The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill and an elected Upper House

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill is something that I have, until today, not commented upon. Despite some reservations over the ethics of creating hybrid human-animal embryos for research, I am in favour of this bill and if I was an MP I would vote for the bill. There are MPs who for religious or other moral reasons feel they should vote against parts of this bill and I am fine with that, if an MP cannot make an honest moral judgement on a bill then that would be a poor day for democracy. Unfortunately, it seems as though Gordon Brown is not a huge fan of democracy. His position on whether to allow a free vote appears not to be driven by morality but by whether allowing a free vote would jeopardise the bill being passed. In other words, if allowing a fee vote means the bill will still be passed then he will allow a free vote otherwise he might allow moral objectors to abstain so long as that too does not cause the bill to be defeated. I even read a comment from some Labour MP that allowing MPs to vote against a Government bill would mean the end of democracy. This is rubbish of the highest order, democracy is not about the elected Government getting all legislation they wish through Parliament because they were the largest party at the last election - that would be the mark of an elected dictatorship.

The political party system takes the freedom to represent the views of their electors and their own consciences away from MPs and I believe that to be wrong. Jack Straw's proposed legislation to have a fully elected Upper House (the Senate) would exacerbate this problem as he proposes multi-member constituencies which give more control over candidates to the party machinery than would otherwise be the case. I fear that by following this path we are heading towards making an elected dictatorship even more likely as control of both Houses of Parliament by one party would be easier to achieve. The totalitarian instincts of first Tony Blair and now Gordon Brown as Prime Minister should act a s a warning to us all.