Douglas Carswell's Blog

Why Lord Fowler is wrong

Lord Fowler, the Tory grandee, has apparently suggested that the decision on the BSkyB / Sky takeover be put in the hands of an independent body.

I agree. 

That independent body should be Parliament. And to ensure that its members are accountable for what it decides, the public should get to decide its membership every few years.  

Of course, what Lord Fowler really means when he calls for the decision to be made by “an independent body” is for anyone but Parliament to decide. His idea of an independent body is a quango. A panel of experts. Anyone but the people you actually voted for.

Perhaps the independent body Lord F has in mind would be like the Monetary Policy Committee who set interest rates? Or the Child Support Agency, who decide who should pay what when couples split? Or even the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority?   

The trouble is that the experts of Lord Fowler’s imagination are not infallible. Look at how the MPC set recklessly low rates, causing a credit bubble then bust. Look at how the CSA wrecks lives. Lord F should ask some of his Commons colleagues about IPSA .....

Those you vote in, one can at least vote out when they make a hash of things.  And if quangos decide everything from monetary policy to media policy, why bother voting at all?   

During the period Lord Fowler was an elected MP, politicians of every persuasion passed responsibility for deciding public policy to quangos. As a result, today we are governed by a sprawling, incompetent quangocracy. I rather hoped that that era of politics was coming to an end, and that today’s politics would be about making those who decide public policy answer to the public.

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