the relevance of Trollope

Since the Brownite attempt to oust the prime minister last year which led to that extraordinary farewell to the Party speech by Blair at the last full Labour conference, the government of the UK has become the stuff of novels.

Facing the electorate is the nightmare experience for any sitting MP; so much so that the rules governing the holding of an office of profit under the Crown were altered to preserve those accepting ministerial appointment from having to refight their seat. For most MPs an election is the bottom line to be evaded at all and any cost, but few considerations of post world war 2, the great watershed of the modern political settlement, politics, take this into account.

The steady advance of party grip on elected members has also been a feature of the advance of the Labour party and the decline of the Liberals during the last century; unlike the Conservatives and the Liberals, Labour requires its candidates to be members of an affiliated organisation - principally a trade union or the co-op, plus some others, or to have the specific nulla osta of the NEC where such formalized allegiance is lacking. Effectively Labour MPs are mandated in a way that those of other parties are not. The Party discipline of Labour and its constituent organisations and funders does not coincide with the single-member, geographically located, first past the post election system where, once elected, an MP at least notionally answers to and represents the interests of all , electors or no, within his constituency. Labour is much more like the notion of representation used in continental systems of party lists and proportional representation ,although it is forced to use the UK practice.

If the electorate are seen as spoilers and their consultation to be avoided at all costs then we are back to pre-Labour politics - Trollopeland. Blair, consummate politician and empathizer that he is,has got this in one; Brown, crude Party controller and unaware of non-rule bound nuance freak that he is, has not.

For the last six months Blair has been Prime Minister but without the encumbrance of the Labour party, except for the PLP desperate not to be exposed to an unnecessary general election. All Blair has to threaten is to call one if he is not allowed to run his full term; and Brown's levels of voter-put-off combined with his control of the Party delivering the leadership to him, reinforce Labour MPs' determination to support Blair in his anachronistic adventure.