Green reading: "Honourable Friends: Parliament and the Fight for Change" by Caroline Lucas

If in the decade between 1999 and 2009 you had taken a poll of British officials in the European Parliament (such as are left) as to who their favourite MEP might be, there is a pretty strong chance Caroline Lucas would have come out top. One of the two UK Greens in the Parliament, she left the European Parliament in 2010 to stand in a by-election for the Westminster seat of Brighton Pavilion, which she has represented ever since. She was the first Green MP in the House of Commons and, after the 2015 election (the overall outcome of which she must deplore) the first Green MP to be re-elected. She remains however the sole representative of her party there, but, in part as a consequence, something of a national celebrity.

In all of this, my guess is that most parliamentary officialdom, regardless of personal politics, will have been cheering on throughout. She is a breath of fresh air in the political world: smart (in fact, ferociously intelligent), principled though not doctrinaire, hard-working and actually quite an agreeable person. Indeed, in her book, she mentions one or two lucky breaks she got as a new MP (a nice office, some helpful advice...) which she attributes to helpful House of Commons staff. It figures.

Anyway, all of this made me well disposed when, on a recent visit to the Charing Cross Road Foyles, I noticed her book. Not hard to notice, actually; her book was very much in evidence, heavily promoted in the politics/current affairs section. It looked quite approachable, not too long, and centring on a novice insider's view of Parliament.

Perhaps it's me, but it was that insiderish stuff which appealed to me most. I enjoyed her tales of absurd parliamentary ritual, the minutiae of the battle to get an office, the arcana of Westminster procedure and so on. I liked her accounts of the struggle to get anything done and her proposals to change the way Parliament works, even if she does sometimes over-egg the one-woman-up-against-the-system stuff. But this is not an exercise in self-aggrandisement, nor is it humourless. There is a lot of wry amusement over ridiculous hidebound tradition, such as all MPs being allocated a place to hang their swords before entering the chamber or Members who have mistakenly entered the wrong voting lobby hiding in the toilets until the vote is over, because it is not allowed to back out of a lobby once it is entered.


That said, it is a thin line between harmless tradition and pernicious elitism, and Lucas is also astute in pinpointing how the exclusivity and ritual of Parliament fosters a certain detachment from reality and, worse, a sense of entitlement. These factors, in Lucas' view - and it is hard to disagree - go so far as to undermine the notion of representative democracy. Enforced conformity to the practices of what often seems an Edwardian gentlemen's club acts as a brake on those who cannot, for reasons practical, professional, cultural or, frequently, gender, conform. Worse, it acts as a deterrent, including for many who could potentially and willingly make a major contribution to public life, from even trying for election.

Another aspect of Parliament which Lucas rightly identifies as detrimental to good governance, but where she nonetheless sees greater hope, is the tribal nature of UK parliamentary politics, where individual initiative and independent thought are often suppressed by the demands of mindless loyalty to a party leadership. In a country which is, on the contrary, less and less tribal is its political affiliations, though still saddled with an electoral system which would prefer them to be, this is another factor which detaches the representative body from the body politic.

So what was that hope I referred to? Lucas finds it in her personal experience of - now and then - being able to work with "progressive" members in other parties (even occasionally Tories!) on issues of mutual interest. Towards the end of the book, she envisions a new way of working in Parliament, after the forthcoming elections, whereby progressive forces in a hung parliament could align to govern in a more inclusive manner.

Well, that went well, didn't it?

Caroline Lucas MP

The fact that the elections didn't pan out the way Caroline Lucas would have liked doesn't make her wrong, of course, about the failings in how our parliamentary system works. Indeed, one fears it will make her all the more right, and perhaps should encourage more tribal politicians on the losing side to start thinking a bit more like her on how the system can actually come to represent the electorate, their views and interests, rather more effectively than at present.

This is a separate issue from the actual policy positions held by parties and individuals. Inevitably, for this is a book by a politician, there is a good deal of exposition of Lucas' political position on various issues. Fair enough, I suppose, but personally I found this the least interesting aspect of the book, and I drifted away from it somewhat in the more issue-based chapters. (To the extent that I read  an entire other book - next review - between two of the later chapters of this one.) I'm nonetheless glad I ultimately stuck with it till the end though, because it gets back into story-telling mode at the end with an account of Lucas' much-reported arrest and subsequent trial following an anti-fracking protest.

Should you read this book? In spite of some inevitable frustrations which come with any political book - a degree of proselytising, some (actually rather little) formulaic politically-correct language, some self-justification - Lucas is an appealing, honest and clever person, and most of her analysis of the failings of the UK parliamentary system actually spot on. Though I would not sign up to her her entire political agenda, I would to a great deal of it, and would accept that the whole of it is based on genuine conviction and good intentions. At the end of the day, I would wholeheartedly endorse the words of Queen guitarist Brian May, quoted on the inside cover, that "Caroline Lucas is exactly what you would hope an MP to be. (...) We need more like her." If that's a reason to read her book, then that's a recommendation.