Ideally the paramount loyalty of every MP would be to the country, and he would see himself as the representative of the citizens resident within part of the country, his constituents, and he would be totally committed to national democracy.

There are still some MPs who come as close to that ideal as is humanly possible, but they are now a small minority, maybe not even 10 per cent of the total – far too few to insist on the traditional rights of the House.

Oh, except when it’s convenient – for example when the governing party wants to lock up suspects without charge or trial and has to face down the Lords to get the Bill through, or when it has to explain to the public why it’s refusing to hold a referendum that it promised in its manifesto.

Then, suddenly, the Commons finds many staunch defenders of its rights.

It’s worth remembering how people become MPs: first of all, through an internal party process of pre-selection and final selection of official candidates from among the party members – in total less than 1 per cent of the electorate – and then only afterwards do the other 99 per cent of electors have any say, when they can choose between the candidates on offer in each constituency.

As just three parties supplied 94 per cent of the MPs elected at the last general election, obviously that is where we should look to find out why the system has being going so badly wrong.

That’s what we’d do if it we had a problem with the quality of, say, doctors; if 94 per cent of new doctors were produced by just three medical colleges, and most of them were poor doctors, then we’d say that those colleges were failing in their task.

You will know Erskine-May better than me, but I seem to remember Labour in opposition forcing all-night sittings and other disruptions when the stakes (from their point of view) were high; e.g. trade union reform legislation.

What has astounded me is the weak Parliamentary response to Damian Green’s arrest; e.g. the Serjeant-at-Arms (a former civil servant) who gave her consent to the raid is still in place. Surely other non-Tory MPs must have been appalled too? So it seems odd that collectively no attempt was made to demonstrate Parliamentary disapproval using the most potent methods at MP’s disposal.

Please, please don’t be silly St. Tone of Blair is an ex labour politician. They work so hard on our behalf with such onerous 3 day weeks that they aren’t expected to pay income tax or submit to any of the stupid HMRC rules on claiming expenses and benefits in kind.

It’s about time this and other arcane rules of Parliament were changed. Our so-called Democracy isn’t a democracy and it isn’t working. We need to drag it into the 21st century and have the humility to admit that America is far better governed than we are. The Government should be required to give a Statement on matters of national importance and the Opposition and other members of Parliament SHOULD be able to demand one.

At the moment, under our Parliamentary system, we have an elected Dictatorship and because of the way Labour has gerry-mandered Parliament and dealt with the Opposition (Damian Green), there is virtually no accountability. If Politicians genuinely want the majority of the electorate (and not just obsessives like me) to take an interest in politics and the governance of our country, they should take a long, hard look at Parliament (both Houses) and our entire system of Government – and make it far more accountable.

Are there any Conservative plans for the reform of Parliament in order to restore democracy?

I guess this is why they keep the law to extradite to the US with no evidence so any cover up can be a success as the Americans will prosecute anyone who looks like a muslim.

Shocking.