Anonymous MPs
The House of Commons, Rosenstock-Huessy argues, is a body, not a collection of individual units. MPs do not have, as US Representatives and Senators do, individual desks; there is only one table in Commons. And up to the time that Rosenstock-Huessy was writing, MPs were never addressed by name in Commons unless they were under discipline. This anonymity was “at the root of the institution”: MPs “are without personal character, anonymous like a good jury, where twelve ordinary men are the embodiment of public conscience . . . . the individual member is 1/658 of the unit, the will of which is voiced by the Speaker.” What does it do to the mother of Parliaments to have a C-Span camera moved into Commons?
Peter Leithart
Peter J. Leithart is President of Theopolis Institute. He is the author of numerous books on theology, literature, and culture, including Theopolitan, Defending Constantine, and Baptized Body.
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