Removing the whip

Image Jordhan Madec, Unsplash

I have had a lifelong interest in politics, and there has seldom been a more proliferate situation in which to indulge this passion. Since 23 March 2020 we have come to routinely hear words and expressions that have mutated into slogans, clichés and metaphors, many of which have been recycled from earlier crises: joint committees, “the Prime Minister has been very clear”, filibuster, sessional diary, “we’re ramping up”, and of course “our darkest hour”.

It is easy to take such phrases and vocabulary for granted and accept its meaning on face value alone. Dr Julian Lewis was effectively kicked out of the Conservative Party for his apparent duplicity in colluding with the opposition. Rather than saying he’d been dismissed, it was referred to as ‘removing the 'whip’. I knew it was not something deviant, but I was still unsure what it actually meant and where it originated. I found this on wikipedia:

the expression Removing the Whip is taken from the term "whipper-in" during a hunt, who tries to prevent hounds from wandering away from a hunting pack.

In society we are starting to behave like decent citizens who respect each other’s views, identities, values and history, such as around race, gender, and sexuality. Hunting is a practice that many people find abhorrent, I cannot think of a single person I know who enjoys it and many feel it is something else that belongs to a different era. It is about time, therefore, that our institutions put these silly ideologies and metaphors away and moved into the 21st century.

If we peek under the mantle of our cultural and political references I am sure there are many that have historic sources that are contentious. While history and tradition are interesting, especially from a reflective context, we now live in a world of plain speaking, and in a society that moves quickly. Politics in the 21st Century should reflect this and be communicated appropriately, which means modern, simple, clear and concise discussion and buildings that are fit for contemporary use and ongoing technical development.

Turn the sceptres, the linen fold walls, eighteenth century rhetoric and leather banquettes over to the tourists, and build us a well designed modern parliament in a centralised location that is set up for the future - not one that clings to a painful and cruel past.

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