”It has been said that England in-vented the phrase, ‘Her Majesty’s Opposition’,” wrote Walter Bagehot; “that it was the first government which made a criticism of administration as much a part of the polity as administration itself.” For decades, British governments have paid lip-service in parliament to Bagehot’s words – dissenters were best kept inside the tent.
Today, however, the criticism that matters rarely seems to be the one voiced in parliament. Take the ground-breaking Stephen Lawrence campaign. After he was killed on an Eltham street on the night of 22 April 1993, the then MP for Eltham, Peter Bottomley, met representatives of the police and council leaders. Over the following months, Bottomley visited the incident room at Eltham police station, met Sir Paul Condon, then Metropolitan Police Commissioner, and raised the issue in parliament. For four years, the Lawrence case was repeatedly brought to the attention of the House of Commons, including the tabling of a total of 20 parliamentary questions and an early day motion. Nothing happened.
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