Marsden's victory

He has done democracy a service

Paul Marsden is an unlikely hero. As a timid backbench face in the loyal New Labour crowd, he seemed until this month to exemplify parliament's failings. All of a sudden he has become a shining example of its strengths. First he cheeked the prime minister in a Commons debate over air strikes on Afghanistan, calling for a parliamentary vote on the use of force. Then he compounded the sin by going public about the government's private response. On both counts he has done British democracy a service.

Even those who disagree with Mr Marsden's views ought to welcome his injection of pluralism into the debate on Afghanistan. But it is his decision to publish a transcript - written from memory - of his meeting last week with the chief whip, Hilary Armstrong, that is the more valuable act. The transcript shames the government by revealing its instinct to crush internal dissent, however mild. "Those that aren't with us are against us," he quotes the chief whip as saying.

Yet nothing that Mr Marsden has done threatens the government. As an innocuous, previously loyal MP he is clearly on its side. And his support for a vote on military action was Labour party policy in 1990, ahead of the Gulf war. This makes the heavy-handed attempt to stifle him doubly alarming. Governments want to be left alone to pursue their policies. But it is parliament's job to ensure that this does not happen. No democrat should feel comfortable when its officials believe that for MPs "war is not a matter of conscience".

Yesterday ministers put the blame squarely on Ms Armstrong and stressed that Labour MPs are, after all, allowed to express individual beliefs. This clarification in itself justifies Mr Marsden's actions. It is now established that anyone in the parliamentary Labour party who questions the fact that war is government policy can speak out without being branded an appeaser. But inept though Ms Armstrong's handling of the affair was, in the longer term it ought to be the prime minister who changes tack.

Twice, now, in this parliament, ministers have got their fingers burned for infringing parliamentary liberties - first over select committee appointments and now with Mr Marsden. The prime minister ought to remind them that terrorism is being fought in order to defend democracy, not to suppress it, and ensure he extends this democracy to all members of the House of Commons.

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