Britain dissolves scandal-ridden parliament (News Feature)

By Anna Tomforde Apr 12, 2010, 16:30 GMT

London - Britain's Queen Elizabeth II dissolved parliament Monday in a formal act preparing for the general election on May 6.

If anyone had been able to see the 83-year-old monarch fulfilling her head-of-state role, she might have turned pink with shame and embarrassment over dismissing what has become known as the 'rotten parliament.'

But as tradition would have it, the formal proclamation of the dissolution, signed by the queen last week, was performed by the Colonel Geoffrey Godbold, the Common Cryer at the City of London Corporation, on the steps of the Royal Exchange.

Most of the country's 650 or so members of parliament (MPs) had already headed home to their constituencies after final bits of legislation were rushed through in what's known as 'wash-up' sessions last week.

Only half of them are likely to return in what is expected to be the largest turnover of MPs and the biggest clear-out of parliament in Britain for 60 years.

In addition to those retiring, or facing defeat, there are at least 150 members from all political parties who will not stand again after falling into disgrace over last year's expenses scandal.

The scandal, exposed by the Daily Telegraph newspaper, brought to light outrageous exploitation of parliamentary expenses rules by MPs across the board, with four cases leading to criminal investigations.

Putting down clearing out your country house moat, repairing your tennis court or adorning your garden pond with a duck house were among the lighter aspects of the scandal.

It, however, also brought to light fraudulent activities such as claiming for non-existing mortgages or claiming expenses on more than one property in a process that became known as 'flipping' main and second homes.

Three Labour MPs and a member of the House of Lords appeared before magistrates this month, charged with 'theft and false accounting.'

Labour members Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine, as well as Conservative peer Lord Hanningfield, rejected the charges, insisting that immunity from prosecution meant they were subject to scrutiny only from parliamentary bodies.

But, regardless of whether the MPs will eventually go free or face a maximum seven-year prison term, their careers are over - and the public's trust in parliamentary institutions has taken a serious knock.

'The last time this large a number of MPs were arrested in one go was when Parliament and the monarchy were in opposition in the build up to the Civil War. Certainly this is an unprecedented event in the past 350 years,' Ivor Gaber, professor of political journalism at City University, London, told the Daily Telegraph.

Chris Mullin, a distinguished Labour MP who, while untarnished by the scandal, decided nonetheless to leave parliament after 23 years, wrote in the Times that giving it all up would be a 'terrible wrench.'

'It is a high-risk strategy. There is a world outside the warm bosom of the Mother of Parliaments but there is not a huge demand for balding, middle-class, white male former politicians of a certain age,' he wrote.

Political leaders have been contrite, pledging to get rid of the 'old discredited system of politics' through rigorous punishment and reform.

'Too much of our politics has been a closed shop to too many people for too long,' Prime Minister Gordon Brown said recently. 'So this election is about more than whether we change parties - it's about whether we change our public life.'