House of Commons lunch: fascinating discussion on reputation

An enjoyable and generous lunch at the House of Commons last week, organised and hosted by Julian Dawson. Invited guests engaged in an interesting and intensely topical discussion about a wide range of matters reputational, coming at the subject from a wide range of perspectives. Brian Binley, the Conservative MP for Northampton South, led our discussion. The intention was to explore the importance of leadership in reputation management in the wider world but inevitably, after several months of well-documented turmoil in Westminster, the discussion found itself elastically drawn back to matters of Parliament.

There is something about the Commons dining rooms that is reminiscent of dining on a luxury liner – the proximity to the water, the shape of the rooms, the sunlit terrace just detectable through the windows. The burning and unavoidable question over lunch was whether this luxury liner had been holed below the waterline or was capable of continuing its journey with a few largely cosmetic repairs.

We started with a question about whether there were any useful parallels to be drawn between the parliamentary crisis and the global financial meltdown and any lessons that could be learned. There was much agreement that the core reputational issue for business and Parliament was trust, evidenced by the rear-guard actions being fought in Westminster and the City to try and reverse popular (in its narrowest sense) opinion.

Brian was candid in his observations about the crisis, its effects on MPs and on the perceptions of constituents: the workings of Parliament, his views on what was required to restore public trust and in his assessment of the rights and wrongs of the external scrutiny of the affairs of politicians.

The discussion ranged from an exchange of ideas about what could be done to underpin the reputation of individual MPs and Parliament as a whole to an exploration of the characteristics of our Parliamentary system and whether the tone of cross-examination undermines trust.

An idea from Pam Calvert, managing director of Communications Management, that all MPs should consider the creation of an annual constituency report was widely supported. The report would cover a range of measures including inward investment achieved, constituency cases handled and jobs created.

Brian signalled that he was keen to establish a reputational code of conduct or charter for MPs and that he felt that true cross-party collaboration was the only way in which this would be achieved.
There was also a healthy discussion about the role of the media and whether the tone, intensity and the detail of the coverage surrounding the expenses issue was either justified or accurate. Some guests felt that the coverage and the tone had been overblown and that there were more material matters to debate given the severity of the global financial crisis. The consensus was that whilst in hindsight it seemed to be a crisis waiting to happen, the intrusiveness and intensity of media scrutiny were heavy handed.

The areas of common agreement were the need for simplicity, transparency, access and authenticity. How much progress will be achieved, of course, is another matter, especially as we enter one of the most confrontational periods of the political cycle and we remain in one of the most competitive trading environments we have seen for decades. In that context, the risk is that it will be a case of every man or woman for him or herself which surely can only make matters worse.