While Theresa May is being awesome today (and I am definitely developing a little political crush on her), let's spare a thought for David Cameron - in fact, let's spare Ken Clarke's thought, who in the final question to the now ex-PM, called for him to stay in the Commons. I hope he listens, because the haste with which our recent Prime Ministers have left the Commons has been unseemly. Here are all the post-war holders of the office, with ages (Cameron is 49) and their stints in the Commons post premiership.
Brown, 59 at end of premiership, stayed in the Commons 2010-15 (aged 64)
Blair, aged 53, resigned his Commons seat immediately (so still 53)
Major, 54, stayed 1997-01 (59)
Thatcher, 65, stayed 1990-92 (67)
Callaghan, 67, stayed 1980-87, staying as Labour leader for a year after the election defeat (75)
Wilson, 60, stayed 1977-83 (66)
Heath, 58, stayed 1974-2001 (85)
Home, 61, stayed 1964-74 (71)
SuperMac, 69, stayed 1963-4 (70)*
Eden, 59, left almost immediately (59)
Churchill, 79, stayed 1955-64 (89)
Atlee, 68, stayed 1951-55 (72)
Before Major, nobody left the Commons before 65 save for Eden, and he a) regretted it and b) had had a traumatic end. Since Major, it seems like they couldn't wait to get out. Of course, in part this is due to the age of leader - Theresa May is the oldest new PM since Callaghan. However, the differences aren't that great. Heath, Wilson and Home were all c.60, the same age as Brown, and only just over five years older than Blair and Major, yet they stayed on.
Worse, the priority for our recent premiers has not just been to exit the Commons, but to flee the domestic political arena altogether, eschewing the Lords as well. No-one since Thatcher has taken a peerage. As a result, and I think for the first time in modern* Parliamentary history, our past leaders are absent from the deliberations of the day. Nor is this trend limited to Prime Ministers - David Milliband is in New York; and the glorious Clarke-Rifkind conversation was notable because though Clarke admirably remains in the Commons, Rifkind has left, and not taken a peerage either. He has in fact no formal political role Ironically, it is now the second-raters and the placemen to who continue to hang around, not the grandees and especially not the grandest of them.
This makes me sad, and it should make us all sad. One of the strengths of our constitution is that is does not cut off expertise and provides for multiple ways in which elder statesmen can remain part of the process without distorting it. Both the Lords and the Commons have a role to play, but together they stop the guillotine of term limits and ex-Presidencies more concerned with their libraries and their legacy than the reality of the world as it is. In an age of Party, the Commons could do with more people of great experience beyond the reach of the whips and heedless of promotion (even if, like Heath, they spend a lot of time sulking). I don't consider Cameron a particularly good PM, but his would be a welcome voice from the Backbenches or even the red benches (though as he's less than 50, he should hang on to the green for some time yet).
Without the ex-premiers, not only is political life weaker, but it also frays the constitution. There's been a lot of hysteria about the need for an election for Theresa May May, but it's all nonsense - because we have a Parliamentary system. People vote for MPs and the Prime Minister is he who can command the confidence of majority of those MPs. Resigning from public life as soon as that confidence is lost undermines that principle and drags us closer to the presidential model.
Cameron's reputation has been strengthened by the manner of his going. To me, he has an opportunity to strengthen it still further. He should, perhaps aptly, Remain.
*As an aside, Wikipedia's Macmillan summary has this immense line: Macmillan was the last British prime minister born in the reign of Queen Victoria, the last to have served in the First World War, the last to wear a moustache when in office (all prime ministers since have been clean shaven), and the last to receive an hereditary peerage.
** Post Walpole
