The exit of Primark‘s boss on Monday following an investigation into his behaviour towards a woman “in a social environment” was swift and clinical.
Paul Marchant was a successful chief executive of 16 years’ standing and Primark (trading here as Penneys) accounts for roughly half of Associated British Foods’ profits, yet ABF’s chief executive George Weston addressed the problem in terms of culture. “Colleagues and others must be treated with respect and dignity. Our culture has to be, and is, bigger than any one individual”.
If a food and fast-fashion retailer feels strongly enough about its culture to oust a successful chief executive, how should we deal with the brawlers and two-fingers merchants who mock and coarsen the political institutions at the heart of our priceless democracy?
That old-fashioned word dignity pops up four times in a couple of short pages about parliamentary decorum and standards distributed to every new Oireachtas member. Concern about the erosion of standards may sound like pearl-clutching, but standards exist for a reason. Peaceful deliberation has indeed always been considered to be at the very core of the democratic ideal. The coarsening of a political culture bleeds into every part of it.
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Yet all five principles of the code of parliamentary standards have been trashed in a few weeks.
The line about “respect for the person and authority of the Chair [being] fundamental to the orderly and efficient conduct of the business of Dáil Éireann” was trampled into a nonsense from day one of this Dáil. There may be persuasive defences for it, but not excuses.
Conspicuous among the rules is a “strict” prohibition on “the use of mobile phones for the taking of photographs within the buildings of Leinster House” and the use of “offensive, provocative or threatening language” in the House is “strictly forbidden”. You might think therefore that Michael Lowry’s prohibited f**k off gesture to Paul Murphy’s prohibited camera phone in the Dáil chamber demands a response beyond the “lads will be lads/sure it’s just the cut-and-thrust” narrative. But you might be waiting.
Some elements of the media-political complex are convinced that the “punters” just love a good old political brawl. This presumes the punters are idiots who think that serious debate about life-changing legislation by well-paid public representatives is no different from scenes on a social media hell-site.
But any cultural change carries risk.
Many Americans still recall the moment when a Republican representative shouted “You lie” at President Obama during a joint session of congress. Significantly, members of both parties condemned the heckler, Joe Wilson, who apologised “for this lack of civility” and was formally rebuked by the House, but it marked a turning point. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi slowly ripped up Donald Trump’s speech at one such address. Marjorie Taylor Greene shouted “Liar” at Joe Biden in 2023. Six minutes into Trump’s recent address to Congress, a Democratic representative was removed for repeated interruptions. Then again those Democrats who managed to remain civil got little thanks for it either.
This is the cruel dilemma in autocratising countries where parliament has been reduced to a façade, where opposition participation is limited to derisory levels, questions are forbidden and voting on amendments is blocked. Civility in such circumstances requires a certain kind of strategic heroism. Last year alone, full-blown parliamentary brawls were reported in Italy, Hungary, Turkey, Serbia, South Africa, Taiwan, Ukraine, Ghana, Georgia and Kosovo.
Call it luck, instinct or good stewarding but we haven’t yet descended to fists or smoke bombs in parliament. In fact Ireland is the sixth-most democratic nation in the world, according to the latest report from the University of Gothenburg’s V-Dem (Varieties of Democracy) Institute.
But in global terms, the truth is that we are now outliers. Liberal democracies such as ours have become the least common regime type in the world – one of just 29 in 2024, representing under 12 per cent of world population. For the first time in 20 years the world has more autocracies than democracies and nearly three out of four people live in autocracies compared to just half in 2004. And Europe is not immune. Hungary ranks first of 45 for magnitude of decline in a top 10 that includes Serbia and Greece. Countries on V-Dem’s watch list include Cyprus, Slovakia, and Slovenia and it talks of “worrisome trends” in Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and the US.
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Democracy is fragile. Political leaders who dabble in rule changes and procedures without respectful consultation or rationale have a duty to reflect on the ramifications. The consequences of leaders or rank-and-file breaking with parliamentary norms and standards are not just theoretical or “far-fetched”. What happens when the next incumbents decide to raise the stakes?
Currently there is no real cost to breaking the rules, especially for the mass of independents not subject to party sanction. Official sanctions available even to a broadly respected Ceann Comhairle – such as “naming” a member which “may” lead to suspension from the House – are often a badge of honour for a publicity hound.
Other European countries favour a more direct approach by which MPs excluded on disciplinary grounds have their remuneration for the sittings deducted. In France’s National Assembly, even a call to order once entered in the records automatically entails a deduction of a quarter of the member’s allowance for a month. Censure with temporary exclusion entails the loss of half the allowance for two months.
Our old-fashioned reliance on shame as a deterrent won’t work any more. The Oireachtas has to be bigger than any one individual. Fresh thinking is required.
