British parliament in throes of modern-day revolution (News Feature)

By Anna Tomforde May 19, 2009, 14:06 GMT

London - The British parliament, steeped in tradition, has not seen anything like it in over 300 years.

The last time it sacked a Speaker - universally recognized for his call for 'Order! Order!' - was in the reign of William of Orange (1689 to 1702).

Back in 1695, Sir John Trevor was expelled from parliament as Speaker - Britain's form of parliamentary president - for taking 1,000 pounds in bribes from influential businessmen.

Before him, many a holder of the prestigious post, first recorded in 1377, would have suffered a worse fate, reflecting the turbulent history of religious conflict and revolution in Britain's 1,000-year-old constitutional monarchy.

Michael Martin, a former trade unionist and shipyard worker from Glasgow, and the first Roman Catholic Speaker since the reign of Mary Tudor (1516-1558) was a new type of Speaker.

When he took the post under the Labour government of Tony Blair in 1999, much snobbish criticism was directed at his working-class background, while progressive members of parliament (MPs) hailed his arrival as a sign of the times.

Martin angered traditionalists by doing away with the black tights and silver-buckled shoes that used to be worn by his predecessors, and never donned the conventional wig.

However, he proved to be a mediocre Speaker. His cry of 'Order! Order!' expressed irritation rather than authority, and his style of running debates in the House of Commons was guided by rules rather than inspiration, commentators said.

But sketchwriters mocking his thick Scottish accent and stuttering shouts of 'Order!' were to find they soon had more serious things to consider.

The first storm clouds gathered over Martin last year, when it was revealed that he himself had benefitted generously from parliamentary expenses.

He was found to have recouped thousands of pounds for his wife's taxi bills, and claimed large allowances on his mortgage-free home in Scotland while living in the splendour in a grace-and-favour flat beneath Big Ben in London.

Also in 2008, Martin caused controversy by allowing the police to enter parliament to search the offices of Conservative MP Damian Green - without a warrant - following the suspicion that Green had leaked confidential papers harmful to the Labour government.

But it was not until earlier this month, when the Daily Telegraph newspaper serialized the detailed claims on second homes put forward by MPs from all parties that Martin moved directly into the firing line.

As head of the fees office, which authorizes the payment of expenses, he was accused of having turned a blind eye to claims for bizarre items, such as pet food and horse manure, to the profitable sale of property redefined as 'second homes' in a process known as 'flipping.'

Martin's situation took a turn for the worse when Nick Clegg, the Liberal Party leader, broke with convention to call on Martin to go because he had become a 'dogged defender of the way things are, the status quo.'

The Speaker was not the right man to clean up a discredited allowances system which he had himself made every effort to keep secret, Clegg alleged.

'He (Martin) was the commander in chief of a culture of criminality and corruption,' said Peter Oborne, columnist of the Daily Mail. His departure marked the symbolic exit of the 'old guard.'

As the crisis over expenses grew, and public anger soared, the scandal escalated into a crisis that was seen by some as a threat to Britain's democratic structures.

Queen Elizabeth II, it was reported, had warned Prime Minister Gordon Brown not to underestimate the dangers to the constitution of the exposure of immoral, if not criminal conduct, by those meant to represent the people.

'No one has yet marched on parliament ... the public has not yet boycotted elections ... but who is to say those things will not happen?' the Daily Telegraph commented.