arcy: But first Ruth, we've really got to talk about the late Lord Prescott. John Prescott, deputy leader of the Labour Party under Tony Blair, deputy Prime Minister when Labour got into government in 1997, [00:01:00] right up to the end of Tony Blair's premiership again, and a figure who's significant in all sorts of different ways, not least that he's set a kind of template that could now be followed by Angela Rayner in this current Labour government, as the kind of, I don't know quite what you'd call it, interlocutor to Labour's working class base, perhaps.

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Petitioning has been one of the most popular and persistent forms of political participation since the dawn of mass democracy in Britain. But little is known about its development throughout much of the 20th Century. Contrary to received wisdom at the time or since, petitioning did not become irrelevant or old-fashioned in the era of universal suffrage. Moreover, petitioners often held more subtle or sophisticated definitions of ‘success’ than those who condemned the practice as ineffective.

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