Are British MPs about to be revealed as nobodies?
The struggle over Tony Blair's place as British prime minister -- seven junior cabinet ministers resigned today to protest his determination to stay on -- is also a test of whether British political leadership will continue to move (all unconsciously) toward the Canadian model.
In Britain and virtually all parliamentary systems worldwide, leaders are selected by the parliamentary caucus and they go when they lose their caucus support. But Tony Blair was the first British prime minister in whose selection a vote of the party at large also played a part. Blair has always acted rather like Canadian prime ministers -- as if his backbenchers are accountable to him, not him to them, because he was chosen by the party at large, not by the parliamentary caucus.
This idea has not yet been entirely accepted in Britain. Some Labor backbenchers are now putting it to the test. It remains to be seen, of course, how much support Blair may still have in his caucus. But if it is established that the caucus is not entitled to remove him, Tony Blair will have achieved a notable change in British politics -- by confirming that British leaders are as autocratic and unaccountable as Canadian ones.
Pity
