Scrap private club culture - MPs

Could the Commons chamber be used for student debates?

Parliament must stop giving the impression it is a private club and be more welcoming for members of the public, says a powerful group of MPs.

The call comes in a new House of Commons modernisation committee report on how to connect Parliament better with the public.

It says visitors get the idea they are "tolerated only at sufferance."

The MPs want an overhaul of the Commons website and for students to be able to use the main chamber for debates.

Parliament should have a welcome sign when people enter the building - and a guide with a smile saying: 'How can I help? Where do you want to go?' Peter Hain

Their report also presses for an end to the practice of calling visitors to the Commons "strangers".

Commons leader Peter Hain, the chairman of the committee, said the "strangers" tradition encapsulated the whole problem in the 21st Century.

'Voter friendly'

"If Parliament wants voters' respect, it needs to start treating them with respect," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"This ridiculous term 'strangers', which had been used for centuries, applying to visitors - in other words, many citizens and voters - must be changed.

"It can be a long wait to get in." Your views on access to Parliament.

In pictures

"Parliament should have a welcome sign when people enter the building - and a guide with a smile saying: 'How can I help? Where do you want to go?'

"Parliament shouldn't be a private club where members of the public are treated only on sufferance.

"They should be welcomed in - it's their democracy after all. It's not MPs' democracy or House officers' democracy - it's the citizens' democracy.

"I think we can make Parliament a much more voter friendly place and a much more modern institution that young people identify with."

If we do not make it possible for people to have an effective dialogue with Parliament, public frustration will simply undermine democracy altogether Paul Tyler Lib Dem frontbencher

Mr Hain said the report was not a panacea for the international problem of declining turnout.

But he said Parliament's facilities needed to be brought into the 21st Century, even though they were housed in a "wonderful, ancient building".

He outlined measures for upgrading Parliament's "impenetrable" website with a "virtual tour" of the building for people who will never get the chance to visit.

But Mr Hain said he did not know when or if concrete blocks placed outside Parliament as a security measure would be removed.

The calls for greater public access to Parliament, including Saturday openings, come despite the recent flour bomb attack on Tony Blair.

The incident provoked new fears about how far the public could be allowed access amid plans for a permanent glass screen to separate the public galleries from the main chamber.

Among the report's recommendations are:

• A new visitor centre to explain the work of Parliament

• A major overhaul of the parliamentary website, with an email newsletter available to bring weekly updates and more online consultations on laws

• A guide for new voters to be sent to all young people on their 18th birthdays.

When MPs are not at work, the Commons chamber should be available for debates by students or member of the National Youth Parliament, say the MPs.

There should be new "Parliament-in-action" tours, giving visitors a brief taste of select committees, standing committees and adjournment debates, say the MPs.

And there could also be a parliamentary road show as part of work to reach out to schools.

Contempt risk

Paul Tyler, a Liberal Democrat spokesman on the committee, said the internet and email could help engage younger people's interest.

Parliament needed to be made more responsive to voters' concerns, he argued.

"It would be a dangerous delusion to think that attracting more people to tour this mock mediaeval, neo-Gothic Palace is likely to improve that connection," he said.

Mr Tyler said last week's elections showed the voters did have messages for Britain's politicians.

"If we do not make it possible for them to have an effective dialogue with Parliament, public frustration and contempt will simply undermine democracy altogether," he said.

Declan McHugh, from the Hansard Society, welcomed the report as a blueprint for making Parliament more welcoming.

But he said the changes needed to go further.

"What people find most alienating about Parliament is the overt partisanship that contaminates the majority of parliamentary exchanges, particularly in the Commons chamber," he said.