According to a new poll, a little more then half of all Britons are in favor of the Parliament to continue working remotely post the pandemic.
51% of those who were surveyed were in favor of MPs to be able to participate in debates and vote on legislation remotely. 35% said that the MPs should be present in Parliament for debates and vote on new laws.
The research was carried out for the John Smith Centre at Glasgow University. It was found that nearly 61% believed that working remotely at Parliament would encourage more women and other people who have caring responsibilities to be more interested in becoming MPs.
64% of those who were surveyed said that this change would allow rural areas’ MPs to
get more done.
The John Smith Centre was named after the late Labor leader. Director, Kezia Dugdale, in favor of working remotely said that it should not be considered normal to demand that parliament workers, including the members of the UK and Scottish parliaments, must travel hundreds of miles for every vote.
She rightly said so, as it is not reasonable and working remotely is only more practical in such scenarios.
The House of Commons and Holyrood have also used the remote working model during the pandemic.
“As much as we all crave going back to normal, we should be asking ourselves and our leaders if that idea of normal was really good enough. Because it’s not really normal to line up in the aye and no lobbies of Westminster to cast a vote with your whole body. Hours wasted passing legislation packed together like sardines. Neither is it normal to demand MSPs travel from Stranraer and Stromness to the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh to electronically cast a tight budget vote that we now know could be easily done from a distance. This new polling shows a desire to keep the new way of working that was brought in as a result of COVID restrictions, particularly if it aids rural representation and increases the chances of parliamentarians looking like the country they seek to represent. There’s much work to be done to enhance the effectiveness of parliament’s scrutiny functions, but after the year of innovation we’ve had, making the impossible possible, it’s surely within reach.”Kezia Dugdale, Director of The John Smith Centre
This surely does look like a ray of hope as working remotely for the parliament workers could mean more efficiency and lesser wastage of time. Remote work is a more practical solution with or without the pandemic.
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