Constitution

On 2019

Very Happy Christmas and Happy New Year. The last thing I wanted to do was talk about Brexit – but unfortunately as a Member of Parliament, I simply don’t feel I can avoid the subject. It will be – at least in terms of our politics, economy, and society, the issue which dominates 2019. I […]

THE POINT OF POLITICIANS

It once seemed easier to define the point of politicians. Historically this was done in three ways. Aristotle’s ideal politician was a virtuous and philosophical man, serving the city-state of Athens. He only required his politician to defend Athens, to rule it justly, and to beautify it; not to change it. For Ancient Romans, and […]

‘The secret of modern Britain is there is no power anywhere’

Article first published in The Guardian, by Decca Aitkenhead on January 3rd, 2014 If the 15-year-old Rory Stewart could see himself today at 40, “he would think I was a bit pathetic”. He would see at once “all the ways in which I’ve compromised, and sold out. And he would be absolutely right.” What would […]

TED Talks – Why democracy matters

The public is losing faith in democracy, says British MP Rory Stewart. Iraq and Afghanistan’s new democracies are deeply corrupt; meanwhile, 84 percent of people in Britain say politics is broken. In this important talk, Stewart sounds a call to action to rebuild democracy, starting with recognizing why democracy is important — not as a […]

Rory Speaks on the Scottish Independence Referndum

Transcript I thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, and my colleagues for allowing me to contribute to the debate. I feel that it is very difficult for someone who represents an English constituency to speak about this subject. I want briefly to discuss three questions. First, should there be a referendum at all? Secondly, what are […]

Rory Speaks in Debate on Lords Reform

Transcript It is unfortunate that the debate has turned into an attack on the Liberal Democrats. This is a huge opportunity for reform. There has been a lot of talk about the 21st century and democracy, and there is an important democratic opportunity in the Bill that I hope the Liberal Democrats will lead us […]

Fixing Democracy

Teacher: “What does your father do, little Billy?” “He plays the piano in an opium den”. Teacher calls home. Father: “I lied: but how can you tell an eight year old boy that his father is a politician?” In polls, more than eighty per cent of the public feel ‘politics is broken’. When strangers discover I’m […]

on constitutional reform

Britain has faced over the last twenty years a blizzard of constitutional change.  In most countries it would count as a revolution. It is driven by a theory called ‘the separation of powers’. This is an old obsession of political theorists, derived from a French philosopher’s misunderstanding of the British system in 1748. It has […]

on judicial sentencing

What is the point of a parliamentary debate? It isn’t about changing MPs’ minds or their votes. It wasn’t, even in the mid-nineteenth century. In the 1860s Trollope describes how MPs almost always voted on party lines. But they and he still felt that parliamentary debate mattered, because it set the terms of the public […]